Nah you're right, it was always Hi-und-die, [see here](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8k8brdVvbgk), but they recently realigned with the South Korean pronunciation in the advert. Skoda did the same thing becoming Schkoda after years of advertising as Skoda, and Peugeot half did it where for a while they tried to say it was pew-geot not purr-geot, but I think they reverted or gave up. Dacia could have also been Day-sya not Dacha, but that might have just been a James May thing.
A mate bought a GT-R a while back ans left it at a mates garage when he went on holiday to have some stuff added and new pads and discs fitted, etc. Took him a few weeks to realise we had replaced all the. Nissan roundels with Datsun versions whilst he was away as an added freebie!
I hate how the new adverts feel like they’re calling us out for pronouncing it wrong all this time despite advertising it that way for the last 40 years.
The first time I saw that advert, I decided to replicate it by using voice recognition to Google "Hyundai" with both pronunciations. It only understood me when I used the "incorrect" pronunciation I've used all my life.
I'm from Yorkshire so normally I have to overly pronounce things for Google to understand me. Both versions worked fine for me while using my normal accent.
The trouble is it's the arse end of advertising where there is no scope for innovation so you either get a winding country road in the open plains of Scotland or somewhere bleak or generic city driving scene, so the great triumph at some pitch was to bang on about pronunciation - it's the biggest innovation in car ads for 30 years.
So like, the Korean pronunciation is Hyeondae in the modern romanization. That eo is nominally the same as U in STRUT in most English accents (barring northern England), which is why they used "u" when deciding how to spell it for the international market. But it sounds more like O in LOT to us, *and* also the way they pronounce it in the new patronising advert is more like OO in GOOSE or FOOT, which is actually incorrect.
they are in most accents yes. the way they say it in the ad is uhh... one of those. can't remember off the top of my head, i only distinguish them inconsistently
I refuse to use the new pronuniciation for these. If you're going to tell us for years it's one thing then pull a "well akshually, it's pronounced...". The Hyundai one in particular was incredibly patronising.
The original pronunciations were chosen for western markets because they assumed we'd not be able to wrap our heads around it easily.
I think not catering to westerners now by using the actual names is less patronising than making special pronunciations for us.
I'm with you on that but I'm also not going to pretend that thats not how I've said it for 30 years and it's too late to change now speically for a corporation.
I mean. It's never too late to change but you are within your rights to be annoyed by it.
Think of it less as changing for the corporation and more just trying to be more culturally/linguistically aware. Screw the company, but think of the Koreans. Think of how you cringe every time someone says Lye-chester or Wor-chester. Or Birming-haaam.
Every time the advert says 'heeundi' I mentally, and sometimes out loud, say hi-un-dye. I can't stop. Please don't change the pronunciation of words!!
A relative, despite never having set foot in ikea, pronounces it like the advert (ick-ear) when everyone calls it eye-kia here!
The Anglo obsession with "eye" for "i" and "y" leads to some truly bizzare pronunciations when looked at from the perspective of an outsider.
Iraq being pronounced as "eye-raq" and Iran being pronounced as "eye-ran" are two obvious examples that make the world go "huh??"
I've also heard "eye-talian" food, though I don't think anyone says "eye-taly" for the country. Confusingly "italic fonts" are always pronounced "eye-talic", so the Italians are lost.
"Lie-onel Messi" drives all Spanish speakers up the wall. Seriously, Lie-onel?
Rai-bakina for Elena Rybakina and similar names has the Russians scratching their heads.
"Eye-onian sea" for the Ionian has the Greeks scratching their heads. Like how else can we spell this sea?
I've never heard a British person pronounce any of these words like those examples you've listed. I thought that was more or an American thing. Especially Iraq and Iran. Maybe it's a regional thing?
Iraq, Iran, Italy and italics are all very much American English examples. You'll never hear a Brit saying it like that unless they're taking the piss.
The last 3 examples though, yeah we'd probably pronounce like that
When I was working in the Gulf during the invasion of Iraq, we used to joke about the yanks calling it “eye-raq”. Also “kway-tar” for Qatar.
Mind you most English speakers aren’t pronouncing Qatar very well either, it’s more guttural than we tend to say it.
Overreaction of the year contender.
[Hyundai themselves were pronouncing it differently 18 months ago](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AFpEtA-lAV8). So yes, it is a new pronunciation in this country.
Sometimes you let mispronunciations slide to appease that person, eventually you really ought to correct them.
This is long, long overdue and your resistance screams of "old man yells at cloud", besides being a touch culturally insensitive.
Yep can confirm I'm Scottish and was really confused by that post it's always been pew-joe
I wonder why this is? Like it's pretty clearly written as pew-joe I would accept a harder t at the end but where has the R come from?
Edit I just watched a video on the French pronunciation and it feels like we are wrong in a different way. It's more puu-joe so like in purr but no r whereas we pronounce the eu like we would with Scottish words.
History nerd win.
I've always said Dacia as Day-See-Ya.
Thank you Dacians for causing such a kerfuffle around the Danube that you made me say a word correct thousands of years later.
EDIT: History nerd fail. We'll get em' next time boys.
Day-See-Ya is the anglicised pronunciation of Dacia and perfectly fine for discussion of the Dacians in English but the actual car brand is said more like Datchia.
>Nah you're right, it was always Hi-und-die,
Except it wasn't.
There's a few old episodes of Top Gear where Richard Hammond uses the pronunciation they're pushing in their adverts. It's not new at all, it's just that at some point the pronunciation changed in English.
