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Places in their Native Language #2

Can you guess the English names of these places based on a spelling in one of their native languages?
Quiz by Quizmaster
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Last updated: December 21, 2019
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First submittedMarch 12, 2012
Times taken91,661
Average score71.4%
Rating4.78
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Native
English
España
Spain
Éire
Ireland
Firenze
Florence
København
Copenhagen
Göteborg
Gothenburg
Hellas
Greece
Caerdydd
Cardiff
Native
English
Köln
Cologne
Napoli
Naples
Nihon
Japan
Praha
Prague
Roma
Rome
Sicilia
Sicily
Sverige
Sweden
Native
English
Wien
Vienna
Magyarország
Hungary
Yerushaláyim
Jerusalem
Bayern
Bavaria
Kampuchea
Cambodia
Bourgogne
Burgundy
Suomi
Finland
+15
Level 41
Mar 12, 2012
Easy peasy. I love this kind of quiz.
+2
Level 71
Sep 27, 2012
Yeah. Make it harder the next time!
+6
Level 75
Jul 2, 2014
OK then - here's a harder one as requested!
+2
Level 71
Oct 10, 2016
Hehe, thanks!
+2
Level 69
Mar 12, 2012
2.20 left
+2
Level 69
Jul 28, 2014
2:26
+2
Level 69
Mar 1, 2019
2:50
+2
Level 37
Mar 12, 2012
well that explains why Greek culture historically is called "Hellenistic"
+7
Level 82
Nov 21, 2018
yup. And the names Helen and Helena are Greek. Something I find odd: they use GR as an abbreviation for Greece (the English name) on license plates, for Internet domains, etc. even while they use ES for Spain, DE for Germany, HR for Croatia etc. Seems a bit unfair to Greece. Though the official EU abbreviation for Greece is EL.
+2
Level 56
Nov 9, 2022
Yes that always baffles me. And I'm sure in my youth Spanish cars used to have an E on the back, whereas now they have SP, which is a bit of a disappointment. And as for South Africa using the letters ZA all over the place, which doesn't come from any of their 12-odd official languages...
+5
Level 88
Mar 12, 2012
You mean Hellas isn't Hellish for Hell?
+20
Level 37
Apr 28, 2013
Nope - I live near there... they speak an odd form of English in Cleveland.
+2
Level 75
Aug 8, 2015
It's actually pronounced "Ellas" without the "h" sound. The English used to represent a certain type of tone that existed in some greek words by adding an "h". Another example is the word history (istoria) in greek, which is why you will encounter it without the "h" sound in other languages like spanish.
+1
Level 88
Feb 7, 2023
^Does this guy know how to party, or what? ;)
+1
Level 68
Feb 5, 2021
In modern Greek, it's pronounced Ellatha (Ελλάδα - the delta δ sounds more like a "th", like in "the", than like an D).
+1
Level 20
Oct 23, 2022
Well, Hellas isn't pronounced [eˈlaða], just to be pernickety, but you're obviously right about the modern Greek name for Greece, which makes this a tricky question to set, since there isn't a recognized transliteration into Roman alphabet of Ελλάδα. But since Hellas appears on Greek stamps (both drachma and euro), and words like Hellenic are well known, it's a fair question, I think.
+1
Level 68
Feb 8, 2023
