Today we thought we’d have a little fun, so we’ve got a challenge for you!
Below are seven of the most mispronounced brand names.
Say each of them out loud. Go ahead, you know you want to!
- Nike
- Adidas
- Givenchy
- Huawei
- Porsche
- Adobe
- Hyundai
Easy, right? Maybe you had a little stutter on number four, but you’re probably pretty confident about the rest.
Well, it’s time to find out just how brand savvy you really are …
Nike:
So, which is it? ‘Ni – key’, or just plain, single-syllable ‘Nike’?
Apparently, back in 2014, two friends, Ben Martin and Kendal Peters, were so tired of fighting about this that they wrote to Philip Knight, co- founder and chairman of Nike, to find out which was correct. He circled Ni-key and sent the letter back to them. The company was named after Nike, the Greek goddess of victory.
Adidas:
The big dispute here is about whether the emphasis is on the first syllable – ‘AH-dee-dahs’ or on the second –‘ah-DEE-dahs’. Well, it’s a German brand, named after Adi Dassler, who set up his sports shoe factory in 1949 in the small town of Herzogenaurach (which is even more unpronounceable), and the correct way to say Adidas is:
Givenchy:
To not sound like a fool, should you compliment your colleague on her ‘Give-en-chi’ or ‘Jhee-von-shee’ bag?
Huawei:
Okay, just looking at this word you know it’s not going to be straightforward for general English speakers to pronounce. This is how New Yorkers fared when asked to say the name:
Porsche:
‘Porsh’? ‘Por-shuh’? Here we have another German brand, originating in Stuttgart and named after company founder, Ferdinand Porsche. And here’s how you say it, to the alarm and outrage of many!
Adobe:
Do we use ‘A-dobe-ey’ Illustrator or ‘A-dobe’ Illustrator? If you thought the company name related to building materials because of the choice of the word ‘adobe’, you’re not alone. But no, the company is apparently named after Palo Alto’s Adobe Creek, that both of the company founders happened to live close to.
And here’s how you say it:
Hyundai:
And finally, is it ‘Hi-yun-die’ or ‘Hun-day’? Let’s hear from the company itself. After winning North American car of the year in 2009, they ran a great Super Bowl advert playing up the pronunciation confusion. Here it is:
Additional sources:
https://highnames.com/adobe-company-name-origin/
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/men/the-filter/virals/10871877/Nike-or-Nikey-10-of-the-most-popular-mispronounced-brands.html