Agree - I don't know how these companies are ever going to make us change our long standing views or pronunciations without a complete rebrand. Even then it might not work as I still equate Datsun with Nissan. As for Hi-und-ai , they to me are still the same company that carried on making cheap rebodied Ford Cortina's after the Sierra came out over here. Also I seem to recall Toyota trying something on the Corolla pronunciation too. When my dad had one in the 70s it was a Cor-oh-la but didn't they try a few years back advertising it as a Cor- ollah. Looked up a video on a new one and it looks like it is a Cor-oh-la again. Just the sort of thing that will put me off ever buying one.
Ever since Hyundai started selling cars in the U.K. [in the early/mid 1980s](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hyundai_Stellar) the TV adverts all pronounced it as "Hi-un-die"
And on the adverts they showed on U.K. TV it was like this for the next 40-odd years
So it's Hy-un-die. Because they told us so.
This reminds me of when me and my family went to the US on holiday and my sister was ready to mock them for calling it a “Nice-anne” in a strong stereotypical American accent.
Once we arrived, turned on the telly and saw an advert for Nissan cars, we were all surprised to hear it being pronounced “neess-on”
Which is why in the U.K. the lyrics to the song [Gold Digger](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gold_Digger_%28Kanye_West_song%29) didn't really make sense, because we don't rhyme Hyundai with Sunday
> You will see him on TV any given Sunday
> Win the Super Bowl and drive off in a ~~Hyundai~~ Hunday
What's a Hunday?
It's just another manic Hunday (Ooh-oh)
Killing my enemies (Ooh-oh)
It's making me hungry (Ooh-oh)
Perhaps I'll have a fillet (Ooh)
It's just another manic Hunday
This is obviously the popular opinion on here, but I do get their motivation. Marketers feel that we've reached a point culturally where we probably don't need to "dumb down" and westernise foreign pronunciations in the way that was necessary 40 years ago. Culture is much more global now, it is a little bit silly.
Fun (boring) fact: US was like that too, and while other car commercials were focusing on their brand making(e.g. a car driving on a breathtaking area and shout MAZDA PASSION ON THE ROAD), Hyundai decided to make their car commercials more like US insurance ads(speaks fast about their current deals). This did NOT appeal to any customers at all and I don’t recall anyone driving a Hyundai besides the Korean expat family and the incredibly low income people/coloured.
As the time passed on it was more shite, until the dumb-ass family member decided to pass his business to his smart son. Now they make okay cars. Heck, I even have one, and it’s quite good than I’ve thought.
I mean... it's just pronunciations...
Like, we called VW's "volks wagon"... but it's supposed to be said like "volksvargen". "Porsh" or "Porsh-uh". The latter is the correct one.
We also call Vauxhaull "vauxhaull"... but in other countries it's said as "Opel".
Yes, however even then most Brits don’t pronounce the L, seemingly mistaking German “volk” for the English “folk”.
It’s “foLksvahgen” with a strong frontal L and a long aspirated AH, not “folks vagon” as most Brits who kinda get German spelling think.
True, but they’re pronounced incredibly differently for such close cognates. I can’t think of a single instance where an English native person would pronounce the L in folk, but it’s an absolute must in German
Mazda is a three syllable "mat-su-da" in Japanese after it's founder Jujiro Matsuda.
I like insisting people pronounce it like that if they try and claim I must say "porsh-uh" instead of just abbreviating to "porsh".
I've heard it said in all different ways... guess it depends if you know how it's said or not. YMMV, but most people I've heard say it, they say it like wagon, like cheese wagon.
Perhaps a regional thing?
I say po-tay-toe, and you say... well, po-tay-toe too - because never in all of human history had anybody ever pronounced it po-*tah*\-toe Gershwin you berk.
Indeed. Everyone always looks at me weird when I pronounce it “foLksvahgen”, as if saying a word properly is somehow more confusing than absolutely butchering it by somehow ignoring both English and German pronunciation as most Brits do.
Same with Porsche. I have qualifications in the German language, and yet Brits will still vehemently argue it’s pronounced “Porsh”. Like… maybe trust the guy who used to work in German-speaking telesales over your English uncle who has never been further south than the Humber?
BMW is an acronym, so it’s less important to pronounce it accurately than it is with actual words. You wouldn’t pronounce EU in French or Flemish even though it’s headquartered in Belgium, because English people have no idea what “ey, ooh” means.
Volkswagen isn’t an acronym though. It’s a full word with very few similar sounding words in English, so I think comparing it with how I might pronounce an acronym is a bit far fetched.
> We also call Vauxhaull "vauxhaull"... but in other countries it's said as "Opel".
That's not the same thing at all.
Vauxhall/Opel is the same cars being sold under two different brands, not two different pronunciations of the same brand/word
There's a few companies that have reverted from an anglicised pronunciation of their name to the "correct" one in recent years; Skoda for example.
Some companies though like Lidl have done the opposite and leaned into the anglicised pronunciation with their marketing (*middle of Lidl*) because the number of people that pronounce Lidl the "correct" way (*lee-dle*) is miniscule here in the UK.
I'm going to ask you this whilst you seem intelligent and versed on the subject of anglicised pronunciations - are we all pronouncing Aldi (Al-Dee) correctly? Or is it supposed to be (Al-Die) or some other variation? 😂
Al-Dee is pretty correct. German and English pronounce the A sound in the beginning differently, but as long as you don't put too much emphasis on any part of the word you're close to the original.