Yup. I'm not complaining! I was just offering an additional piece of information that I found interesting.
+5
Level 51
Mar 12, 2012
Make one for the entire world!
+1
Level 28
Mar 21, 2012
100% with :25 remaining...a couple tripped me up for a while (Magyarország and Kampuchea)
+1
Level 37
Nov 2, 2012
I only knew Campuchea because I "can neither confirm nor deny" that I spent some time there.
+1
Level 82
Jan 12, 2013
I knew Magyar because I like studying civilizations and languages, and Hungarian is referred to as Magyar in both fields.
+5
Level 46
May 7, 2021
I only knew Kampuchea because of Yakko's World
+1
Level 67
Feb 11, 2022
Same! Which used to make me think it was/ was in Malaysia
+1
Level 31
Jul 15, 2013
could you be a little more lenient on spelling? For example, I kept typing sicilly instead of sicily
+12
Level 59
Nov 16, 2017
When Sicilly didn't work, didn't it occur to you that it might be wrong? Jeez, what's with the attitude that if you type it incorrectly then it's the website's responsibility to accept the incorrect spelling rather than for you to learn something new?
+1
Level 65
Jan 14, 2019
obviously it occured to him. But he could figure out what the right way was.
+7
Level 92
Nov 7, 2013
Bayern almost got me. My only association with the term was the Bayern Munich FC, so I guessed it had something to do with southern Germany. Finally got it.
+1
Level 14
Apr 20, 2014
i'm new here can somebody tell me how to put pics in answers in quiz
+3
Level 63
Jul 22, 2014
Weird English names :P I am not native English, so this is just some geological practice for me :)
+3
Level 59
Nov 16, 2017
You mean geography
+1
Level 79
Mar 13, 2023
geographical
+2
Level 69
Jul 28, 2014
Only miss Goteborg... but in French we keep that name. So I had no idea the name in English. Very funny instead
+1
Level 65
Jan 14, 2019
I allways have so much trouble typing gothenburg in english... Cause there are names with berg burg and borg. you could keep the h out or not and start with gut or got.... in a quiz it allways eats up a lot of time for me trying them out. Can never remember the english spelling..
+1
Level 20
Oct 23, 2022
Yes, that's the fun of quizzes in a language that's not your first. Especially geographical ones where the names are often just slightly different, like Sambia and Aserbaidschan in German for Zambia and Azerbaijan!
+1
Level 56
Nov 9, 2022
I once tried to write "Tajik" in German and there were so many consonants I almost broke my keyboard :-/
+1
Level 28
Feb 7, 2015
Missed Cambodia, Burgundy and Bavaria . kicking myself over the last one.
+1
Level 46
Feb 19, 2015
I thought Japan was Nipon but I realised it was Nihon
+2
Level 40
Jul 9, 2019
It's either Nihon or Nippon (with two Ps). Both are equally correct.
+1
Level 83
May 30, 2015
Missed Bavaria, probably because the only map of Germany I own is actually in German, which doesn't help.
+1
Level 66
Mar 1, 2019
Surprised Bavaria result so poor considering how well known the BMW is.
+2
Level 60
Aug 25, 2021
BMW might be well known, but I highly doubt most people know what does it stand for.
+1
Level 45
Jun 17, 2015
well, just sceptic about Bourgogne/Burgundy

