questions about car pronunciation?

[Ru-fus]

This is the funniest thread!
I'm actually chuckling while reading it.

Can you imagine what you'd all look like on web cam.

Clever OP Clever.

haha yeah man, i was thinking the same...picture everyone who has posted in this thread trying to pronounce the car names with all the different accents people have


Youtube moment!

 

[G.T.Ace]

i say: lan-see-ah

Lun - chy (like "lunch") - ah would be right as far as I know, I never heard an Italian saying it unfortunately though.

EDIT: Ok, scratch that: "ˈlantʃa" would be correct according to the German Wikipedia.
But definitely no "lawn" or "see" in there.

 

[eSZee]

I pronounce it like Top Gear does.

Koenigsegg - Kown-en-zeg (technically Ko-en-ig-zeg, but you say it so fast, they run together)
Porche - Pour-sha
Gallardo - Guy-are-dough
Murcielago - "Mercy-el-ah-go" (another one where saying it fast it might sound different because it runs too fast.)
Bugatti - Depends. Sometimes "Bew-gaw-tee", sometimes "Bew-gat-tee".
Veyron - Sometimes I say "Vay" or "Veh", sometimes I say "ron" or "rin".
Audi - "Ow-dee"

Also, every now and then, I'll slip up and call Volkswagen by it's proper "Volks-vawg-en" pronunciation since it's such a fun accent to fake.

I also didn't know Countach was "Coon-tash" until yesterday.

And apparently, Top Gear says "Peugeot" like "Persio". Persia with an "O", but I'm still curious how it's pronounced.

I don't think I've ever heard them pronounce the names as you have them written.

 

[GranTurismo916]

Sorry if there's already a thread like this, I searched.

Anyway, I hate when people spell/pronounce these incorrectly:

Incorrect - Camero
Correct - Camaro

Incorrect - Maserati GranTourismo
Correct - Maserati GranTurismo

Incorrect - Gallardo pronounced "Guh-lahr-doh"
Correct - "Guy-ahr-doh"

Incorrect - Porsche pronounced "Porsh"
Correct - "Por-sha"

 

[Doog]

The amount of people who spell Infiniti as Infinity is astonishing. You'd think they'd pay more attention to those letters on the trunk...

 

[Tornado]

I mispronounce Renault because I don't care what the proper way is to pronounce it.

 

[GTMail]

Koenigsegg and the name Agera is often misspelled/pronounced incorrectly. Also Huayra is another trivial word. These are pretty understandable though.

 

[GranTurismo916]

Koenigsegg and the name Agera is often misspelled/pronounced incorrectly. Also Huayra is another trivial word. These are pretty understandable though.

I used to write Huyara.

 

[ND4SPD]

The amount of people that still spell "Camaro" with an "e" is mindbogling. I mean it's only been around for 46 years, you'd think it'd catch on by now.....

 

[Sertsa]

The amount of people who spell Infiniti as Infinity is astonishing. You'd think they'd pay more attention to those letters on the trunk...

I test drove a G37 and decided that I'd be annoyed by looking at an intentionally misspelled word everyday. That's not the only reason I didn't buy it, but I kept wanting to fix the spelling.

---
As for Porsche, it's "Carrera" rather than "Carerra." Porsche itself will occasionally get that wrong.

 

[Bopop4]

Lamborghini Murcielago

 

[Monatsende]

Lamborghini Murcielago

 

[Schwartz]

Lamborghini Murcielago

Great one, thanks.

On a different note, "Mercades-Benz" actually has no "A" in it.

And while I'm at it, their car, the SLS AMG, is actually pronounced "veh-ree seer-ee-us es-el-es ay-em-jee."

 

[SVT Cobra GT]

Another one is "Mit-si-bushy"

 

[daan]

Sorry if there's already a thread like this, I searched.

Merged.

 

[Liquid]

Incorrect - Porsche pronounced "Porsh"
Correct - "Por-sha"

Not strictly true. The final syllable is not 'sha', that's quite French sounding. It's more of a 'shuh' because the last syllable is a schwa, which if you know your IPA, is the upside down e. You make a 'shuh' sound but don't stress it.

