Dumb American here, but my question: when you differentiate American English from British English, are you using RP? If so, would some of the brand names vary - that would also be interesting.
Great question! Yes, I was using RP. In ESL teaching we mainly refer to General American and RP just to simplify things because there are so many different dialects and accents. It certainly doesn't mean that we think others are incorrect. And yes, in terms of pronunciation, some of them do vary, e.g. Sony (US: /'soʊ.ni/ UK: /'səʊ.ni/) and Target (US: /ˈtɑːr.ɡɪt/ UK: /ˈtɑː.ɡɪt/). And others don't really vary among native English speakers, e.g. Chanel (US: /ʃən'el/ UK: /ʃən'el/). Although the speaker's accent will obviously have a small effect on the sound. Pronunciation is a lot more "inclusive" than accent, so to speak. People with different accents can be using the same pronunciation. A different shade of green is still green, if that makes sense. For example, I don't have an RP accent (I have a "weak" Australian accent), but my pronunciation is basically RP. Sorry, probably a much longer answer than you wanted ;-), but I'm hoping that others will see this since it's something that confuses people a lot.
I never knew that there is an American English! I remember hearing Americans LAUGHED and quipped that the Queen of England HAS AN ACCENT… that blew me away!!! I was taught that English is ENGLAND’s native tongue (thus the word ENGLish)- and, if The Queen of England pronounces a word a certain way, then, that should be how it is pronounced… the word LIEUTENANT = has anyone heard how this word is pronounced by an Englishman?
@@cestbon3419 Uhm the Queen of England has an accent not saying it is British though, its like the difference here in America to National versus Urban slang, every culture has Slang, the Queen is basically speaking in what is called "Highbourne" It goes back to their formal education of Aristocracy and Crown, back in the 20's to the 50's people here in America that were high Society had a similar slang or slur, its typically the type of accent that comedians make fun of. Although in the Queens case not many people sound like that anymore, Charles does but alot of the royal family especially the younger generations have not carried that accent or tongue anymore.
Hi, I’m a German guy and I’m really impressed how good you pronounce the German Brands. I speak French as well and your pronunciation of the French Brands is formidable! Thumbs up!
Kia in Korean is Ki -a (like a in art). the name "Kia" derives from the Sino-Korean characters 起 (ki, 'to arise') and 亞 (a, which stands for 亞細亞아세아, meaning 'Asia'); it is roughly translated as "Rising from Asia.
It's like you're an expert at French, Italian and German, and of course your English and American accent! ✨ I love how you point out the difference of pronunciation like a pro 💙✨. I learned a lot... Thank you!
I'm impressed how good you prononced french brands (i'm french btw). For non french native it's complicated, but you nailed it. Little accent that makes you more charming (people like french accent when we speak (badly) english, but we like when english speaker speaks french).
Much of the confusion is caused by the fact that the English speaking part of translations does not recognise the inflections on letters / words that dictate emphasis being placed in specific ways. Written English is the only language I am familiar with where these symbols do not occur. French (cedilla), Spanish, German, Russian.....they all have them.
It's true. English inflection is based upon the vowels that succeed the former vowel to then create hard and soft vowel sounds inside said word. It's actually one of the reasons why English is considered a hard language to learn, along with using tenses to convey the proper meaning of a sentence.
Italian here: - Lamborghini: perfect. - Maserati: the S and R are stronger and the A and I are not that long. - Armani: perfect. - Dolce & Gabbana: L is stronger, the double B is much stronger, she pronounces it like it's one word but we actually make a little pause between & and Gabbana; many people actually read & in English so they say Dolce and Gabbana. - Fendi: E is not so long. - Gucci: perfect. - Prada: perfect actually. - Versace: less stress on the A, the stress is still there, but too much stress sounds like you split the word into 2. - Nutella: perfect. - Peroni: the O is a bit more open. I live in Denmark and in Pandora the O sounds more like a U and the R is like in English but the sound is more guttural, Lego is correct, also I'm pretty sure that our neighbour Swedes pronounce H&M and IKEA like in English (I met tons of Swedes and none of them has ever used different pronounciations).
Just a small thing many might not know: Disney is pronounced that way because it's the americanisation of "d'Isigny" which is a town in Normandy, France (famous for it's cream), Walt Disney family immigrated from there ! :)
I kept sitting here and thinking she was going to mess up the American English version of everything, but I find it hilarious how well she does our pronunciations. It's also really attractive for some reason when she switches from saying it the "proper" British English way to American English.
