Pismronounced Car Names
- Thread starter Liquid
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- Puget Sound
- Crash852
"Jag-guar" is how you say the word "jaguar" in American English, so no, not saying "Jag-u-ar" isn't wrong.
There's no umlaut (or more properly trema in French) in Peugeot, and that sound isn't made either.
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- Puget Sound
- Crash852
How do you pronounce "Lancia"? Also, how do you pronounce "BMW"? How do you pronounce "Volkswagen"? How do you pronounce "Hyundai"?
And I assume that means you pronounce Japanese car manufacturer names exactly the same way as done in this video?
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- JASON_ROCKS1998
- JR98 GAMING
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- Puget Sound
- Crash852
Should be "Lan-cha"
Should be "B-M-V"
Should be "Hyun-dae"
So it sounds like you have much corrections to do to how you pronounce car names so you don't "say them wrong".
- 29,826
- Bratvegas
- GTP_Liquid
@Crash As much as I personally, as a language geek, am a stickler for accuracy and good pronunciation, I'm with you on this somewhat. When pronouncing a foreign car company one ought to be considerate. If a foreign person is trying to pronounce any English word one ought to be considerate, for example. I try to get the foreign ones right but I know I don't get Renault or the Korean manufacturers correct
Even with the AmE and BrE versions of Jaguar, the American one isn't 'wrong'. Where do you draw the line? The bath/grass argument even within BrE, for example. Neither is incorrect.
Now, personal preference is another matter. I might find Jagwaar grating from some American accents but again, that doesn't make it wrong. Not wrong, just different.
Even with the AmE and BrE versions of Jaguar, the American one isn't 'wrong'. Where do you draw the line? The bath/grass argument even within BrE, for example. Neither is incorrect.
Now, personal preference is another matter. I might find Jagwaar grating from some American accents but again, that doesn't make it wrong. Not wrong, just different.
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- Melbourne
- ScottPuss20
- CheetahsMeow
Mitsubishi is MIT-SOO-BISHI
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- JASON_ROCKS1998
- JR98 GAMING
Well, everyone's correct in their own way. Different accents and dialects say words, especially car makes, differently.
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- Bonn
- GTAce
Peugeot is pronounced Püh-joh (the j like in John), at least that's what I would tell a German.
I know it's not a French trema, but how else do you want to describe the "eu"? It's definitely not oo.
Same with Citroen, which is pronounced See-tröhn, or Koenigsegg, which is Kö-Nicks-Egg.
Lancia is Lunch-ya BMW is pronounced Beh-Em-Veh, but it doesn't matter if you say BMW in English. Porsche is pronounced Porsh-eh.
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- Puget Sound
- Crash852
I agree that it does sound very close the German "ü" in this case, so I see why you would use that to explain the sound. For me, I do speak French, so it's just... "eu" to me...
Honestly, I'm not sure how what combinations of letters I would use to help and English speaker understand the "eu" sound in French.
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- Bournemouth
- glenn_cullen
I've heard a story a couple of times that the Mitsubishi Starion was supposed to be called the Stallion but it was lost in translation (or pronunciation rather) during a phone call between Mitsubishi in Japan and their USA dealer arm. It was marketed as Starion which forced a name change from Stallion. Can anyone confirm whether this is true or just a racially borderline joke from the 80s?! 
When I was a kid I thought Renault was pronounced as it's written, like vault
When I was a kid I thought Renault was pronounced as it's written, like vault
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- Bratvegas
- GTP_Liquid
Star of Orion.
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- spawn_of_loki
I beg to differ: I speak both French and German and the closest German sound correspondent for the French "eu" is "ö". It's not exactly the same sound, but it's very, very close.
The "g" in "Peugeot" sounds like the "s" in pleasure. So, something like "pösoh" (with the "s" as mentioned) would be a pretty good approximation of the correct French pronunciation.
The "e" in Renault also sounds a bit like "ö". So: rö-noh.
The "ë" in Citroën has nothing to do with the umlaut, as it doesn't change the sound of the letter "e". To the contrary, it actually stresses it as a separate sound, as otherwise the succession of "oe" would actually create an "ö"-like sound. Other than that, I don't find "Citroën" particularly hard to pronounce for an English speaker: sit-row-en.
Volkswagen = Folksvag'n, or "FowVeh" for "VW"
"Koenigsegg" is a German name (originally spelled "Königsegg") that's pretty easy to pronounce.
"Spyker" is an anglicized form of "Spijker", where the "ij" is pronounced as the "ai" in maid.
I won't comment on Japanse brands pronunciation, as there's also the alphabet matter there and their names weren't always latinized properly.
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- glenn_cullen
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Thanks 👍 Just did a little research and found claims it's named after Arion, an immortal horse from Greek mythology. Whatever it is I'm pretty sure the mistranslation story is just an old wives tale
Not that Stallion isn't a horse name, but they chose "Star of Orion" to tie in with Arion the legendary Greek horse empowered with the ability to speak and keep it in line with their equine themed cars such as the Colt and Eclipse.
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The upcoming Bentley Bengay. Ugh...WTF Bentley?