French native speaker, I had no idea Bourgogne could be translated

+4
Level 82
May 29, 2016
I think this was easier than the previous one. No bloody Nicosia to ruin my score.
+1
Level 68
Oct 7, 2016
Yeah, I have been to Nicosia and I still couldn't get that one, it looked somehow familiar but could I think of it...no.
+1
Level 40
Jul 31, 2017
100% with 3:08
+2
Level 63
Nov 26, 2017
I kept looking at Magyarország, and just knew it was a Hungarian word for a place in Hungary. It never occurred to me that it IS Hungary!
+1
Level 21
Dec 13, 2023
In Hungarian ország means country or land. For example, Finland is Finnország, France is Franciaország, Spain is Spanyolország. There are much trickier one: Poland is Lengyelország, Germany is Németország, Italy is Olaszország, Russia is Oroszország.
+1
Level 80
Jan 6, 2018
Fun quiz. Got them all with 2:58 to spare. Where does the á in Yerushaláyim come from? I've been thinking about it for the remaining three minutes.
+2
Level 66
Jul 12, 2018
I think this quiz could use less Italian places.
+6
Level 82
Nov 21, 2018
Notice how many people (0) complaining how very Euro-centric this quiz is?
+4
Level 56
May 2, 2020
Yes... Europe is not one country though
+2
Level 82
Aug 11, 2020
So what? You're saying that nobody would make such a complaint because having a quiz that is almost all about Europe is completely warranted? The self-importance of you people is just staggering.
+1
Level 68
Feb 5, 2021
Europe is not one cultural or linguistic area, so a quiz that is about all of Europe (or all of Asia, or all of Africa), required the maker to go at least that far out of his comfort zone.
+2
Level 82
Feb 8, 2021
not surprised by your proud announcement of ignorance and bias, but the United States is also not a single cultural area. There are also many different languages in the USA and places named in those different languages. If the US is considered one culture, as there are some similarities from state to state, region to region, then Europe could be considered a single culture, too, as, same. We've stumbled across one interesting difference in American vs European culture, as pointed out above, in that Americans don't seem prone to pissing, moaning, and whining incessantly on every quiz where they are not mentioned what they feel is an adequate number of times, or when some other country or continent gets mentioned more, whereas Europeans will spring to the defense of anyone who is given to such behavior, and imply that it is justified.
+1
Level 52
Mar 1, 2021
wouldn't say the US has a culture at all really, just a mixture of different cultures from around the world and a bunch of boastful rednecks, who are completely deluded about the state of their country
+5
Level 82
Mar 22, 2021
So you've moved from exploiting child soldiers to anthropology now?
+1
Level 71
Mar 23, 2021
LOL that comment :')

Also, agree with Kal on his assessment of US culture, but I'd also like to add that the US is about the size of the entirety of Europe (minus Russia) and has waaay more people than any single European country... which means in a lot of cases it does make a lot of sense to focus on America. Plus, there's the little fact that US has more JetPunk users than any country other than the UK, so a lot of people on this site will know the US-centric answers. If you don't like the US-centric quizzes, just don't take them.

+7
Level 68
May 9, 2021
It's really quite an achievement on your part, kalba, to have (allegedly) travelled the world so extensively, yet to have understood so little of it!

Of course the US has diversity, and I don't think anyone has suggested differently. However, by and large, the whole of the US has a common language, a common history, a common political system, a common legal system, common cultural representations (ie. people listen to similar music, watch similar movies and TV shows, read similar books, care about similar sports, eat similar things, etc.). That's not to say that they are the same, but they have a broadly unified culture (many European countries also have this kind of diversity within their borders).

What the US does have, which you might be referring to, is strong minority cultures, which is to be expected, as it is a nation of immigrants. However, those minority cultures exist within the framework of a common culture. That's not the case in Europe.

+1
Level 82
Feb 14, 2022
I can't hold a candle to your achievements in that field.

Not going to bother reading the rest of whatever non-self-aware tripe you've deposited above. It's just so sad.

+1
Level 82
Apr 8, 2022
More (less) of an achievement: having traveled the world so little, and yet still being firmly convinced that you understand it so much better than those who know and have experienced more than you have. Very impressive.
+1
Level 77
Nov 21, 2018
Can you please accept Burgandy for Burgundy? I know it's the wrong spelling and I'm great at spelling. A request. You do you.
+1
Level 65
Jan 14, 2019
Nice exercise pretty easy, I knew em all immediately expect bourgogne. I guessed what it was right after a few seconds, but couldnt get the spelling right. Burgondy and variants..

the most difficult thing about this quiz was getting the english right. It normally allready takes a bit attention though the more you write in one sitting the more natural it gets. But when reading other language, your mind isnt in "english mode" anymore. So typing in english suddenly isnt natural and without thought anymore. All the languages get jumbled haha.