Reading through the old thread, I'm surprised how many people apparently pronounce Countach as 'coon-tash'. I've always said cun-tash. Then again there is an inherent flaw in writing how you say these things because we all pronounce these syllables differently. If we all knew and used the IPA, we'd be alright.

One of the above quotes tried to say that Volkswagen, in its native tongue, is Volks-vawgen. Wrong. It's Folks-va:gen, where the colon represents a long vowel on the a, and the o is short as in 'on' or 'orange'.

ALSO WHAT THE HELL IS HUN-DEE?
Hi-un-die.

One last thing, how do we all say Falcon? Fal-k'n or Fol-k'n? I honestly switch between the two.

 

[Tyger]

Reading through the old thread, I'm surprised how many people apparently pronounce Countach as 'coon-tash'. I've always said cun-tash. Then again there is an inherent flaw in writing how you say these things because we all pronounce these syllables differently. If we all knew and used the IPA, we'd be alright.

ALSO WHAT THE HELL IS HUN-DEE?
Hi-un-die.

For Countach, check Wikipedia with your sound on. It is apparently more like "Cune-tash", still closer to "Coon" than "Cun" though.

For Hyundai I believe the correct pronunciation is "Hyun-Day" with the "Hyun" pronounced as one syllable rather than "High-un" but it's become westernised too as "High-un-di"

For Murcielago I say "Mur-Chi-El-Ago" but this is incorrect, the C is a light "th" sound typical of some Spanish dialects.

An earlier post claimed the correct pron. of Nissan is "Nee-San" but whilst this seems the popular way to say it in the US, I think you'll find Japanese say "Niss-An", as we do in the UK.

"Jag-war" is also the common pronunciation in the US but this is in line with the big cat itself. In the UK we say "Jag-You-Ur" but who's to say which is "right", not gonna look it up now but may well be derived from native American?

Porsche does indeed have two syllables, like "Deutsche" but don't put too much stress on the small "uh" sound at the end. "Porsh" I see as an abbreviation like "Lambo", acceptable but it needles me when car journalists say it (most seem to pronounce it correctly)

 

[Liquid]

For Murcielago I say "Mur-Chi-El-Ago" but this is incorrect, the C is a light "th" sound typical of some Spanish dialects.

That doesn't make it wrong. It's just a regional thing like the North/South bath/bah-th in the UK.

(The Northern, bath, is totally right by the way. Bloody southern poofters!)

 

[Downhill Dino]

ALSO WHAT THE HELL IS HUN-DEE?
Hi-un-die.

Interesting, I say it as Hi-un-day or as you said it, hi-un-die. I'm always told to correct myself to Hun-day/hun-die.

 

[YouButNotYou]

I think people in the U.K. tend to pronounce it Hi-un-die(or I do anyway) but apparently at Hyundai's American HQ in California, they answer the phones as Hun-day. If you want to pronounce it like Koreans, you should pronounce it Hi-yun-deh, the reason they changed it is because the strong 'Hy' sound that Koreans make when talking doesn't exist in the English language. I'll just continue to pronounce it Hi-un-die.

 

[Sertsa]

The first Subaru commercials in the US pronounced "Subaru" differently than most of us do now:

 

[GranTurismo916]

How do you pronounce:

Jaguar (I just say Jag-wahr, but I'm sure this is incorrect)
Koenigsegg (I say koh-eh-nig-sehg, but that's surely wrong too)
Nissan (I say nee-san, but I hear others saying niss-in. Nee-san I've heard in adverts)
Hyundai (I see the discussion in here but can't get it right. I pronounce it "hon-day" because that's what I see in adverts.)
Lancia (I say lan-see-uh)
Scuderia (I say scoo-dehr-ee-uh)
Aventador (uh-vehn-ta-dohr?)
Wiesmann (I say wise-mehn)

 

[Danny]

Not the be-all-and-end-all but I would go with..

Jaguar (I just say Jag-wahr, but I'm sure this is incorrect)

Jag-yoo-ar or Jag-yoo-er.

