Social media users poke fun at news presenter’s pronunciation of north Wales towns
Amelia Jones
Welsh social media users have been left in stitches after a Sky News presenter stumbled over the pronunciation of two Welsh town names while reporting on major wildfires.
During a live report, Sky News presenter Saima Mohsin was covering the blaze when she attempted to pronounce Dwygyfylchi and Penmaenmawr. The clip quickly made its way onto social media, where viewers couldn’t resist poking fun at her attempt at the tricky Welsh place names.
Mohsin has been a Sky News presenter since 2022. Before joining Sky, she worked as an international correspondent at the BBC, CNN, ITV, PBS Newshour and Channel 4.
The report focused on the major incident that was declared yesterday by emergency services dealing with a large wildfire in north Wales, where residents near Conwy Mountain and the Sychnant Pass were evacuated. The report also warned other members of the public to avoid the area.
The video sparked dozens of humorous reactions, with many in disbelief over how poorly the towns were pronounced on the broadcast.
One commenter said: “You can hear the fear in her voice as she’s about to say it.”
Another added: “Where the hell is dunfaegurfalchi! I’ve lived in north wales my whole life and never heard of it !!!”
A third viewer said: “If the fire was in Llanfairpwllgwyngyllgogerychwyrndrobwllllantysiliogogogoch. She probably would have paused and said… in other news today.”
While some found the pronunciation humorous, others criticised Sky News for failing to ensure the presenter knew how to pronounce the Welsh place names before the live broadcast.
One commented: “Someone could have phonetically spelt this out for her. They aren’t hard to say they’re just spelt with a Welsh alphabet.”
Another said: “She really needs a better briefing on the place names!”
You can watch the full clip here.
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Why not help people. Get more respect that way.
Poor but BBC Radio Wales aren’t much better. No excuse for that.
It’s an insult, but they don’t care. When talking about the wildfire in Derbyshire they were giving precise details – names of roads, villages, farms, etc. With us they usually just say the catch-all “north Wales” – and you can then play ‘guess the location?’
Left in stitches? Hardly. More like frustrated at the inevitable failure of the anglocentric “British” media to teach their presenters how to pronounce Welsh place names properly. It smacks of disrespect.
I muck up Welsh names. I muck up English names.
The world moves on.
And you’re employed as a presenter for a UK broadcaster?
At the end of the day she’s a presenter from a different country making an honest pronunciation mistake with words from a different language.
I’ve been learning Cymraeg for 4 years and I’ll continue to get my words wrong for years to come.