Welcome back to the Gentleman's Gazette. In today's video, we discussed car brands
that are commonly mispronounced and we'll show you how to pronounce them properly.
Many car brands and sometimes even models have become household names across the globe. Just
think of a Chevy Corvette, a Porsche 911 or a Jaguar E-Type. While many of those brands are
known by almost anyone, natives often pronounce them very differently than foreigners. Obviously,
how a German will pronounce things yes, yes is very different from an American, for example, due
to language barriers. While it's not necessarily wrong to pronounce something in the localized way,
it can never hurt to really understand how it's pronounced
the original way. So why exactly is it important to understand how to pronounce names properly?
Well, outside of your personal appearance, the way you speak will set the biggest first impression.
Understanding how to pronounce a car brand will be impressive to native speakers and car enthusiasts
alike. They will immediately have more respect for you and perceive you as more knowledgeable. This
would also be invaluable when you're networking or when you're just befriending someone because
it shows an immediate interest in someone else's culture and they often welcome that. By the way,
if you want to learn about other brands outside the car world and how they're pronounced properly,
please check out this video here. (link in description box)With that being said,
there will be times where pronouncing brands in a localized way is much more advantageous because
it may come across as arrogant. As so often in life, the key is to know who your audience is.
So, without further ado, let's jump right in and start with Korea. Personally, I love Korean food,
especially kimchi. I love their technology as well as the sense of style a lot of people display,
but they also produce a bunch of cars. Kia is one of the big ones but it's not
difficult to pronounce it. One that a lot of people have issues with is Hyundai.
Some people also say Hyundai or Hyundai. The way koreans pronounce it is Hyundai.
Hyundai. So the first part Hyun it's not just like an h, it's almost like a ch
and the back part is not like day in english but de. Hyundai.
Now let's move on to Japan. They have lots of great food, whiskeys, manners,
and also a bunch of car brands. The one most commonly mispronounced one is
Subaru. You can tell Americans or English speakers will put the emphasis
on the first syllable and say Subaru. Now,a Japanese would say Subaru. The r is rolled on
the r and the emphasis is more in the middle. It's not Subaru or Subaru, it's Soo-ba-rroo.
Now from Japan, let's move on to Germany and as many of our regular viewers will know,
I'm originally from Germany. Yes, yes I can speak English with a German accent too,
that's right. Let's start with the most common car brands and the mispronunciation which drives most
car enthusiasts crazy. Porsche. Many, especially in the English world, simply called Porsche. They
use it as a silent e. Some people call it Porsche because the e sounds more like an a to them
but ultimately, that's not how Germans would say. Interestingly, if you watch the brand's
youtube videos, you can see that sometimes there they also pronounce it Porsche which
is a very American way of saying it. “Hybrid is not a compromise at Porsche. The focus is quite
clearly on performance.” Now, you could argue that if a brand pronounces the brand in a certain way,
why should you care? Well, here at The Gentleman's Gazette, we like to dig a little deeper and give
you the full version. So unlike in English, we have accents such as Welsh or Scotch, in Germans,
there are dialects. We call it dia-lect and oftentimes, it's not just a pronunciation
but people use entirely different words. In Porsche's home state of Baden-Württemberg,
most people speak Schwäbisch, which would mean Swabian and sometimes you even have sub-dialects
such as hollow-ish what has a hose and hose a hosa haza now you didn't understand that,
that's just for insiders. For example, my best friend who comes from Western Germany can't
understand my mom when she speaks Schwäbisch with him. Why on Earth am I telling you all of this?
Well, the purest form of German is the so-called Hochdeutsch and Porsche themselves made a video
about how to pronounce their brand name now just listen to it:
Now did you hear it? The traditional German r comes from the back of the throat,
however, if you shorten it, you just say Porsche.
It's a slight r in the back of your throat and the e sounds like an actual e. It's not Porsche,
it's Porsche. Porsche. Now you actually go to the hometown of Porsche in Stuttgart and you
ask people how to pronounce it, they will likely say Porsche. So for some people that may sound
like there's no r there at all, but it's still there, it's just very silent - the Porsche.
Next round is Volkswagen. Folks? no, vox.. Volkswagen, was that right? Folks? Volkswagen.
Volkswagen or VW, as you call it in the US. You can see I'm having a hard time with this.
Now in German, we call it Volkswagen. The v sounds like an f and the w sounds like a v. Folkswagen.
However, when you shorten it, it becomes fow-vey. It's not f anymore, it's a different sound.
Fow-vey. Weird, I know, but that's the way Germans are. In German, it means as much as people's car.
