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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.
#1
Great Panda Mamu 5 years ago
You know a few weeks ago when people in the US were getting strange seeds from China that they didn’t order? Mine wasn’t seeds, but an apparently knock-off Hermès scarf. It was a plain black, oblong scarf with the logo on it, not one of the famous square printed ones. So on some website somewhere in the world, I’m giving a glowing review of a fake Hermès scarf. I hope I mentioned it’s super soft!
Ephron Otz 5 years ago
¿ porque un nombre Griego tendría que pronunciarse en Inglés ? y siendo una empresa Frencesa lo correcto sería pronunciarlo en Francés.
Shelp 5 years ago
I don't know why you are writing in Spanish, but you are right nonetheless
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Lauren Brandon 5 years ago
Well I've never heard of this as a clothing brand, but here in England we have a hermes and they are a parcel delivery company 🤣 im 😕
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#2
Bathsheba 5 years ago
Nobody. Nobody who's seen telly in the past fifteen years.
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kjorn 5 years ago
for french-speaking people it's not hard, but for non-french speaking people could be hard
CrunChewy McSandybutt 5 years ago
I mean... they pronounce it in the commercials?
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*sigh*, The Yellow Teletubby 5 years ago
Istfg Imma throw some hands if I hear someone say Artois. Probably a Karen.
#3
Patty Stier 5 years ago (edited)
RE-NAULT sounds much more classy (and correct)! I used to own one and even the man at the car lot pronounced the first way. (Hence, so did as no one corrected me).
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.”
#4
John Montgomery 5 years ago
Me either. I always assumed it was pronounced the same as the type of brick/ building.
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Lauren Brandon 5 years ago
Ok so I must be dumb because I have always pronounced it a-dobe hahaha
#5
Nicolas Gui 5 years ago
all wrong. I am french and this is pronounced " EVE SAIN (like PAIN) LORAN (like FRANC without the C)
Solcarlus 5 years ago
PAIN not pronounced as in English, but as bread in French. I don't think they have this sound ([ɛ̃]) actually in English... Hard to find an equivalent. Franck without the -CK is indeed not that far from -REN(T) (we don't pronounce the T at all)
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Sarah Laurent 1 year ago
NO ! EVE SAIN (without the final "t") LO-RAN (like "ran," in "errand")
Onion rings like to make your breath smelly 5 years ago
i always thought yves saint laurent was the same as polo ralph lauren. wow ok
#6
Tiny Dynamine 5 years ago
It's weird watching an argument come out about this, yet the main difference is where people put the stress, but no-one is making that clear! It is a German brand so they have the authority to say. Is the stress on the first or second syllable?
Ceri Mcclellan 5 years ago
If the first one is good enough for Run DMC, it's good enough for me
Jennifer Crompton 5 years ago
I live in the Midwest US and if I pronounced it the correct way, people would laugh at me 🤣
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.
#7
George-Florin Constantin 5 years ago
I think this thread is about how illiterate Americans pronounce the names of these brands versus how mildly literate Americans do... wrong in both cases.
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Ruby Pronk 5 years ago
It’s originally Dutch. And then the second pronouncing isn’t correct either. Actually non Dutch people can’t pronounce that EU sound. Sorry guys.
W de Bruin 5 years ago
Looks And sounds Dutch to me, A native duchtie. "van" Means from. And then usualy comes the place or area that the Family is from. Just like the german "von" Heusen is not a place. Heusden is. Maybe caused by dialect. But a lot of Dutch Family names are spelt different then the real places. My theorie is that this is due to status, when your Family is from a place they are more likely wealthy. So pretending helps boosting status. Question Mark..
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Mieke Sorée 5 years ago
No, it's not. Can't think of an english word with the correct 'eu' sound though. It's the same as the french word for two, so 'deux'. Does that help?
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Tamara Kroonen 3 years ago (edited)
Wrong. This is Dutch, I'm Dutch and it is pronounced: Fawn Hew-Sen (although the "eu"-sound is not entirely perfect to be replicated in English). Also Van is wrong if you pronounce it like the car, a van. So fawn (with the a-sound as in prawn) comes closer. All names with Van finds their origin in the Netherlands or Belgium.