I just want to say that having a severe hearing loss, I find your pronunciation very clear and you make it easy to read your lips. I just wanted to say thank you for trying to help us speak more clearly. One thought is in America there are many distinct dialects and that has an impact on pronunciation as well. The southern accent is most difficult for me, but when spoken fast, it's really hard to keep up. Thanks again you are really easy to listen to. Blessings.
an interesting thing is that volkswagen translates to "folkvagn" in swedish(english direct translation peoples-cart) its interesting that some german words are easy to translate if youre scandinavian(norway, denmark, sweden) even if you dont speak german at all. EDIT: *False* thank you comments, beetle was not designed by hitler In swedish H&M is pronounced Håå *pause for a millisecond* M since you dont have Å as a letter in english its hard to write how it sounds but its sounds like a drawn out O, (how owls sounds, "hoo" but with a shorter lenght) so H&M is pronounced ho-m so the &(and) is not pronounced in swedish. As its written in swedish its H och("och" means "and" its pronounced as "ock" in swedish) M but swedes dont pronounce the "och(and)" we just say the two letters but with a slight pause between H and the M. Ho, M the beetley
German is very close to the Scandinavian languages indeed! I am German and I studied Swedish and Norwegian at university. I didn't really have to study because it came to me naturally. I guess when you are fluent in German and English, Swedish or Norwegian is not a challenge. Also, I imagine it's the same thing when you're a native Swedish/Norwegian speaker and want to learn German
@@blitzofchaosgaming6737 Also, the u sound in "Matsuda" wouldn't sound like an English or American u- it'd be more of a glottal stop, I believe. (Not a native speaker.)
@@noxnyc23 I think it's pronounced as Datusan. Same with the glottal u drop sound Kaotiqua mentioned. I think if the consonant is in the middle, you add a u since Japanese syllables are always consonant +vowel. But I'm not sure, I just knew this because of how to pronounce Saske in Naruto. 😂
34: Nike derives from the Greek godess of victory. Her name is actually pronounced as ''Ní-kè''. So technically the pronounciation of ''Ní-kee'' is also wrong, but it's somewhat more correct than ''Nike'' (no pronunciation of the e). 50: I'm Dutch and I have to say your pronounciation is almost perfect to how we pronounce it. It's just that the ''ei'' in Heineken is a little bit shorter/flatter than the American and British way. So in English it's like ''Haijneken'' (it's like there's some sort of a ''j'' pronounciation at the end of the ''ei'') while it's closer to ''Hyneken'' (no ''j'' pronounciation''). The ei is pronounced differently than the American/English ''y'' or ''i''. 65: If I may ask: how would you pronounce the W otherwise? If you talk about the Wright brothers you also pronounce that as ''Right brothers'', right?
Nike in ancient greek litterally meant victory. It wasnt the name of the godess of victory, but an epitet of Athena. Athena Nike Athena the victorious basically
You're absolutely correct, wr is always pronounced as r at the start of a word in English. I think she made that clarification just because that's not true in all languages, so for example a German speaker might instinctively pronounce it "vr," as in words like wringen. If you _tried_ to pronounce the W in English you'd probably have to awkwardly put a short vowel sound in afterwards and end up with something like Wirigley's
An extremely useful lesson, Max. I couldn't help admiring your great German and Italian accents. Lovely earrings, too. I appreciate your help and your effort to make your lessons so interesting and fun to watch.
Thanks for a nice video! Good French pronunciation! (Though different regions of France will have surprisingly different pronunciuations of these words). Many of the Japanese brands mentioned were specifically created for marketing to the US (Lexus), and some (Mazda) may not even have a standard or natural pronunciation in Japanese. Coming from Europe, I was completely baffled by the brand, Chick-Fil-A, with no idea how it was to be pronounced, and I'm still confused by Publix, which I tend to say like Publicité. Shame you didn't know Philips was Dutch, but I'm told many Americans know it mainly from its historic North American distributor; Norelco!
In Korean, Samsung your pronunciation was nearly perfect. Kia sounds similar to Gear but no stretch of R in the end. Gear in Australian English sounds exactly like in Korean 기아.