It was actually a brand founded in 1937 with support of Adolf Hitler. He wanted a basic car
for two adults and three children that would make it to a hundred kilometers per hour or 62
miles per hour. Also it was supposed to cost only 990 German Reichsmark which was about the price
of a motorcycle. He also wanted financing plans and in 1933, Ferdinand Porsche, yes,
the namesake of the Porsche car brand designed a car that was supposed to have a bigger mass
appeal but there was no private company that was willing or able to do it so with the support
of the Nazi Germany government, they were able to realize the VW Kaefer, or the VW beetle car.
Next up, we go to Bavaria and we look at BMW. Well, it seems straightforward. It actually
isn't. It is short for Bayerische Motoren Werke which means Bavarian Motor Works. The Germans
pronounce it Bey-Em-Vey. You can see it's like a v sound but slightly different than in English
BMW. It's not Bi-en-vey or bmway, it's BMV.
And now, we go back to Stuttgart again, to Mercedes Benz. That is the way Americans say it.
Germans would call it Mercedes-Benz. Again, you hear there's a slight r from the throat
that sometimes is quite silent but it's there. Benz at the end sounds like a ts.
Bents. Mercedes Benz. So how exactly does a German car brand end up with a Spanish female first name?
Well first, there was a Daimler Motoren Gesellschaft which was a merger between Gottlieb
Daimler and Wilhelm Maybach. In the early years of the 20th century, this company was very successful
with race cars. Very successful Austrian salesman for the company Emil Jellinek also had a keen
interest in marketing and named the winning cars after his daughter Mercedes Jellinek. Because of
that, the Daimler Motoren Gesellschaft trademarked the name Mercedes for cars in 1901. 25 years
later, the Daimler Motoren Gesellschaft merged with Benz’ own company and it became Mercedes Benz
with the three-star logo. Now as you might have noticed related to Mercedes-Benz is Maybach and a
lot of Americans would call it Mai-bak because it sounds like a k to ch but in German, it's called
everything. That's ch is and it means as much as may creek, say it again - Maybach. Yeah,
I know, you may have to practice a little bit but that's German for you. Another related company
is AMG which is the performance subsidiary of Mercedes. The proper German way to say it
would be Ah-Ehm-Gey. Ah-Ehm-Gey. I know, some Americans have told me it sounds like I am gay,
I don't agree with them because I'm German, but it's called Ah-Ehm-Gey.
Alright, now let's go back to Bavaria to cover another German brand - Audi. I know a lot of
Englishmen call it o-di but the German way to say it is
ow-dee. Ow-dee. au is always ow. Maybe a bit like when you hurt yourself and you say ow.
My little three-year-old loves to say Audi A6 which is the car we drive.
Next up, let's take a quick stop in England. Oh wait, I forgot something. Now in the US,
we call it Jaguar E-Type, for example, but in England, it's called
jag-you-are. So the u is much more pronounced and the r is very soft. So it's not Jaguar
but jag-you-are. Just fyi, Germans would pronounce it hyag-wah which is totally off the mark.
Alright, time to go to America. One of the hottest American car brands at the moment is undoubtedly
Tesla. So what's the catch? You might wonder. Well, Tesla was actually a Serbian- American
immigrant and scientist and they use a harder s like Tesla. Americans oftentimes use these softer
s. Tesla versus Tezla. Now how it's exactly pronounced is quite controversial but here is
how Elon Musk pronounces it. Listen to it very closely. (“Do you say tez la instead of tesla”
I say tesla.” “You say both.” Okay, Tesla I actually,
I think I'd probably say with a slight z sound, I never haven't thought about it. I say Tesla.”
To my ear, it sounds like Tesla with a softer s. Tesla.
The next brand is Chevrolet. Now, Americans don't get that one wrong but a lot of Germans
or people from outside the US often call it maybe Chev-ro-let or they want to say
the ending but it's kind of French-inspired and it's called Shev-ro-ley. Short = Chevy.
Alright, now let's go to Italy, home of the world-famous architects, good food,
craftsmanship, and of course, wonderful cars. The first brand is Alfa Romeo as Americans might say
but the proper way to say it's Ahl-faRo-meh-yo. You can see the r is rolled in the front of
the tongue. Roh-meh-yo. Alfa Romeo and it's not Alfa Romeo, it's Alfa Romeo.
Next up are the red cars from Enzo Ferrari. You can tell that
double rolled Italian r - Ferrari. A lot of Americans may say Ferrari or Germans may say
Ferrari but the proper way to say it is feh-rrah-ree. Double r. Ferrari.