Haunting Spirit 5 years ago
No, it is pronounced Van Heu sen. Not hew but heu. Like an English laid says: Neu instead of No.
Mascha Claessens 5 years ago
Oh come on, this is originally Dutch and there are no sounds in English to pronounce this... :P It's more like... van (not like the American Van (car), but like the a in... well... car.) Hoizen, or something (the eu sound in Dutch is shorter than 'oi' though, but the sound is somewhat alike).
#8
George-Florin Constantin 5 years ago
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).
Arika Biara 5 years ago
Actually the Nike chairman cleared this up. https://www.independent.co.uk/news/business/nike-pronounced-nikey-confirms-guy-who-ought-know-9470111.html
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tuzdayschild 5 years ago
Is there really anyone on earth who doesn't know how to pronounce Nike?
Ritchen 5 years ago
Yes cause not everybody is an English native speaker. French people have their own way to pronounce it!
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Mehmet Küçükşahin 5 years ago
i ask to pronounce MIKE. They say 'MAIK' When there writes NIKE they say NAIKEY. How do you say MIKE TYSON? MAIKEY TYSON or MAIK TYSON?
*sigh*, The Yellow Teletubby 5 years ago
I think it's more "nigh-key" where I'm from... Imma smack someone if I hear it pronounced naik one more time
Edwin Quantrall 5 years ago
But...but...we don't say "I'm going to go ride my by-key", do we? Or "I'm going on a hy-key", right? 🤨 (I don't ly-key English very much right now... 🙄😒 )
Shelli Aderman 5 years ago
They’re from Oregon. It’s Nai-Key. It’s how they intended it to be pronounced. You can say it however you like, but it’s wrong. 😉
Mya 5 years ago
Every italian like me and actually we are also completely aware it's wrong lol
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#9
Beans 5 years ago
I speak Italian. It's actually Lah-m-bor-ghi-ni. 'La' as in 'la la la' . It's NOT actually a like in 'lamb'. The a is more an Ahh sound, sounds almost like Lum-bur-ghee-nee almost. Look at Wikipedia's IPA for Italian if you want the exact pronunciation.
Ritchen 5 years ago
What's wrong with you guys? Sure you can pronounce it right if it's your language but this is not meant for you to pronounce it right as you already do. It's from the English point of view how come nobody get it? These are all examples of foreign words to English people and helpful ways for them to pronounce them right! Come on Pandas!
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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.
#10
Rob Chapman 5 years ago
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?
NMN 5 years ago
Coming from a Portuguese speaking country I say, yep, there we do use the German pronunciation as well as we can (not perfect, but we try, at least we know V sounds like F and W like V)
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George-Florin Constantin 5 years ago
It's FOLKS-VAH-GUN. Because "V" is pronounced "F", "W" is pronounced "V"... basic German, people.
Victor Botha 5 years ago
I should qualify that by saying the african continent pronounces it in the proper german way
#11
William Bonner 5 years ago (edited)
I would just like to point out that Dr. Seuss is actually pronounced ZOYSS. Really. Everyone pronounces it wrong.
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Tim Garber 5 years ago
This one is stupid, oh most of these are wrong, but this one is dumb. Most people say ay-suss. Both of the above are the same, thus both correct.
Rhys Tal Cernunnos 5 years ago
it's actually A-Suss (Sus as in to Suss something out) Again... commercials always helps.
#12
Beans 5 years ago
Yeah, it actually feels like this list was done by a non-native english speaker who doesn't know that 'th' together makes a 'THHH' sound not a hard 't' sound. Also its Voo-i-tun not 'Vee' ... the 'ui' is subtle but its still supposed to be pronounced.
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Cats 5 years ago
Pff...I don't know why I got 5 downvotes for my comment. Here is a French person pronouncing it "LOOWEE VWEETON" just as I wrote...https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=k8tn9MZtoZY
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Edwin Quantrall 5 years ago
Loo-ee V(w)ee-tawn(h). The letters in parentheses are just barely pronounced, and the "awn(h)" should be slightly nasal according to an LV salesman that I met once.