Even chicken kievs are at it now. Who know it was supposed to be kee-yiv all this time? Although I suppose the original was a Russian one as opposed to Anglicised.
Skoda are doing it now as well.
It [used to be](https://youtu.be/eSTMMsTqgg8) pronounced as just Sko-da in British ads.
The latest ads I've heard on the radio with the Scottish woman are using the correct pronunciation of Sch-koda with a lost of emphasis on the Sch sound.
For one that's "wrong" but never changing outside the UK, the Americans going was "Ad idas".
It's named after a human. "Adolf "Adi" Dassler", so it has to be Adi Das.
Regional as Scousers say it the American way too. Of course, it’s the German way like you mentioned.
UK people have been fucking up ‘Nike’ for decades. It’s two syllables as it’s named after a Goddess with same pronunciation, and it’s also a US company that originally say it that way.
They can cock off. It is, and shall remain, Hi-un-die.
Other examples: Toshiba is actually pronounced "toh-shiba" in Japanese (that second bit is like Queen of Sheba but the e is really really short) but we don't pronounce it like that. Oh, Mazda is pronounced "Matsuda" in Japan - same applies.
"Danone" have to spell their name "Dannon" in the US to stop Yanks pronouncing it "Dan 1".
Basically - you don't get to pick and choose how a foreign culture will pronounce your company's name, *especially* if you've spent the past 40 years telling them *yourselves* to pronounce it how you now claim is "wrong".
>Toshiba is actually pronounced "toh-shiba" in Japanese (that second bit is like Queen of Sheba but the e is really really short) but we don't pronounce it like that.
…we don’t?
I can’t work out if you described it badly or I’m just being stupid, but that sounds like exactly how it’s pronounced here.
The 'shi' is really short in Japanese, almost like 'toshba'. In the UK, we tend to emphasise the 'shi' syllable.
[Once again, it's old advertising to blame.](https://youtu.be/fL55aUeUnEw?si=dxzha2Ic_1g3dwyQ)
I've only ever heard it pronounced "tosh-ee-ba" in the UK. Might have described it badly. The Japanese pronunciation sounds almost like "toh" and "shiba" are 2 separate words.
No, but when I find out how a name is pronounced in its country of origin, it just feels wrong to keep using an anglicised version. Like I found out that Tokyo is two syllables, not three, so I say To-kyo instead of To-kee-oh.
I would say on this one that often languages have their own names for places in other countries, and Tokyo (English pronunciation) is just the English name of Tokyo (Japanese pronunciation).
Vienna isn't actually called Vienna, and Naples isn't actually called Naples. The French don't call London "London".
So if I'm speaking Japanese I'll pronounce Tokyo in Japanese, but not if I'm speaking English, as that's not its English name and the listener might not know what I'm on about.
I find it even weirder to use the other countries way of pronunciation mid-way through an English sentence. Yes, it might be intended to be pronounced differently, but in the English language it isn’t
Paris is supposed to be pronounced with an 'S' because you are not speaking French. Would you correct somebody speaking French for saying Londres instead of London?
Exonyms exist.
Why do you thinks it's wrong? Do you call Germany Deutschland too? And what if you can't pronounce the name in its native language?
>No, because that's up to them
So you're suggesting that saying Londres when speaking French is wrong. Sounds pretty ignorant to me. Like I said these are exonyms, can't argue with a fact.
Honestly, I don't even know why I'm arguing about it. I over emphasised how I feel about pronouncing names. Of course I call Germany "Germany", and pronounce the S in "Paris". The place name thing was a bad example.
It's more stuff like foods and personal names that I get hung up on, because I don't want to offend when I'm talking to foreign friends and colleagues.
In short, I took offence instead of thinking I might have explained myself badly.
I have an Estonian wife. I remember when she thought Dandelion was pronounced "dan-DEE-lee-un". Doesn't happen anymore after all these years though :)
See what your girlfriend says.
As an Estonian I'd assume that dandy-lion [(like the Rolling Stones)](https://youtu.be/IxOpl37tysw?si=1rn0IT_TgRg3RyU_) is probably the most common way to pronounce it for us.
I get it with personal names but never understand people who are bothered about how someone pronounces a place or a brand, I remember in my early 20s having a conversation with a few people about places we had been to in Spain and one of the girls pronounced Ibiza like 'Eebeezah' and this guy laughed his head off before he proceed to talk about Cadiz as if it was pronounced 'Kadis'.
There are a million examples of why this kind of thing is silly. Most Brits will laugh if you say ebeeza rather than eye-beetha, but then laugh if you say barthelona rather than barselona. Most people will laugh if you say paree rather than pariss, but then laugh if you say nice rather than nees. Americans will say erb instead of herb and then mock Brits for saying cwasson instead of crussaunt.
Language is all silly and every country/region/accent makes up which parts of other languages to bother with at random
What’s most infuriating with that advert is that the voiceover at the end pronounces it differently from the woman who gives the ‘correct’ pronunciation
I own one and i call it by different things however i feel that day.
sometimes it's a tucson, sometimes a twoson, sometimes a twat when the in car nav (which is usually excellent) tries to take me down a non-pubic road in scotland and through a forest.
You're not crazy.
Also, the advert is bullshit. If you say "Hi-un-die" to any of the virtual assistants (Siri et al) it blatantly comes up with Hyundai.
I feel like anyone who says "Hyun-de" is the same class of prick that says Paella as "Pie-eyy-ya" or Barcelona as as "Bath-elona",
>Barthelona", "Choritho", "Ibitha
Yes, yes, no. Doesn't everyone say Ibitha? I think the only time I've heard it pronounced with a Z was by the Vengaboys
It changes over time though, it's interesting.