Another well known Italian car brand is Lamborghini. It is not Lamborghini or
Lamborghini, it is Lahm-bor-gee-nee. Funny story, the brand started as a manufacturer of tractors
and you can still buy Lamborghini tractors to this day. Once the founder Ferruccio Lamborghini had
made it in life, he decided to buy two Ferraris - one for his wife and one for himself. According to
the Lamborghini test driver Valentino Balboni, Ferruccio was a guy who liked to make a show
but who was in fact a bad driver of cars and because of that, his clutch had to be replaced
frequently. After the third or fourth visit to the Ferrari workshop, he decided to have his
own mechanics take a look at the clutch issue. It was at that time that he discovered that the
commercial clutch Ferrari used which was also used in many other Italian sports cars at the time was
exactly the same clutch that he used in his small tractor line. Now at this point, Ferruccio got mad
and he yelled: “I paid 10 Lire for my tractor clutch and you charged me a thousand for this
Ferrari clutch but it's in fact, the same clutch!” So one day thereafter, Ferruccio Lamborghini met
Enzo Ferrari and said, “You built your beautiful cars with my tractor parts..” Enzo Ferrari
replied, “You're a tractor driver, you're a farmer. You shouldn't complain about driving
my cars because they're the best cars in the world.” Naturally, Ferruccio replied, “Oh yes I’m
a farmer, I'll show you how to make a sports car and I will do a sports car by myself to show you
how a sports car has to be..” and so, ever since 1962, Lamborghini has a car manufacturing division
and as you might have guessed it, the two companies are still rivals to this day.
Next up is Maserati or at least that's how many Americans would say it. A friend of mine told me
that the dealership charged him over a thousand dollars to get an oil change done for one of
those cars. Ouch! Now, the proper way to say it is Mah-Zeh-Rah-Tee. Again, you have the rolled r that
it comes from the tongue - Mah-Zeh-Rah-Tee. It's not like a soft s like Maserati.
Another car brand with a long history is Lancia. Now when you see it first,
you may think it's Lan-cia or Lanch-ia but the Italians call it Lan-cha. Very soft. Lan-cha.
Now, let's say arrivederci bonjour madame et monsieur because we're in French territory. Now,
the first brand is Peugeot and they've been making cars since 1896. When you look at the name first,
you may think of it as pu-got or German would be pois-got but it's called peoh-zhoh in French.
The e and t are silent unlike in German, for example, and the g becomes that soft Peugeot.
Another brand that seems simple Bugatti is actually called boo-gah-tee because it
was founded by the Italian Ettore Bugatti. even though it's considered a French company today,
it was originally founded in the Alsace Region of France which became German-French-German
and back and forth, and now it's French once again. In the late 80s,
the brand was brought to Italy but then VW or Fow-Vey bought the brand rights in the 90s
and brought the brand back to Molsheim in the Alsace Region in France.
The next brand looks scary at first because it has two dots on the e
but it's actually rather straightforward. It's called Citroën and the two dots on the
e just mean that it has to be pronounced separately from the o and the n. Citroën.
Next up, motorsport fans are probably well acquainted with that name it's called Renault.
It's not re-nolt, it's just like Chevrolet. Ren-Oh. It's a silent lt.
Last, but not least, we're off to the Swedes. Oh, wait, Skål! Let me get a
little bit of vodka. D*mn! My Absolut vodka bottle is empty! Preston, did you drink it
again?! I told you not to drink during the workday. Employees these days, I tell you.
The first one is the Swedish hypercar brand Koenigsegg named after its founder Christian
Von Koenigsegg. It's called kou-nig-tseg. Now you could think it might be called
Konig's egg but it's a little softer. It's an o e in German or Swedish means uh
Konig's egg and if you listen to him himself saying the name it sounds quite softer on the g's.
(I’m Christian from Koenigsegg, I'm the founder and CEO of Koenigsegg Automotive.)
To me, it sounds like Koenigsegg again and not very pronounced g at the end.
Finally, we have a brand that most people don't think they pronounce
incorrectly and that's Volvo. What's wrong with that, you might wonder?
Well it's the end of the o. The swedish pronunciation is Vohl-voh. It's a shorter
o and it's not that vol-vow. It's just Vohl-voh. Again, not vol-vow but vohl-voh.
Alright, enough car brands for today. In today's video, I was wearing a fall-like outfit inspired
by my chartreuse-colored vest. It's combined with a green checked shirt with barrel cuffs
and a blue knit tie. I'm pairing it with a Prince of Wales check, a pair of cotton pants
in brown, and light brown, and a Donegal tweed jacket with a contrasting darker brown.
The pocket square has tones of blue, green,
and tortoise and therefore, ties the entire outfit together. My feet are covered with a nice pair of
Chelsea boots in a tan color with a nice patina and my socks are from Fort Belvedere.
They're brown with clocks that work well with the pants but set a nice contrast with the
boots which are lighter in color. The jacket is vintage from Orvis, the vest is from Cordings,
the shirt was made for me, the silk knit tie is from Fort Belvedere just like the pocket square
and the socks, the pants are from Polo Ralph Lauren and the Chelsea boots are from Ace Marks.