In a normal year (and yes, this is far from a normal year!), some 70,000 new people make Melbourne their home. To all of you, we say: Welcome! We hope you love it here. But the city has some things you'll need to learn quicksmart to fit in.
Fact: everyone who comes to Melbourne for the first time will mispronounce Prahran. Our city certainly has its quirks, and one of those quirks is having sometimes illogical pronunciations. A few of Melbourne's suburbs are known to be particularly tricky to say, and we're here to help out.
Please note we are but humble journalists who love Melbourne – not experts in orthoepy (betcha didn't know that word till now). This is only how we know these suburbs to be commonly pronounced. Don't @ us.
How to pronounce Melbourne's trickiest-to-say suburbs
Maribyrnong: Marrah bah-nong.
Prahran: Pra-ran or Pran.
Malvern: Moll-vern.
Caulfield: Corr-field.
Welcome to Pran Market
Lalor: Lay-law. Controversially, we are calling it as lay-law not law-ler. Yes, the area was named after pollie Peter Lalor (who pronounced his name law-ler) but guess what Peter, the people have spoken and the area is these days commonly referred to as lay-law.
Toorak: Toor-rak.
Mordialloc: Mordy-allick.
Berwick: Bear-rick.
Northcote: North-kit.
The view from Ruckers Hill, North Kit.
Beaumaris: Boh morris. Apologies to any French speakers, we know it’s wrong.
Reservoir: Reser-vor. Rhymes with door. You may also pronounce it as 'rezza'.
Nunawading: Nun-ah-wodding.
Wantirna: Wand-turnah.
Truganina: Truhga nine-ah. Yeah, that one surprised us too.
Greensborough: Greens-brah.
Roxburgh Park: Rocks-brah Park.
The famous Briiiiiighton Beach bathing boxes.
St Albans: Snnnorbins. Kind of sounds like it’s a new Pokemon.
Keilor: Kee-law.
Tarneit: Tar-neat.
Brighton: Briiiiiighton. As in, “I’ve done all of Briiiiiighton.”
