Minnesota Towns Nearly Impossible To Pronounce If You’re Not From Here

We’ve got a ton of towns in our state that are pretty hard to pronounce. Ask one of your out-of-state friends to give these a try. I bet you’ll get a kick out of their many attempts. Give it the good ol’ Minnesota try and see how many of these you already knew. Here are 13 towns that will make you scratch your head and ask,”what the heck is in our water?”

Lutsen

It’s pronounced LOOT-sen. I bet if you’re not from Minnesota, you thought it was Lut-sen.

Ely

It’s not ee-eye. It’s ee-LEE.

Edina

People from ee-DINE-uh would cringe if they heard you say, ed-in-uh.

Isanti

It’s not ee-san-tee like it looks like. It’s actually eye-SAN-tee.

Faribault

I’ve heard this one pronounced so many ways. I’m not even sure. I believe it’s pronounced FAIR-bow, but I’ve also heard people call it Fair-ee-BOLT. My grandma pronounces it the former.

Shakopee

It’s not pronounced Shack-oh-pee. That just sounds like it smells bad. It’s pronounced Shock-o-pee.

Mahtowa

This one makes me laugh because people struggle with it so much. You don’t even pronounce the “T” — MAD-uh-wuh.

Holdingford

I hear so many people say Holding-FERD. Let’s let the record show it’s pronounced Holding-FORD.

New Prague

You can disagree with this pronunciation all you want, but Minnesotans are always right. If you think it’s pronounced any other way besides New Pray-ge–then you, my friend, are wrong.

Lowry 

It’s LAH-wr-ee not LOW-ree.

Wayzata

Well it’s not Way-zata like you think it is. It’s actually pronounced Why-ZET-a.

Cloquet

It’s pronounced kloh-KAY.

Frazee

It’s pronounced Fr-AY-zee, NOT Fr-ah-zee. I still sometimes say this one wrong.

This is just off of the top of my head. Do you have any other Minnesota towns that should be on this list?