For The American News Media Here’s How To Properly Pronounce the City’s Name

Hey American media, if you are going to make fun of Rob Ford, at least make sure you pronounce the city properly.

And they are making plenty of fun of him because – and this is so funny it’s more like a sitcom rather than reality – Ford said he was too wasted to remember if he had smoked crack!

But let’s get to the pronunciation of the city in which he is mayor.

It’s Toronto, not ToronTo. The second “t” is silent.

That’s a trick locals like to play on visitors. They ask them to pronounce Toronto and if they hear a second “t,” they know the person is an American.

It’s one of the few distinctions between Americans and Canadians, by the way. We pretty much look the same and sound the same, so we need something to tell us apart.

Look closer, and Canadians are easy to identify. They are milk white in their skin – especially in the non-summer months – and pronounce any word with an “o” in it in a very distinctive manner. So “out” become “ooot.” About is “a-boot.”

And, of course, Americans pronounce Toronto as ToronTo.  More often than not, locals simply call it “T.O.” Toronto means, by the way, “the gathering place and it’s one of my “favourite” cities in the world in which to gather.

All good things to discuss with a Canadian. Over Canadian beers, of course.

Cheers!