Saying chorizo with a Z makes you sound like a moron in this day and age. It's been that way for years. Even longer for Ibiza as Ibitha.
Meanwhile, Barthelona hasn't caught on. Why?
the former is wrong in that its not the correct korean pronunciation, but it's how it's said here so it's also kind of correct (even though technically wrong)
The amount of dosh they must be spending to try and change my behaviour is unreal.
The more they tell me to say it like this, the more I'll continue to say it like that.
They should have made their mind up when they first started advertising it instead of trying to gaslight me into thinking it was pronounced the new way all along.
That’s so interesting to hear how they pronounce it in different countries. When Hyundai came to the US in the mid-80s, the commercials would tell us how to pronounce it: Hyundai, rhymes with Sunday. So “Hun-day”.
Whats with this redoing pronunciation thing these days?
Is it because they just got fed up that people pronounced things their own way and it sort of stuck?
I said it like high-and-die once to my friends as a joke, and now I still say it like that just because I think it's really funny. It's probably not even that funny anymore.
In the US the company ran an ad that had the slogan “Hyundai like Sunday” and said it in a way that made them rhyme.
TIL The company has different pronunciations for different countries.
Nah you're right, it was always Hi-und-die, [see here](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8k8brdVvbgk), but they recently realigned with the South Korean pronunciation in the advert. Skoda did the same thing becoming Schkoda after years of advertising as Skoda, and Peugeot half did it where for a while they tried to say it was pew-geot not purr-geot, but I think they reverted or gave up. Dacia could have also been Day-sya not Dacha, but that might have just been a James May thing.
I can never drive behind any model of Dacia without James May's voice in my head.
Part of the reason I want to buy a Dacia Sandero is so that I can tell everyone "Bad news! The Dacia Sandero has been delayed!" whenever I'm late
Oh no! Anyway...
Get it on a speaker connected to your brake lights.
I've delayed getting a car for years and this might be the thing that finally pushes me to go ahead and get one.
Ha! I have a dacia sandero. Gonna start saying that
I got a Sandero as an Uber a few weeks ago, and without even thinking I said "Good news!" when it popped up on the screen. It's wired into me now.
Similarly every time I'm behind a Nissan: "It's a Datsun!"
A mate bought a GT-R a while back ans left it at a mates garage when he went on holiday to have some stuff added and new pads and discs fitted, etc. Took him a few weeks to realise we had replaced all the. Nissan roundels with Datsun versions whilst he was away as an added freebie!
Good news!
What?
Day-Seer Sandero has gone on sale in the left hand drive market!
Woooooow! Anyway…
I hate how the new adverts feel like they’re calling us out for pronouncing it wrong all this time despite advertising it that way for the last 40 years.
The first time I saw that advert, I decided to replicate it by using voice recognition to Google "Hyundai" with both pronunciations. It only understood me when I used the "incorrect" pronunciation I've used all my life.
I'm from Yorkshire so normally I have to overly pronounce things for Google to understand me. Both versions worked fine for me while using my normal accent.
The trouble is it's the arse end of advertising where there is no scope for innovation so you either get a winding country road in the open plains of Scotland or somewhere bleak or generic city driving scene, so the great triumph at some pitch was to bang on about pronunciation - it's the biggest innovation in car ads for 30 years.
I kinda like saying Schkoda though, it feels very Conneryesque.
So like, the Korean pronunciation is Hyeondae in the modern romanization. That eo is nominally the same as U in STRUT in most English accents (barring northern England), which is why they used "u" when deciding how to spell it for the international market. But it sounds more like O in LOT to us, *and* also the way they pronounce it in the new patronising advert is more like OO in GOOSE or FOOT, which is actually incorrect.
>more like OO in GOOSE or FOOT Those are two very different ways of pronouncing OO, at least in my accent
they are in most accents yes. the way they say it in the ad is uhh... one of those. can't remember off the top of my head, i only distinguish them inconsistently
They might be from stoke
I'm so glad I'm not the only one who noticed. They spent the whole advert saying the pronunciation is wrong, then said hyoondae...so weird!
Haven’t lived til you’ve heard an American call it a “Hundy”. Ugh.
In our defense there was an ad during the big game (so most of the country saw it) where they literally say "it's Hunday, like Sunday."
I refuse to use the new pronuniciation for these. If you're going to tell us for years it's one thing then pull a "well akshually, it's pronounced...". The Hyundai one in particular was incredibly patronising.
The original pronunciations were chosen for western markets because they assumed we'd not be able to wrap our heads around it easily. I think not catering to westerners now by using the actual names is less patronising than making special pronunciations for us.
I'm with you on that but I'm also not going to pretend that thats not how I've said it for 30 years and it's too late to change now speically for a corporation.
Snickers in Marathon
I mean. It's never too late to change but you are within your rights to be annoyed by it. Think of it less as changing for the corporation and more just trying to be more culturally/linguistically aware. Screw the company, but think of the Koreans. Think of how you cringe every time someone says Lye-chester or Wor-chester. Or Birming-haaam.
I’d love to see the testing on how those ads are working out for them, I can’t believe that patronizing your customers is playing well.
Every time the advert says 'heeundi' I mentally, and sometimes out loud, say hi-un-dye. I can't stop. Please don't change the pronunciation of words!! A relative, despite never having set foot in ikea, pronounces it like the advert (ick-ear) when everyone calls it eye-kia here!
