questions about car pronunciation?

  • Thread starter Quick_Nick
  • 249 comments
  • 23,030 views
You Porsche guys realize dropping the e and saying Porsch is the same thing as saying Chevy instead of Chevrolet right? It's not so much a mispronunciation as it is a shorter, easier to say name.:rolleyes:
 
I was under the impression thats how everyone said it. That is how everyone says it around these parts.
 
To set the record straight.....

Gallardo in ITALIAN is NOT pronounced Ga-yard-o. In Italian, it's pronounced Ga-lard-o (lard as in the grease). Lamborghini is using Spanish names in their new models... Gallardo in SPANISH means Gallant. In Spanish it is pronounced Ga-yard-o.

The Muricélago.... a lot of people pronounce it as Mercy, also used for a Mercedes-Benz. Murcielago is also another Spanish word which means Bat (the animal). In Italian it is pronounced Moore-chai-la-go (“chai” as in the 'chai' in chair). In Spanish it is pronounced Moore-see-yeah-la-go.

Citroën is formally pronounced See-tro-en

Reventón is pronounced Re-bent-on (the "b" is not enunciated. It is pronounced as a "b" because in Spanish, the "v" is pronounced as "b" and vice versa.
 
Last edited:
You Porsche guys realize dropping the e and saying Porsch is the same thing as saying Chevy instead of Chevrolet right? It's not so much a mispronunciation as it is a shorter, easier to say name.:rolleyes:
Not really. It's more like saying "Chevrol," or believing "Chevy" is how you actually pronounce the full Chevrolet.
 
playnthru
You Porsche guys realize dropping the e and saying Porsch is the same thing as saying Chevy instead of Chevrolet right? It's not so much a mispronunciation as it is a shorter, easier to say name.:rolleyes:

Like it or not, if half the nation pronounces it that way, it's essentially accepted as okay. When many words ending in "e" make it to the English language, that final letter is typically silent (if they have a preceding vowel). Therefore, this isn't so much an egregious disgrace to a proper name, but an attempt to follow English's vague pronunciation standards, by visualizing it's pronunciation, and then saying it.

Seriously, does anyone really think that's going to kill a sale at the Porsche/exotic/import dealer? I worked at an Audi dealer, and people pronounced it "Ow-dee" and "Aw-dee", because it came from the root word "audible" (according to legend). That word is also accented differently, depending on the speaker. I asked my boss at Audi that question: Do you know what the right pronunciation is? "Whatever the customer or owner says."
 
I honestly don't even know how it is pronounced. :dunce: I hear Audi pronounced different all the time. Even advertisements on the radio are different than ones on television or in video games.
 
Nissan = Nee-sahn

Hyundai = Hun-day, I've also heard it pronounced Hun-die, so it's a tossup.

These two get me every time I visit North America. That is the way they are said on TV commercials for the brand, so that is what goes. But in Australia they are Ni-sen (short i sound) and hee-un-day.
 
Peugeot = Pee-you-gee-ot

Having watched your vid, your pronunciation is pretty similar to mine on most. The French ones were probably furthest from how a native French speaker would say them though.

This post has my full explanation of them, but if you just wanted to get them vaguely correct rather than going for the full French accent, it'd be Ren-oh, Pur-joh and Sit-ro-en (though many in the UK pronounce the latter "Sih-trun".

Basic French lesson: The "t" at the end of many French words (in fact many end-of-word consonants in general) is silent. Think "et" as in "and" - pronounced "ey". Or "vingt" as in "twenty", pronounced "vang".
 
Seriously, does anyone really think that's going to kill a sale at the Porsche/exotic/import dealer? I worked at an Audi dealer, and people pronounced it "Ow-dee" and "Aw-dee", because it came from the root word "audible" (according to legend). That word is also accented differently, depending on the speaker. I asked my boss at Audi that question: Do you know what the right pronunciation is? "Whatever the customer or owner says."

Slightly off topic, but after having worked at a Bose dealer for quite a few years I was always surprised by the number of people that pronounced it as either 'Boss', 'Bosch' or 'Bos-ay'.. couldn't have bought myself to say it the way the customer says it then :D
 
"Broh-um" would be how I pronounce it as opposed to Broh-am". I've always felt it to be somewhat odd to imagine it as a single syllable though, like "Brohm".
 