My pleasure! Well, I speak French, German and Spanish, as well as a bit of Italian, so that helps. These websites are also helpful for finding pronunciations: youglish.com/ forvo.com/
I too would appreciate if English native speakers would stop anglicizing all foreign names. If they expect the rest of the world to learn their language they could at least learn a few pronounciations. Also, English underwent the Great Vowel Shift, but other languages didn't, which makes an English pronunciation sound very strange.
@@hendrikp8018 But it's not just for native English speakers, I mean, in every country people pronounce words the way they feel comfortable. because some langueges pronouncing totally different than in their own country and it's really hard for them. plus some people even don't know from here some brand and how native people pronounce it
7:24 Well.. in Germany we actually call this brand "VW". But of course the "real" name is "Volkswagen". Fun fact: BMW stands for: B = Bayerische M = Motoren W = Werke
As a German, I can say the video is great the german and danish Brands are pronounced almost perfectly everytime and I only heard a small difference in "Nivea" (to how its pronounced in Germany) because I would emphasize the "I" a little bit more
I'd say the pronunciation of foreign names as close to the authentic as possible is more about being respectful to the original languages and their speakers, rather than about being pretentious in the eyes of others
I agree with that 100%. First of all it's awesome when a foreigner tries to speak your language, no matter how good he does it. It's the thought that counts. A sign of respect. I would rather sound pretentious to ignorant people than ignorant to everyone else.
Always fascinate me how all anglophones gives the same vibe to the sound when trying to pronunce italian words, you're not just using your native accent (i feel and appreciate the effort) but you're still not quite there, probably due to the vowels sounds. (I'm not considering the "r" sound, i think its probably the most difficult one to make, worst than the doubles, the gn and the gh, because i really struggle when i try to lose it when attempting to pronounce "r" in foreign words). It fascinates me also because here you usually get told that italian pronunciation is quite simple, since "you just need to read words just as the they are written", sentence that i always found unfair towards the difficulty in a proper attempt of pronunciation. Digression apart i must say you have a good pronunciation, especially since you came up front from the begining about "not having the best italian", you did quite better than a great part of the people i had to communicate with when i used to be a waiter, people that to be fair were also way less humble. The only pronunciation that striked me as a little off was the "dolce & gabbana" one, i think you were actually closer with your english one, the way you said "dolce" sounded pretty closer and also the stress on the double b in "gabbana". Of course this is my opinion, don't want people to get triggered and strike back with harsh tones. I apologize if i made some mistakes, my written english is a bit rusty. This said, have a nice day.
It was great to watch how to pronounce all of them correctly. Thanks for your video, Anyway will be great if you share a short video how to pronounce correctly all shipping liners name in the world. (such as Maersk, Hapag Loye, etc.) It's all doubt here in Thailand. LOL Thank you :")
Budweiser was founded by a German who moved to the US, so it’s probably pronounced like a German word. The same kinda goes for Haager-Dasz aswell, but not really either, it’s a company founded in the US, by a Polish man who just made up the name. It literally doesn’t mean anything. Philips is pronounced more like feelips.
The fonder's surname is Matsu (meaning pine tree) da (meaning farm). However, the company thought that Westerners can't say Matsuda correctly. Thus, they used Mazda for the name of company. The meaning of Honda in Japanese is hon (base) da (farm) and British pronunciation is more close to Japanese one (the o in hon like the o in home). Toyota means fertile (toyo) farm (ta, Actually, both da and ta are the same Kanji character and same meaning but slightly different pronunciation) .
Mazda founder, Jujiro Matsuda, had a deep interest in spiritualism and had several names of Gods in mind for the company. He settled on Mazda, after the Zoroastrian god Ahura Mazda, because the name sounded similar to his own.
Hi! I discovered your channel yesterday and I immediately subscribed. I am italian and I love your pronunciation of the italian brands, it sounds always very clear and even natural in many cases. I speak french and german too - as you probably do - and I think that your pronunciation of these languages is also exemplary. 🙂
Hi Max! Thanks for the class! I was looking for the correct pronunciation of some brands, and I am happy you made such a lesson :) I have always respected your taste (yes, your sense of style is obvious even through the screen!), and if you do not mind, may I ask for your opinion, please? I would like to buy a pair of jeans for my friend's birthday, and I am choosing between Calvin Klein and Tommy Hilfiger brands. Both pieces of clothes look fine, and their prices are also comparable, so I am in doubt.. Which would you prefer, if you were to go for one? Thanks anyway, Max!