Lindsay Morrison 5 years ago
TH isn't a French sound. Day (French Canadian) can't pronounce TH is ze France pronunciation.
#13
Vanta Black 5 years ago
Yeah. He co-wrote Blackadder with Rowan Atkinson.
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George-Florin Constantin 5 years ago
I think its BENE-T'N... there is no elongated AWWWWWW in there, the "o" is very short, almost muted.
Beans 5 years ago
Yes, 'tawn' is not the right pronunciation, it makes it seem like it's 'bene-torn' which is totally incorrect. It's Bene-ton. There's no elongated 'oh', no, but you still hear it. It's 'ton' as in won-'ton'. Bene-tohn would have been closer sounding than Bene-tawn, though they are both a bit wrong, 'tawn' is worse. Source: I'm Italian/English and I wore the brand as a kid.
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Maurizio Bellelli 3 years ago
bene-tawn? naaaaaaaaaaaaaaa, is beneTTòn, the letter T is duoble but seems almost triple, is very strong, and the accent is on the last vocal, this come from the venetian heritage: Giovanna wrote correctly just one year ago - by the way, I'm italian too, and I worked with them
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What do you think ?
Electric Ed 5 years ago
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...
Shelp 5 years ago
You mean like some kind of international phonetic alphabet? Too bad it hasn't been invented yet :(
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DforDorothy 5 years ago
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
Davor Jelacic 5 years ago
All of this is wrong, either use phonetic symbols or link a correct pronunciation audio clip.
Joey Marlin 5 years ago
Well, even the audio clips can be any old bod having a go so you need to pick with care. Though this chap would like to share his frustration 🤣 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mG7GBGcABYQ
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Leo Domitrix 5 years ago
Also Germans, Canadians, and Russians, in my personal experience. Unless they took four years of French in school in some cases.
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Eric Mac Fadden 5 years ago
I've never spoke none of these wrong.... I thing Portuguese is one of the most versatile languages with so many phonemes and sounds, and the São Paulo city accent is one of the hardest - but we can mimic others easier...
Kalista Moonwolf 5 years ago
Some of these are so well known, how do people even mispronounce them? Like who doesn't know it's "Nie-kee?" Not impressed with this list.
Scott Noble 5 years ago
I thought the incorrect pronunciations in this were just anti-American stereotypes. Are you telling me they're real ?
Leo Domitrix 5 years ago
Try Ukraine-Lithuania-Belarus for these mispronunciations. Even in Poland they do better at French.
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Aahzmandus Pervect 5 years ago (edited)
Well, this sucked. This article is a true embarrassment to Bored Panda and its editors.
Electric Ed 5 years ago
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...
Shelp 5 years ago
You mean like some kind of international phonetic alphabet? Too bad it hasn't been invented yet :(
Load More Replies... DforDorothy 5 years ago
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
Davor Jelacic 5 years ago
All of this is wrong, either use phonetic symbols or link a correct pronunciation audio clip.
Joey Marlin 5 years ago
Well, even the audio clips can be any old bod having a go so you need to pick with care. Though this chap would like to share his frustration 🤣 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mG7GBGcABYQ
Load More Replies... Leo Domitrix 5 years ago
Also Germans, Canadians, and Russians, in my personal experience. Unless they took four years of French in school in some cases.
Load More Replies... Eric Mac Fadden 5 years ago
I've never spoke none of these wrong.... I thing Portuguese is one of the most versatile languages with so many phonemes and sounds, and the São Paulo city accent is one of the hardest - but we can mimic others easier...
Kalista Moonwolf 5 years ago
Some of these are so well known, how do people even mispronounce them? Like who doesn't know it's "Nie-kee?" Not impressed with this list.
Scott Noble 5 years ago
I thought the incorrect pronunciations in this were just anti-American stereotypes. Are you telling me they're real ?
Leo Domitrix 5 years ago
Try Ukraine-Lithuania-Belarus for these mispronunciations. Even in Poland they do better at French.
Load More Replies... Aahzmandus Pervect 5 years ago (edited)
Well, this sucked. This article is a true embarrassment to Bored Panda and its editors.
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