+1
Level 43
Feb 27, 2019
Wow, this quiz really highlighted how much I don't know about non-latin scripts, I really need to start studying others so i can become more familiar with them! I've been trying to tackle Cyrilic for a while, hopefully I can finally do it!
+1
Level 82
Mar 1, 2019
You can learn Cyrillic in an afternoon (and remember it after a week of practice) it's pretty simple.
+5
Level 40
Mar 1, 2019
Unless it's cursive, then it just looks like someone got carried away writing u in cursive. As the sign on my Latin professor's (he also teaches Russian) office door says, "Russian cursive makes me cry."

On the other hand, if you are a fast learner, I could teach you the Korean alphabet (including pronunciation) in around an hour.

+1
Level 82
Mar 1, 2019
I learned to read Korean in 2007 but have since mostly forgotten it.
+2
Level 45
Mar 1, 2019
why did i think this was only europe???
+1
Level 82
Sep 8, 2019
Probably because 18 out of 21 answers are in Europe
+2
Level 50
Mar 1, 2019
Only Spain & Sweden. I was so bad. I though Koberhavn Was Denmark. Lol.
+1
Level 40
Jul 9, 2019
Why doesn't this quiz write the names also in their native scripts like the first quiz of this series does?
+1
Level 82
Sep 8, 2019
That was only for one city, Moscow, and it really ought to be fixed for the sake of consistency.
+1
Level 36
Jan 20, 2021
who else type munich next to bayern
+1
Level 75
Feb 6, 2021
So why is it 'Bayern Munich', and 'Bayer Leverkusen'?
+4
Level 74
May 7, 2021
Bayer Leverkusen does not recieve its name from Bavaria, but from the company Bayer AG, situated in Northrhine-Westphalia.

It's actually a funny story: Usually, the family name "Bayer" derrives from an ancestor from Bavaria. Friedrich Bayer, the founder of Bayer AG, was born as Beyer, and only changed his name later in life, when a scam artist also named Beyer gained infamy. This Beyer derrived from the Lusatian word bajer, which means Story-teller.

So, the similarity is pure coincidence.

+1
Level 68
May 9, 2021
Huh. Didn't know that. I thought that the Bayer family was probably originally from Bavaria. That was interesting - thank you!
+1
Level 52
Feb 28, 2021
Took me a while before realizing Naples wasn't spelled Napels. Fun quiz!
+1
Level 57
Mar 2, 2021
How did i miss my own countries name.....
+1
Level 43
May 7, 2021
Nihon was new. Always thought it was only called Nippon
+1
Level 43
Nov 26, 2021
Both are acceptable.
+1
Level 65
May 7, 2021
Jerusalem is a tricky one considering that there is no one agreed upon way to transliterate it (as with many Hebrew words). While that is how it is said, thats not how it is written in Hebrew. I would change it to Hebrew script or replace it.
+1
Level 67
Jun 1, 2021
I got Hungary by accident I would've never gotten it otherwise
+1
Level 28
Jun 1, 2022
How was Burgundy the lowest guessed? Burgundy's native name is more similar to its foreign name than Finland and Ireland's.
+1
Level 61
Sep 23, 2022
For Jerusalem, it would be much more accurate to have the Arabic instead of the Hebrew
+1
Level 82
Sep 23, 2022
how?
+1
Level 50
Jun 3, 2023
Why?
+2
Level 54
Feb 7, 2023
For non natives this is sometimes more an exercise to find out how the English have come to odd names.
+1
Level 37
Feb 7, 2023
Oh I am an idiot. I thought I was supposed to answer the country.
+1
Level 56
Feb 7, 2023
I've only ever heard naples spoken as "napoli". I've seen it written but couldn't remember how it was spelt. Same with gothenberg, never heared it pronounced with an english th.
+1
Level 29
Feb 8, 2023
I got all except "Cardiff" Good enough for a 12 year old American
+1
Level 46
Feb 9, 2023
Jerusalem in the native language is "Al-Quds"
+1
Level 41
Feb 10, 2023
Greece is Ellada (Ελλάδα)
+1
Level 24
Mar 18, 2024
when I saw Hellas i thought some Italian city (because of Hellas Verona)...