13 Popular Brand Names You Are Probably Pronouncing Wrong
It’s one thing to mispronounce your neighbor’s name, and a whole other to actually go to a store looking for NAIK shoes only to realize not a single store assistant is taking you seriously. Or telling your friends how much you like that posh Italian fashion brand Versaakay. Or showing off your brand new Uhdeedass tracksuit.
Some people clearly won’t raise a brow and will totally get you. Others, though, will burst out laughing because, let’s face it, this is defo not how you pronounce these popular brand names. So in order to save us all from eye-rolls and unnecessary giggles, the list of the top most common faux pas and the correct way to pronounce your fave brand names is in down below.
You see, knowledge is power, and the more of it you have, the more you can go out into the world and become a brat who knows-it-all-and-doesn’t-miss-a-chance-to-correct-others: something we all secretly wanna be, but would never dare to admit.
(h/t: Scoopwhoop.com)
Update: some of the pronunciations have been corrected after the post was published.
This post may include affiliate links.
To find out more about the confusing world of pronunciations, Bored Panda spoke to Max, a professional English language teacher with over ten years of experience who runs a successful YouTube channel “English With Max.”
Max told us that when it comes to right and wrong pronunciations, there’s really no straightforward answer. “What's considered wrong in one language won't necessarily be considered wrong in another language.”
As a result, “Most foreign names have one or two common and accepted pronunciations in a different language—normally they'll resemble the original, but they won't be exactly the same.” Max gave us an example: “the way German speakers pronounce Mercedes-Benz when they're speaking German is different to how it is most commonly said in English. The anglicised version(s) isn't wrong, it's just different to how it's said in German.”
all wrong. I am french and this is pronounced " EVE SAIN (like PAIN) LORAN (like FRANC without the C)
The English teacher explained that “If you try to stick too closely to how it's said in the original language when you're speaking a different language, there's a chance that people won't understand you, or you'll just sound ridiculous and pretentious.”
According to Max, the same thing applies to the names of well-known places. “Some people try to pronounce place names the way locals say them, but I think most would agree that pronouncing 'Paris' the way the French say it ('Puhree' with a rolled R in the back of the throat) would sound very strange in English (and in many other languages).”
Moreover, Max said that there are also names, especially English ones, that often don’t follow common pronunciation rules and as a result, even native speakers won’t always know how to pronounce them just by looking at them.
It actually depends on the region. In Eastern Europe it is pronouncer NEE-KAY, which is very close to the Greek pronunciation, from which the word actually originates (Greek Goddess NIKE).
Among some brand names that native English speakers sometimes struggle with are Chevrolet, Renault, Louis Vuitton, Miu Miu, Yves Saint Laurent, Givenchy, Citroën, and Hoegaarden. “These all have anglicised versions, but if they've never heard them before, an English speaker would probably have no idea how to pronounce these. Adobe (an American brand) also causes some confusion,” Max said.
She advises everyone who’s not sure how to pronounce one thing or another to look up a commercial on YouTube (in the language that you speak or are trying to learn) and see how it's said in that ad.
Not according to all the TV commercials. You do realize the company doesn't use the German pronunciation outside of the German speaking region, right?
Trying to read either the wrong or correct pronunciation both sound horribly wrong in most of these. If only there was a standardized alphabet, tailored to explaining sounds...
You mean like some kind of international phonetic alphabet? Too bad it hasn't been invented yet :(
Echo X-ray Alpha Charley Tango Lema Yankee!!!
This comment is hidden. Click here to view.
Haha! apart from in all those languages that spell phonetically, like Spanish, Italian, Czech, Slovak, Polish, blah, blah....
in spanish, some exceptions aside, if you know how a word is written, you know how to pronounce it, and viceversa. I always thought that was the point of the wriiting, but then i realized the nonsense english and other languages are.
That's if you grew up with Spanish, as a Swede I think Spanish pronounces the letters u and o "wrong" but that's of course only because I learned how they should sound here. It's a foreign concept for me that in English, y can be a consonant. First language English speaking people can't even pronounce the Swedish y. The purpose of the phonetic alphabet is to get around these differences because it's based on how you use your tongue to say things.
sorlag110 easy
sorlag110 Good response!
So, to sum this up: Americans can't pronounce French names
Or any other languages!
Americans can't pronounce their own names. Why would this be a surprise?
Yes, b/c everyone else in the world pronounces French perfectly!
What makes you think people do this on purpose? If you've never heard a word before, you sound it out by the rules you know. If you've never heard it *proeprly*, then you assume what you hear is correct until proven otherwise.
no but at least we try and don't butcher every name by trying to make it sound like it originated in our country xD Americans are a funny lot xD
Only op, not all Americans, imho
To sum up: the writer didn't do a very good job on these. Many of them are pronounced correctly and there has never been any confusion about how to pronounce them. Just a bad piece overall.
Ohh, this post is soooo wrong! 100points for the confidence, and a big fat ZERO for being such a know-it-all and misleading people. Do your research first and let the grammatics lesson to the professionals...mmmokay? Thx
so, which one are you referring to? :)
Trying to read either the wrong or correct pronunciation both sound horribly wrong in most of these. If only there was a standardized alphabet, tailored to explaining sounds...
You mean like some kind of international phonetic alphabet? Too bad it hasn't been invented yet :(
Echo X-ray Alpha Charley Tango Lema Yankee!!!
This comment is hidden. Click here to view.
Haha! apart from in all those languages that spell phonetically, like Spanish, Italian, Czech, Slovak, Polish, blah, blah....
in spanish, some exceptions aside, if you know how a word is written, you know how to pronounce it, and viceversa. I always thought that was the point of the wriiting, but then i realized the nonsense english and other languages are.
That's if you grew up with Spanish, as a Swede I think Spanish pronounces the letters u and o "wrong" but that's of course only because I learned how they should sound here. It's a foreign concept for me that in English, y can be a consonant. First language English speaking people can't even pronounce the Swedish y. The purpose of the phonetic alphabet is to get around these differences because it's based on how you use your tongue to say things.
sorlag110 easy
sorlag110 Good response!
So, to sum this up: Americans can't pronounce French names
Or any other languages!
Americans can't pronounce their own names. Why would this be a surprise?
Yes, b/c everyone else in the world pronounces French perfectly!
What makes you think people do this on purpose? If you've never heard a word before, you sound it out by the rules you know. If you've never heard it *proeprly*, then you assume what you hear is correct until proven otherwise.
no but at least we try and don't butcher every name by trying to make it sound like it originated in our country xD Americans are a funny lot xD
Only op, not all Americans, imho
To sum up: the writer didn't do a very good job on these. Many of them are pronounced correctly and there has never been any confusion about how to pronounce them. Just a bad piece overall.
Ohh, this post is soooo wrong! 100points for the confidence, and a big fat ZERO for being such a know-it-all and misleading people. Do your research first and let the grammatics lesson to the professionals...mmmokay? Thx
so, which one are you referring to? :)