@@vcrazy_diamond yes but it's literally the personification of "victory", nike in Ancient Greek means "victory", is is simultaneously used as a personification for the goddess
Im Korean, and we write Kia 기아 in Korean language, Its pronounced like Gi-aa. Korean word ㄱ has a sound like G in Grape, but its often written as K when its written in English. For another example, Korean last name 김 is pronounced Gim, but for English name lots of people writes it as Kim. I think its somehow related to this - en.wikipedia.org/wiki/McCune%E2%80%93Reischauer New Romanization system kinda fixed it, see en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Revised_Romanization_of_Korean
Then there was the man who hired a hillbilly to paint his porch… When the guy was finished he located the owner and proudly exclaimed he was done. Then with a laugh he told the owner he didn’t know anything about cars because that wasn’t a Porsche, it was a Mercedes.
I saw a comment saying about Kia.. so I'm adding Hyundai to the list. This is pronounced very differently in Korea with the foreigners saying it. Also, K and G are actually standing for the same component ㄱ in Korean, but it depends on where the component goes inside the letter. (For example, 각 is pronounced 'gak')
I always love it when my wife says Volkswagen because her South African pronunciation is so close to German. I've not yet scoured your channel properly, so you may have done this, but I'd love to hear your comparison between South African English and Australian English some day! Most folks here in North America don't know the difference.
3:45 "My Italian is not very good"... and there I was already preparing myself for the worst, then she goes and pronounces it flawlessly, without even the smallest hint of an accent, shame on you! :)
@@houndgaming8232What sense you're looking for? it's a Japanese name and that's the closest transcription of it in its original form. Your question doesn't make any sense!
So as someone with many native Japanese friends in the car community I can confidently say your pronunciation of Honda was alright altho it is typically said hoe-nn-dah .. as for Lexus the letter L isn’t in the Japanese alphabet so to speak so it is typically replaced with the letter R so it is pronounced (by my native Japanese friends) as Rexus instead of Lexus also to clarify Lexus is a sub-brand of the greater Toyota conglomerate along side other companies like Daihatsu which is pronounced Da-eye-hah-ts-oo
@@grolfe3210 My understanding is that wrong, as I used it, is an acceptable flat adverb and does not require the ending ly. Merriam-Webster has "wrong" as an adverb - look at definition #1: www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/wrong. They have a video on this as well: www.merriam-webster.com/video/drive-safe-in-praise-of-flat-adverbs. This link also specifically talks about this word as an acceptable flat adverb: www.latimes.com/socal/glendale-news-press/news/tn-gnp-1022-a-word-please-story.html.
Japanese American here. 1.) Honda is pronounced in Japanese with a flat tone, as opposed to a descending one towards the end. 2.) Lexus sounds more like LeKiSaSu. 3.) Mazda is pronounced as MaTsuDa. 4.) Mitsubishi in Japanese is a tough one to explain. the "Mi" part sounds more like how you would say "me" but isnt dragged as long as how its pronounced in American English. The "bi" part is pronounced more like "bee" but a shorter version of it. 5.) Toyota in Japanese sounds very similar to the British way of saying it. 6.) Uniqlo in Japanese sounds like "You Knee ku ro". 7.) Canon in Japanese sounds like "kya non" 8.) Nikon in Japanese is similar to the British pronunciation, though more emphasis on the "Ni" part. Sounds like "knee kon" 9.) Sony is...well Sony 10.) Toshiba in Japanese stretches the "To" part, with a short "shiba" part. It would be like "Toe-shiba"
Regarding H&M, as a swede I can tell you that we don't pronounce the "&", just "HM". H is pronounced a bit like (ho)rse and m is pretty much the same as in english. Great video btw!
@@RockUnicornCorn But you will rarely hear anyone say the whole thing but anyway, Hennes is pronounced like (hennes)sy and when saying the whole name you pronounce & similar to (oc)tagon. Mauritz is pronounced like (mou)se then g(rits) with sharp R and S instead of the typical Z pronouncation.
*Fun fact* Lexus is in fact just an acronym. Toyota wanted to start selling premium cars in the US in the late 80s, but customers had started associating Toyota with cheap and reliable, not comfortable and luxurious. So Toyota decided to start selling some of their premium vehicles under the new brand L.Ex.U.S. Aka: *Luxury Export to the United States.* only in the Mid 2000s did Toyota start branding some of their premium cars as Lexus in Japan and other markets.