Koenigsegg (I say koh-eh-nig-sehg, but that's surely wrong too)

Ker-nig-segg

Nissan (I say nee-san, but I hear others saying niss-in. Nee-san I've heard in adverts)

Nih-san

Hyundai (I see the discussion in here but can't get it right. I pronounce it "hon-day" because that's what I see in adverts.)

I go with 'High-un-die' but I've heard that's wrong.

Lancia (I say lan-see-uh)

Agreed. 👍

Scuderia (I say scoo-dehr-ee-uh)

Agreed. 👍

Aventador (uh-vehn-ta-dohr?)

Agreed. 👍

Wiesmann (I say wise-mehn)

Vees-menn.

 

[MatskiMonk]

I think people in the U.K. tend to pronounce it Hi-un-die(or I do anyway) but apparently at Hyundai's American HQ in California, they answer the phones as Hun-day. If you want to pronounce it like Koreans, you should pronounce it Hi-yun-deh, the reason they changed it is because the strong 'Hy' sound that Koreans make when talking doesn't exist in the English language. I'll just continue to pronounce it Hi-un-die.

I'm fairly sure Hyundai ran an ad campaign in the States that indicated it was "Like Sunday" in pronunciation. Where as the UK ads just refer to it as Hi-un-dy".

It's not quite a pronunciation thing, but it bugs the hell out of me when people call Bimmers like "seven hundred and fifty..." for a 750 etc. (which I would say Seven-fifty).. although oddly if it doesn't end in a zero, like a 735, I would say Seven Three Five...

Ford Ka was always another good one... I've no idea how Ford intended it to be said... but most people I know just whimp out of sounding Klingon.. or very posh, and just call it a K.A.

Peugeot in the UK is normally Purr-jho (with a very soft sound J).. always cracks me up in Gone in 60 seconds when Kip calls Columbo's car a Poo-jho.

Mazda is Maz-der to me... Nissan is Ni-san... though after a few hours of watching US motor-racing you get used to Marz-da and Nee-saan. Also I normally pronounce Acura as Hon-der.

 

[kikie]

EDIT, removed

 

[Schwartz]

niss-in.

 

[YouButNotYou]

Yeah, Hyundai in America pronounce it as Hun-day(like Sunday) whereas adverts in the U.K. pronounce it Hi-un-die so I guess it really depends on where you are in the world.

I would also say seven fifty rather than the annoying seven hundred and fifty. I would say KA(I don't really know how to write that the way I pronounce it) and all the rest we say the same.

Also I normally pronounce Acura as Hon-der.

👍

 

[Liquid]

Ford Ka = Ford Car

The British pronunciation of car has less stress on the R than an American one.

 

[Danny]

Ford Ka = Ford Car

The British pronunciation of car has less stress on the R than an American one.

I've also heard that as 'Ford Kay-ay'. Which is daft.

 

[homeforsummer]

Mazda is Maz-der to me... Nissan is Ni-san... though after a few hours of watching US motor-racing you get used to Marz-da and Nee-saan. Also I normally pronounce Acura as Hon-der.

The Japanese names are interesting ones because the Japanese vowel sounds are always pronounced the same way.

A is always an "ah" sounds, I always "ee", U always "oo", E always "eh" and O always "oh"

So Mazda would be "Mahz-dah", Nissan "Nee-sahn", Honda "hone-dah" etc.

Which look like the American pronunciations, but Americans tend to draw out their vowels, whereas the Japanese words are quite curt. So Nissan is exactly as it's written phonetically - not "Neeee-sahn" as it is in the American tongue.

At least, I'm pretty sure that's how it works. Famine is better versed in Japanese than I am, so he'll probably come in and correct me...

Of course, the way you pronounce something day-to-day is however you pronounce it. It took me years to make myself say Porsche correctly.

As for French names, Americans tend to murder them somewhat. Michelin is most amusing, but even the British ads get that one wrong. Correctly said, it should be "meesh-lan", but I've heard "mich-lin", "mich-el-in" and all sorts.