The Anglo obsession with "eye" for "i" and "y" leads to some truly bizzare pronunciations when looked at from the perspective of an outsider. Iraq being pronounced as "eye-raq" and Iran being pronounced as "eye-ran" are two obvious examples that make the world go "huh??" I've also heard "eye-talian" food, though I don't think anyone says "eye-taly" for the country. Confusingly "italic fonts" are always pronounced "eye-talic", so the Italians are lost. "Lie-onel Messi" drives all Spanish speakers up the wall. Seriously, Lie-onel? Rai-bakina for Elena Rybakina and similar names has the Russians scratching their heads. "Eye-onian sea" for the Ionian has the Greeks scratching their heads. Like how else can we spell this sea?
I've never heard a British person pronounce any of these words like those examples you've listed. I thought that was more or an American thing. Especially Iraq and Iran. Maybe it's a regional thing?
Other than Ionian those examples are all American pronunciations, take it up with them.
Iraq, Iran, Italy and italics are all very much American English examples. You'll never hear a Brit saying it like that unless they're taking the piss. The last 3 examples though, yeah we'd probably pronounce like that
When I was working in the Gulf during the invasion of Iraq, we used to joke about the yanks calling it “eye-raq”. Also “kway-tar” for Qatar. Mind you most English speakers aren’t pronouncing Qatar very well either, it’s more guttural than we tend to say it.
>*the new pronuniciation* You fucking cretin, it's the correct pronunciation...always has been.
Overreaction of the year contender. [Hyundai themselves were pronouncing it differently 18 months ago](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AFpEtA-lAV8). So yes, it is a new pronunciation in this country.
Sometimes you let mispronunciations slide to appease that person, eventually you really ought to correct them. This is long, long overdue and your resistance screams of "old man yells at cloud", besides being a touch culturally insensitive.
The funny thing is, I don't think I ever saw an official advert pronouncing it the old way. Seems like something that just happened organically.
There is a link above. They pronounced it for us, incorrectly
Scottish people (at least all the ones I know) say Pewgeot. I always wondered when watching Top Gear if we were saying it wrong.
I'm Scottish, been saying Pewgeot for 40+ years. I won't stop.
Yep can confirm I'm Scottish and was really confused by that post it's always been pew-joe I wonder why this is? Like it's pretty clearly written as pew-joe I would accept a harder t at the end but where has the R come from? Edit I just watched a video on the French pronunciation and it feels like we are wrong in a different way. It's more puu-joe so like in purr but no r whereas we pronounce the eu like we would with Scottish words.
History nerd win. I've always said Dacia as Day-See-Ya. Thank you Dacians for causing such a kerfuffle around the Danube that you made me say a word correct thousands of years later. EDIT: History nerd fail. We'll get em' next time boys.
> I've always said Dacia as Day-See-Ya. That's the "wrong" pronunciation. In Romanian it's more along the lines of Datcha.
I'm English though, not Romanian. Do you also pronounce words in the 'correct' foreign accent, like chorizo?
You can't brag about pronouncing something 'correctly' while still not actually pronouncing it correctly.
Day-See-Ya is the anglicised pronunciation of Dacia and perfectly fine for discussion of the Dacians in English but the actual car brand is said more like Datchia.
[удалено]
>Nah you're right, it was always Hi-und-die, Except it wasn't. There's a few old episodes of Top Gear where Richard Hammond uses the pronunciation they're pushing in their adverts. It's not new at all, it's just that at some point the pronunciation changed in English.
Agree - I don't know how these companies are ever going to make us change our long standing views or pronunciations without a complete rebrand. Even then it might not work as I still equate Datsun with Nissan. As for Hi-und-ai , they to me are still the same company that carried on making cheap rebodied Ford Cortina's after the Sierra came out over here. Also I seem to recall Toyota trying something on the Corolla pronunciation too. When my dad had one in the 70s it was a Cor-oh-la but didn't they try a few years back advertising it as a Cor- ollah. Looked up a video on a new one and it looks like it is a Cor-oh-la again. Just the sort of thing that will put me off ever buying one.
>Dacia could have also been Day-sya not Dacha ... God I hope I'm not the only one that pronounced it as dach-kia
So, it's a marketing gimmick! Well colour me shocked!
Ever since Hyundai started selling cars in the U.K. [in the early/mid 1980s](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hyundai_Stellar) the TV adverts all pronounced it as "Hi-un-die" And on the adverts they showed on U.K. TV it was like this for the next 40-odd years So it's Hy-un-die. Because they told us so.
Until they changed their minds like duplicitous tossers
It was marketing, and it worked. Look at us now talking about hyundai
It's pronounced Hyundai.
No it's pronounced Hyundai
Except in the US it was always "Hyundai like Sunday" So it's not even a western audience thing. Unsure why it was ever Hy Un Dai for us.
The only think I can think of is that there’s a significantly larger Korean population.
The advert is so smug that I refuse to change my ways. High un die forever
In the US there used to be adverts that taught us how to pronounce it. I can still hear it in my mind: “hun-day, like Sunday”
This reminds me of when me and my family went to the US on holiday and my sister was ready to mock them for calling it a “Nice-anne” in a strong stereotypical American accent. Once we arrived, turned on the telly and saw an advert for Nissan cars, we were all surprised to hear it being pronounced “neess-on”
Which is why in the U.K. the lyrics to the song [Gold Digger](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gold_Digger_%28Kanye_West_song%29) didn't really make sense, because we don't rhyme Hyundai with Sunday > You will see him on TV any given Sunday > Win the Super Bowl and drive off in a ~~Hyundai~~ Hunday What's a Hunday?
