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Britain vs. The World: How to Correctly Pronounce Car Brand Names

English is a global language, but that doesn't necessarily mean its spelling of certain words is the correct one. Anglicized versions of our favorite brands are so familiar that we sometimes forget what the original was like. Up next, we are going to look at the difference between how the British spell foreign car brands and how the people from those countries do it.
Britain vs. The World: How to Correctly Pronounce Car Brand Names 5 photos
Photo: screenshot from YouTube
Britain vs. The World: How to Correctly Pronounce Car Brand NamesBritain vs. The World: How to Correctly Pronounce Car Brand NamesBritain vs. The World: How to Correctly Pronounce Car Brand NamesBritain vs. The World: How to Correctly Pronounce Car Brand Names
Carwow reviews are pretty popular lately, but today, their video is about the brands themselves. We may have full confidence in the way Mercedes, BMW or Porsche are pronounced. However, the video proves that the Brits are wrong, even if they don't say "Porsche" like it's the bit that sticks out from a house, the way Americans do.

For whatever reason, the German people say V instead of W, so BMW is BMV. And when V is at the beginning of the word, it's pronounced F. So "Volkswagen" becomes "Folksvagen" (also notice the V). What's up, folks?!

As for the Korean and Japanese brands, we really shouldn't be surprised that everybody gets it wrong. It's not just the Brits, as almost nobody in the world has a clue how to say Mazda or Hyundai the right way. We did, but we do this for a living, so it doesn't count.

This is just a Top 10 of the most common brand names that get butchered. However, virtually every Japanese manufacturer is pronounced differently than we believe: Subaru, Mitsubishi, Suzuki, Toyota, Daihatsu, and Honda. There is one exception, though, and that’s Lexus. It seems only normal for this name to have pretty close Japanese and English pronunciations since it was birthed by Toyota specifically for the US market 27 years ago.

But if every English speaker pronounces "Mazda" wrong, should that be the accepted way? Just look at Nike, named after the Greek goddess of victory, which should be "naiki" not "naik". Tell us what you think in the Disqus section below.

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Editor's note: Editor's note: The Korean and Japanese girls seem so happy about being on camera.

About the author: Mihnea Radu
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Mihnea's favorite cars have already been built, the so-called modern classics from the '80s and '90s. He also loves local car culture from all over the world, so don't be surprised to see him getting excited about weird Japanese imports, low-rider VWs out of Germany, replicas from Russia or LS swaps down in Florida.
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