The pronoun invasion of everyday expressions yield poor grammar. Suggestion: “100 Brand Names commonly mispronounced” as the “you” addresses a specific person. As to the use of “wrong,” in my view it should be “wrongly.” Thanks
Nouns used as verbs, including impact. The impact of the storm was so fierce, few houses remained standing. As a noun it indicates a result. Now it is being uses as a verb. Fewer sales impacts my bottom line. As a verb it refers to the ability to affect something or someone. There’s an excellent example I can give you. Google is a proper noun. Yet it’s commonly used as a verb. Just ‘google’ the address before we leave.
Fun fact: Xerox, once introduced in Romania, became so popular that it's now the word we use for "photocopy". We also have a separate verb for it but everyone uses "xerox". It's common to hear a Romanian say "I have to xerox this" or "Do you know where I can find a xerox (shop) around here?"
the same in russian, for example instead of "to make a copy" we just say "сделай ксерокс" ("make a xerox") or even more funny "отксерь" ("xer this"). Even the copy of a document often called "ксерокопия" ("xero-copy")
@@clemente3966 yeah, and the verb is often sounds like "to xerocopy" ("отксерокопируй") or "make a xerox" than just "to make a copy". It is also because Xerox devices was the first such things in Russia. It is okay to ask someone "Wheres is a xerox nearby" meaning of course not the office of Xerox company)))
Neat, in the US we just say "i need to go make (a) copies(copy)." and for the machines we just call it a Copy Machine. "Wheres the Copy Machine at?". Though, in certain parts of the country we do use brand names for general purpose words. Like, for soda drinks we say "Coke". "What would you like to drink? -- Oh, ill have a coke. -- Ok, what kind? -- Pepsi please." Thats mostly in the southern portion though.
A few years ago I was listening to a radio interview with Irish fashion designer Orla Kiely. I had only ever heard her surname being said as 'Keely'. It should be pronounced Kylie, just like Kylie Minogue.
I expected you to cover Hyundai with the cars. It always irritated me that since this brand was introduced in USA, the marketing people pronounced it to sound like "Sunday" with H at the start. My familiarity with Asian syllables from martial arts classes tells me that in Korea this is probably more like "hyoon-die". I realize these syllables are unfamiliar to many USA English speakers, but it still felt to me like rather insulting condescension. In Japan, Mitsubishi (and Matsushita) are pronounced with the stress on the second syllable, and the "i" sound suppressed to near silence. I heard Matsushita pronounced this way be a bilingual Sister-city committee member referring to her liaison in Japan. (Some Japanese teachers claim that Japanese has equal stress on all syllables, but my admittedly limited experience with Japanese tells me different.) Japanese would pronounce the O in Honda to sound like the O in "go". I have to say that in USA I have never heard the L in Volkswagen pronounced. My Italian coaching in collegiate music courses tells me that Italian has a slight pause at doubled consonants, so I think that would be present in Gabbana, and I think Italian for "and" is "e", I think that would also be used to pronounce "Dolce & Gabbana". A while back in the supermarket I had occasion to tell my fellow native Californian that we don't say the p in Campbell's. I was surprised that this person thought it was "Camp Bell's" after all the USA TV advertising. I've heard that "Haagen-Dazs" is a totally made-up word, but I could be wrong.
You're wrong lol, Hyundai is pronounced "hyeong-dae". A quick google search would have been enough, instead of writing a full paragraph of pretentiousness and ignorance
@@Heevoice A very small portion of that paragraph was about hyundai and his aproximate pronounciation still looks closer to the one you provided than the american/advertising one (he clarified that it was aproximate). Why did you have to be an asshole about it?
Hearing you switch from a British accent to a perfect American accent always makes me laugh 😂 Our version sounds so much lazier if that's a good way to describe it.
One of the ways the American English stands out is as you've explained they put the stress on the r's more coming after vowels, even Taylor Swift the name in British English which we also say in Australia is the same as Tayla just pronounced tay-luh but in her native being American you notice they put the stress on the r at the end of her name as its spoken
For no. 29, in Norway we say Hennes for H&M. Since the brand has been here since before they rebranded to just H&M. Still hear older people use the full name, Hennes & Mauritz, sometimes.
There was actually a radio competition in america where the prize was a Toyota but because of how they pronounce it the organisers fooled the participants by actually presenting the prize as the end as a Toy Yoda, as they pronounced them the same.