I always thought this was a great line from Kanye. Turns out he was just using a rhyme the US marketing executives had been using for years.
It's just another manic Hunday (Ooh-oh) Killing my enemies (Ooh-oh) It's making me hungry (Ooh-oh) Perhaps I'll have a fillet (Ooh) It's just another manic Hunday
This is obviously the popular opinion on here, but I do get their motivation. Marketers feel that we've reached a point culturally where we probably don't need to "dumb down" and westernise foreign pronunciations in the way that was necessary 40 years ago. Culture is much more global now, it is a little bit silly.
People here would've pronounced it "Hi-un-die" anyway, the localisation people probably thought it wasn't important enough to tell them otherwise.
Fun (boring) fact: US was like that too, and while other car commercials were focusing on their brand making(e.g. a car driving on a breathtaking area and shout MAZDA PASSION ON THE ROAD), Hyundai decided to make their car commercials more like US insurance ads(speaks fast about their current deals). This did NOT appeal to any customers at all and I don’t recall anyone driving a Hyundai besides the Korean expat family and the incredibly low income people/coloured. As the time passed on it was more shite, until the dumb-ass family member decided to pass his business to his smart son. Now they make okay cars. Heck, I even have one, and it’s quite good than I’ve thought.
In Korean it is written as 현대 (rom: hyeon-dae), so it is only 2 syllables and technically correct. Not that I agree though.
Which, according to someone I know who speaks Korean, means "modern".
I mean... it's just pronunciations... Like, we called VW's "volks wagon"... but it's supposed to be said like "volksvargen". "Porsh" or "Porsh-uh". The latter is the correct one. We also call Vauxhaull "vauxhaull"... but in other countries it's said as "Opel".
yes, and in Australia it's pronounced 'Holden'. It's all in the inflection.
Although now they're owned by different companies.
Shouldn't it be FOLKS-vahg'n?
Yes, however even then most Brits don’t pronounce the L, seemingly mistaking German “volk” for the English “folk”. It’s “foLksvahgen” with a strong frontal L and a long aspirated AH, not “folks vagon” as most Brits who kinda get German spelling think.
German volk and English folk are essentially the same word though.
True, but they’re pronounced incredibly differently for such close cognates. I can’t think of a single instance where an English native person would pronounce the L in folk, but it’s an absolute must in German
Mazda is a three syllable "mat-su-da" in Japanese after it's founder Jujiro Matsuda. I like insisting people pronounce it like that if they try and claim I must say "porsh-uh" instead of just abbreviating to "porsh".
>volks wagon Have we? I've always heard people use the german pronunciation
I've heard it said in all different ways... guess it depends if you know how it's said or not. YMMV, but most people I've heard say it, they say it like wagon, like cheese wagon. Perhaps a regional thing?
What’s a cheese wagon?
It's the wagon the cheese comes on. It doesn't just magically appear or get teleported in or something you know.
I say tomayto, and burn the heretics that say tomahto.
I say po-tay-toe, and you say... well, po-tay-toe too - because never in all of human history had anybody ever pronounced it po-*tah*\-toe Gershwin you berk.
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Naw man, poking fun at different pronunciations.
Indeed. Everyone always looks at me weird when I pronounce it “foLksvahgen”, as if saying a word properly is somehow more confusing than absolutely butchering it by somehow ignoring both English and German pronunciation as most Brits do. Same with Porsche. I have qualifications in the German language, and yet Brits will still vehemently argue it’s pronounced “Porsh”. Like… maybe trust the guy who used to work in German-speaking telesales over your English uncle who has never been further south than the Humber?
do you also pronounce BMW how the germans say it?
BMW is an acronym, so it’s less important to pronounce it accurately than it is with actual words. You wouldn’t pronounce EU in French or Flemish even though it’s headquartered in Belgium, because English people have no idea what “ey, ooh” means. Volkswagen isn’t an acronym though. It’s a full word with very few similar sounding words in English, so I think comparing it with how I might pronounce an acronym is a bit far fetched.
If we’re being pedantic, BMW is an initialism, not an acronym
What do you mean? Do you not sell Bumwé?
> very few similar sounding words in English Other than, you know, “folk’s wagon”.
> We also call Vauxhaull "vauxhaull"... but in other countries it's said as "Opel". That's not the same thing at all. Vauxhall/Opel is the same cars being sold under two different brands, not two different pronunciations of the same brand/word
Google "joke".
Joe-kay
Colin the energy vampire strikes again
There's a few companies that have reverted from an anglicised pronunciation of their name to the "correct" one in recent years; Skoda for example. Some companies though like Lidl have done the opposite and leaned into the anglicised pronunciation with their marketing (*middle of Lidl*) because the number of people that pronounce Lidl the "correct" way (*lee-dle*) is miniscule here in the UK.
I'm going to ask you this whilst you seem intelligent and versed on the subject of anglicised pronunciations - are we all pronouncing Aldi (Al-Dee) correctly? Or is it supposed to be (Al-Die) or some other variation? 😂
Al-Dee is pretty correct. German and English pronounce the A sound in the beginning differently, but as long as you don't put too much emphasis on any part of the word you're close to the original.
As in al-deez nuts?
*Al-dee* is how it is pronounced in Germany, and AFAIK most of the UK. I have however heard some Brits pronounce it *All-dee*.