To anyone confused about Japanese pronunciations, watch a bit of Super GT -
NSX - ene-ess-ex-uh
BRZ - bee-ahr-szet-oh
Nissan - ni (very short i) sahn, almost like nsahn when spoken quickly
My favourite though is 'side by side', which comes out as 'saito bhy saito' (generally as a rule, 'D' sounds in Japan are spoken as something close to 'toh'.
Others...
Peugeot - Puhr-joh (a lot of french peugeot ads pronounce it this way)
Citroen - If you listen to the French woman at the end of British Citroen ads, you will notice she says 'sit-rouh-enn'
Renault - I watch too much Renault TV lol, so it's somewhere between 'reuh-noh' and 'reh-noh'
Volkswagen - funnily enough, I said 'volks-wag-on' until I was about 8, but in the past six years I have adjusted naturally to the correct 'Vohlks-vha-ghen'
Prius is 'pree-us' only in America, pretty much everywhere else uses 'pry-us'. Either is acceptable.
 
With all due respect, if someone pronounces anything composed of random Roman characters (letters), as the Japanese do, and they aren't speaking Japanese, they couldn't be more pretentious if they tried.

Okay, maybe if they were also doing so from a gold-plated yacht floating in the Monaco harbor.
 
These two get me every time I visit North America. That is the way they are said on TV commercials for the brand, so that is what goes. But in Australia they are Ni-sen (short i sound) and hee-un-day.


Interesting. How I posted it is pretty much how it's said by the general population here, and like you said on TV and radio.



Having watched your vid, your pronunciation is pretty similar to mine on most. The French ones were probably furthest from how a native French speaker would say them though.


In my video I said everything as how I hear them in the population, be it random strangers, TV, radio, friends, family etc. Hell, even GT5 online I hear most of that stuff pronounced that way.
 
^^^Some of those are correct but a few are a bit off, like Chrysler and Mach 1. Most of us pronounce it Mahk-one, not Maak-One.
 
Correct Citroën pronunciation: "Sit-try-yon".. With emphasis on the o in "yon". The o is the "ë". The n is not really pronounced... but still there. The yon should sound like "on" with a y in front.
 
^^^Some of those are correct but a few are a bit off, like Chrysler and Mach 1. Most of us pronounce it Mahk-one, not Maak-One.

I don't see a problem with how they are pronouncing it. There are many different accents across the world, and they will inevitably stress and pronounce things just very slightly differently. As far as I'm concerned, they are saying it correctly, just as you are also saying it correctly.
 
I don't see a problem with how they are pronouncing it. There are many different accents across the world, and they will inevitably stress and pronounce things just very slightly differently. As far as I'm concerned, they are saying it correctly, just as you are also saying it correctly.

I'm not saying there is a wrong way of pronouncing it, I get that there are different accents etc. I'm just saying, it's different than how I'm used to hearing the general population in my area say it. That doesn't make it wrong.
 
Oh yes, I've been looking for this thread for some 'Lanseeya' updates. I've had my Italian colleagues confirm to me that Lancia is Lan-chia with a correct Italian pronunciation, but as well, I've learnt that there is no B, D or G in Greek, which gives some Lancia models very different pronunciations if you use the correct Greek pronunciations;

Beta - should be Vetta, so veeta or vay-ta, if you prefer
Delta - should be Thelta, but a voiced fricative as in although
Gamma - Is harder to give a written pronunciation of the G, but if you know your German it's the soft Ch as in gleich. I suppose the closest approximation for English would be Yhamma. Very soft and aerated.
Ypsilon - More of an Ipsilon than Upsilon.
 
Last edited:
To set the record straight.....

The Murciélago.... a lot of people pronounce it as Mercy, also used for a Mercedes-Benz. Murcielago is also another Spanish word which means Bat (the animal). In Italian it is pronounced Moore-chai-la-go (“chai” as in the 'chai' in chair). In Spanish it is pronounced Moore-see-yeah-la-go.

THIS is incorrect. If we're going by the Spanish pronounciation (which we should, as it is a Spanish word), it would be pronounced mur(sorta like mure)-cee-Eh(more emphasis on the "E" than the short "h")-lago. Most people forget or ignore the accent over the "e", which results in the mispronounciation.

Also, I pronounce Huyara as Hwhy-rah (slight "H" sound at the begining, as it is not completely silent). Hope this helps. 👍

EDIT: Gallardo is also guy-Yar-do, with more emphasis on the "Y" sound of the second syllable, and a slight "th" sound to the "d" in the last syllable. This is also going off of the Spanish pronounciation.
 
Back