Mythbusting DC

DC Mythbusting: You’re Saying it Wrong

Photo courtesy of
‘I before E’
courtesy of ‘dharmabumx’

Neighborhood names are a touchy subject here in the District, and residents tend to get riled up about what an area is called or what a Metro station is named.  But outside of that, are we even saying these names properly? Chances are you’re actually saying or writing some of these places incorrectly. Read on for some of the most frequently mispronounced names in Washington.

Glover Park rhymes with clover park, right? Wrong. The neighborhood north of Georgetown takes its name from Charles Carroll Glover, a landowner from the 1800s, and the Washington Post tracked down his granddaughter back in 2005 and asked her about how her family pronounces its name.  Her reply?  “GLUH-ver. Please. Everybody calls it GLOH-ver, and it’s absolutely wrong. It’s GLUH-ver Park.”  But that hasn’t stopped the debate– many residents still say it rhymes with Grover, the Sesame Street character.  So either way you say it, someone will probably tell you that you’re wrong, but if you’re trying to be historically accurate it should sound like lover and not like clover.

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