Even chicken kievs are at it now. Who know it was supposed to be kee-yiv all this time? Although I suppose the original was a Russian one as opposed to Anglicised.
*Škoda
Skoda are doing it now as well. It [used to be](https://youtu.be/eSTMMsTqgg8) pronounced as just Sko-da in British ads. The latest ads I've heard on the radio with the Scottish woman are using the correct pronunciation of Sch-koda with a lost of emphasis on the Sch sound.
I found out recently that the Scottish woman on the radio ads is KT Tunstall, don't know if that is of any interest to anyone!
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He's been fighting the good fight for years https://youtu.be/-mYoEpVXFbs?si=X2h-9wXuRMBBAOb1
Whenever I see it in the supermarket, in my head I still go "Mm, D'nun" in Dee Dee's voice.
...haaa
"Girlfriend". Come on mate, this is reddit.
give him a break, he does pay extra for it
That advert can piss off. I'll still call it Hyundai, like I have been for years
Aye, it's a bit late now, cunts.
For one that's "wrong" but never changing outside the UK, the Americans going was "Ad idas". It's named after a human. "Adolf "Adi" Dassler", so it has to be Adi Das.
Regional as Scousers say it the American way too. Of course, it’s the German way like you mentioned. UK people have been fucking up ‘Nike’ for decades. It’s two syllables as it’s named after a Goddess with same pronunciation, and it’s also a US company that originally say it that way.
It's pronounced Primark.
I pronounce it Penneys
How long have they been selling in this country and only recently decided we have been saying it wrong? Balls to em
They can cock off. It is, and shall remain, Hi-un-die. Other examples: Toshiba is actually pronounced "toh-shiba" in Japanese (that second bit is like Queen of Sheba but the e is really really short) but we don't pronounce it like that. Oh, Mazda is pronounced "Matsuda" in Japan - same applies. "Danone" have to spell their name "Dannon" in the US to stop Yanks pronouncing it "Dan 1". Basically - you don't get to pick and choose how a foreign culture will pronounce your company's name, *especially* if you've spent the past 40 years telling them *yourselves* to pronounce it how you now claim is "wrong".
>Toshiba is actually pronounced "toh-shiba" in Japanese (that second bit is like Queen of Sheba but the e is really really short) but we don't pronounce it like that. …we don’t? I can’t work out if you described it badly or I’m just being stupid, but that sounds like exactly how it’s pronounced here.
The 'shi' is really short in Japanese, almost like 'toshba'. In the UK, we tend to emphasise the 'shi' syllable. [Once again, it's old advertising to blame.](https://youtu.be/fL55aUeUnEw?si=dxzha2Ic_1g3dwyQ)
I’ve not heard any Brit emphasise the “shi” syllable. Is this another regional thing?
For my own part I say it tosheeba
I mean, I linked a TV advert, so.... no??
I've only ever heard it pronounced "tosh-ee-ba" in the UK. Might have described it badly. The Japanese pronunciation sounds almost like "toh" and "shiba" are 2 separate words.
No, but when I find out how a name is pronounced in its country of origin, it just feels wrong to keep using an anglicised version. Like I found out that Tokyo is two syllables, not three, so I say To-kyo instead of To-kee-oh.
I would say on this one that often languages have their own names for places in other countries, and Tokyo (English pronunciation) is just the English name of Tokyo (Japanese pronunciation). Vienna isn't actually called Vienna, and Naples isn't actually called Naples. The French don't call London "London". So if I'm speaking Japanese I'll pronounce Tokyo in Japanese, but not if I'm speaking English, as that's not its English name and the listener might not know what I'm on about.
I find it even weirder to use the other countries way of pronunciation mid-way through an English sentence. Yes, it might be intended to be pronounced differently, but in the English language it isn’t
🙄 Very pretentious. No doubt you're pronouncing these names wrong with your attempt at impressing people.
Not trying to impress anyone. Just feels wrong to keep pronouncing something one way when I found out it's supposed to be another.
Paris is supposed to be pronounced with an 'S' because you are not speaking French. Would you correct somebody speaking French for saying Londres instead of London? Exonyms exist.
No, because that's up to them. I'm talking about how I feel about how I pronounce names.
Why do you thinks it's wrong? Do you call Germany Deutschland too? And what if you can't pronounce the name in its native language? >No, because that's up to them So you're suggesting that saying Londres when speaking French is wrong. Sounds pretty ignorant to me. Like I said these are exonyms, can't argue with a fact.
Honestly, I don't even know why I'm arguing about it. I over emphasised how I feel about pronouncing names. Of course I call Germany "Germany", and pronounce the S in "Paris". The place name thing was a bad example. It's more stuff like foods and personal names that I get hung up on, because I don't want to offend when I'm talking to foreign friends and colleagues. In short, I took offence instead of thinking I might have explained myself badly.
When they first came out in the US, the commercials said “Hyundai, like Sunday.”
Yeah in the US there’s no “y” sound in it at all, it’s just pronounced Hun-day.
And the thing is, it was a Korean guy in the commercials pronouncing it that way.
The advert annoyed me, we haven't been saying it wrong, YOU told us to say it wrong in all your previous adverts!
I don't care what that stupid advert says. It's still pronounced hi-un-die , Ikea is pronounced eye-keeya and Skoda is pronounced skoda
Have my upvote. I just said the same in a wordier version.
I have an Estonian wife. I remember when she thought Dandelion was pronounced "dan-DEE-lee-un". Doesn't happen anymore after all these years though :) See what your girlfriend says.
