Here’s an alphabetized thread on how to pronounce the name of the countries in the Caribbean.

** I’ll try to type the phonetics in a way that’s as reader friendly as possible.

And don’t forget to retweet. Let’s do this!

Anguilla

Pronounced: An-gwii-la

Antigua & Barbuda

Pronounced: An-tee-gah
Pronounced: Bar-bew-dah

Surprise! It’s NOT An-tee-gwah nor Bar-boo-dah

Aruba

Pronounced: Ah-rue-bah

The Bahamas

Pronounced: The Ba-haa-mas

FYI: please include THE when referring to The Bahamas.

Barbados

Pronounced: Bar-bay-dos

Belize

I think y’all should have this pronunciation down

Bermuda

Pronounced: Bur-mew-dah

(Bermuda is actually located over 900 miles from any Caribbean island as it sits alone in the Atlantic Ocean, its located ~884 miles east of Charleston, South Carolina USA)

Bonaire

Pronounced: Boh-nair/Bon-air

British Virgin Islands (BVI)

Pronounced: Yea, you got this one.

Caribbean Netherlands
Made up of:

Bonaire
Pronounced: Boh-nair/Bon-air

Sint Eustatius
Pronounced: Sint U-stay-shus

Saba
Pronounced: Say-bah

Cayman Islands

Pronounced: Kay-man Islands

(Pretty straight forward)

Cuba

*Now this one depends on whether you want to pronounce it with the language accent or not

Pronounced: Cue-buh/Coo-bah

Curaçao

Pronounced: Cure-ah-souw

Dominica

Pronounced: Dom-mee-knee-kah

Fun fact: The Commonwealth of Dominica is not the Dominican Republic and they are not pronounced the same either.

Dominican Republic

Pronounced: Duh-MINI-can Republic

Fun fact: The Dominican Republic is a totally different country from Dominica . And both countries have different pronunciations, and if someone tells you they’re the same, that person is a liar

Grenada

Pronounced: Gree-nay-dah

**No, its not Gruh-nah-dah, trust me. It’s not.

Guadeloupe

Pronounced: Gwah-deh-loop

Guyana

Pronounced: Guy-ana

Nope, its not “Gee-yana”

Haiti

Pronounced: Hay-tee

Jamaica

Pronounced: Jah-may-kah

(But you knew this already)

Martinique

There’s two ways the Caribbean pronounces it

Pronounced: Mar-tin-neek/Mart-neek

Montserrat

Pronounced: Mont-sir-rat

Puerto Rico

(Yea, y’all got this one too)

Saint Barthélemy

(Also known as St. Barts)

Pronounced: Saint Bar-thay-leh-mee

Saint Kitts & Nevis

Pronounced: Saint Kits (yea, easy one)
Pronounced: Knee-vis

Yes, I can guarantee you it is NOT “Neh-vis”

Fun fact: St. Kitts’ original name is St. Christopher, a name given by the bad mind colonizer himself. But we dash it way because, you know.

Saint Lucia

Pronounced: Saint Lou-sha

I’ve heard some say “Loo-see-ah”, and no its not correct.

Fun fact: This is only country in the world named after a woman, that woman being Saint Lucy of Syracuse, a Christian martyr who was killed during the Persecution of 304 AD

Sint Maarten (Dutch) / Saint Martin (French)

Pronounced: Sint Mar-ten (Dutch)
Pronounced: Sahn Marh-tahn (French) doh fight me for my French phonetics)

**These two counties share the same land mass. Sint Maarten in the south of the island, Saint Martin in the north.

Saint Vincent & the Grenadines

Pronounced: Saint Vin-cent and the Gren-ah-deans

Suriname

Pronounced: Sue-ree-nam

Trinidad and Tobago

Pronounced: Trini-dad
Pronounced: Tuh-bay-go

Turks & Caicos Islands

Pronounced: Turks and Kay-Kos

United States Virgin Islands (USVI)

Yea, y’all got this one too. 10 points

And you’ve reached the end of my thread. Congrats, you now know how to pronounce the countries of the Caribbean

**if you have a better phonetic spelling of a country than I do, feel free to quote and add it.

This thread was brought about because some citizens of other countries on the globe love to tell us how to INACCURATELY pronounce the name of the places we live in

I also asked several West Indians (like myself) to assist with the phonetics, including the actual residents of these Caribbean countries. So if the phonetics off, it was a group effort.

Big up my Caribbean massive of course. Meh love meh region