worchestershiresterchesterishire

Had an interesting conversation with someone last week that I've had with others before.  How the hell do you say these words:

• Worcestershire
• Worcester
• Leicester
• Gloucester

As someone who grew up in England these are common words and also easy ones to pronounce.  But many people have trouble.  And it occurred to me once why that is.  

You have to LOOK at the words correctly.  Without cutting the words up in the right manner you end up wanting to pronounce the 'c' as a 'ch'.

Let's take the word worcester.  I think the tendency is to cut the word as

wor - ces - ter

Which is where 

wor - CHES - ter

originates. But the real way to cut it up is

worce - ster

If you had to pronounce that first fragment you'd have no trouble pronouncing it 'worse'.  This is how all 4 words work.

• worce - ster - shire  (worse - ster- shire)
• worce - ster  (worse - ster)
• leice - ster (less - ster)
• glouce - ster (gloss - ster)