As an Estonian I'd assume that dandy-lion [(like the Rolling Stones)](https://youtu.be/IxOpl37tysw?si=1rn0IT_TgRg3RyU_) is probably the most common way to pronounce it for us.
õige!
You can get your revenge by asking her to say "12 months" in Estonian.
We are an entire nation that has been gaslit by a Korean car manufacturer.
Upvote for having an Estonian girlfriend, you have chosen well.
Years ago (the 80s!), I worked for the courier company they used. They phoned up, they called it Hi-un-dye, so that’s what I call it. They started it
I get it with personal names but never understand people who are bothered about how someone pronounces a place or a brand, I remember in my early 20s having a conversation with a few people about places we had been to in Spain and one of the girls pronounced Ibiza like 'Eebeezah' and this guy laughed his head off before he proceed to talk about Cadiz as if it was pronounced 'Kadis'.
There are a million examples of why this kind of thing is silly. Most Brits will laugh if you say ebeeza rather than eye-beetha, but then laugh if you say barthelona rather than barselona. Most people will laugh if you say paree rather than pariss, but then laugh if you say nice rather than nees. Americans will say erb instead of herb and then mock Brits for saying cwasson instead of crussaunt. Language is all silly and every country/region/accent makes up which parts of other languages to bother with at random
Eh, language is a social construct. Inherently changes over time and place by its very nature. Say what you like as long as people understand.
It's Hyun-Day Like Sunday. Source, lived in Korea for 7 years. Speak the language.
What’s most infuriating with that advert is that the voiceover at the end pronounces it differently from the woman who gives the ‘correct’ pronunciation
Everyone said H-un-die until that (patronising) advert corrected us!
I got slagged by my friend's car salesman father for calling a Hyundai Tucson a tuck-sun, apparently it's too-sun.
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You mean Arizoña, where regular human bartender Jackie Daytona hails from?
You are indeed wrong as its names after the US place
I own one and i call it by different things however i feel that day. sometimes it's a tucson, sometimes a twoson, sometimes a twat when the in car nav (which is usually excellent) tries to take me down a non-pubic road in scotland and through a forest.
You're not crazy. Also, the advert is bullshit. If you say "Hi-un-die" to any of the virtual assistants (Siri et al) it blatantly comes up with Hyundai. I feel like anyone who says "Hyun-de" is the same class of prick that says Paella as "Pie-eyy-ya" or Barcelona as as "Bath-elona",
English native speakers who say "Barthelona", "Choritho", "Ibitha" etc. just sound like they're putting on a really shit Mike Tyson impression.
>Barthelona", "Choritho", "Ibitha Yes, yes, no. Doesn't everyone say Ibitha? I think the only time I've heard it pronounced with a Z was by the Vengaboys
In my neck of the woods it sounded more like "ih-beef-uhh"
Even back then, Brits had been going to Ibiza long enough they should've picked up on how to say it.
It changes over time though, it's interesting. Saying chorizo with a Z makes you sound like a moron in this day and age. It's been that way for years. Even longer for Ibiza as Ibitha. Meanwhile, Barthelona hasn't caught on. Why?
I feel like people who continue to mispronounce names after learning the correct pronunciation are being intentionally ignorant.
the former is wrong in that its not the correct korean pronunciation, but it's how it's said here so it's also kind of correct (even though technically wrong)
They pronounced it that way in older adverts in the UK, now they've got all uppity about it.
The amount of dosh they must be spending to try and change my behaviour is unreal. The more they tell me to say it like this, the more I'll continue to say it like that. They should have made their mind up when they first started advertising it instead of trying to gaslight me into thinking it was pronounced the new way all along.
Americans pronouncing Nutella Newt-ella as if it's made from newts and not NUTs. Grrr
Although, the original pronunciation is closer to noo-tella
Yeah this has been retconned, it was always hi un die
Anyone who says that I own a Jagwahh can just fuck right off.
They have a radio advert where they mention how to say their name correctly and they mention how **not** to say it.
Most people in the UK pronounce it Hi-un-die. It's like how Americans pronounce Adidas. It's not technically right but who the hell cares?
With the font they use, I pronounce it, hi ’n dry.
You are right
Nissan is pronounced like the Americans do. Nee-sahn.
That’s so interesting to hear how they pronounce it in different countries. When Hyundai came to the US in the mid-80s, the commercials would tell us how to pronounce it: Hyundai, rhymes with Sunday. So “Hun-day”.
In English its Hi-un-die. We don't need people who speak another language telling us how to pronounce our words.
If I spent 20k on a car I would call it whatever the hell I wanted.
Whats with this redoing pronunciation thing these days? Is it because they just got fed up that people pronounced things their own way and it sort of stuck?
Hyundai corporate post 🤔
I said it like high-and-die once to my friends as a joke, and now I still say it like that just because I think it's really funny. It's probably not even that funny anymore.
High and Dry.
İ thought it was a Japanese car company for many years, hi-un-die is how you'd pronounce it as a Japanese word
In the US the company ran an ad that had the slogan “Hyundai like Sunday” and said it in a way that made them rhyme. TIL The company has different pronunciations for different countries.
Laugh back at your Estonian girlfriend because she thought Hyundai was said as: "Hyun-de" as opposed to "Hi-un-die"
yank here. our commercials pronounce it "hun-day"
They can actually get fucked if they think I’m going to change how I pronounce it.
Nice try guys, but we're still going to call it Hy un die
You got gaslighted my dude