You’ll notice that American advertising pronounce Hyundai in a way that makes “Sunday” sound, which is the preferred pronunciation in the US. Having said that, it’s frequently called “high-UN-dye” in the UK. Hyundai is, of course, a Korean firm, and in Korea, the name is pronounced more like “HYUN-day.”
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Hyundai
With its headquarters in Seoul, South Korea, Hyundai is a global automaker. The Hyundai Motor Company also owns Kia Motors and Genesis Motor, its premium vehicle subsidiary, which was established in 2015. These two entities are in addition to the Hyundai brand. Hyundai, which has a production capacity of 1.6 million vehicles annually, or one every ten seconds, was the third-biggest automaker in the world in 2019. The company also possesses the largest integrated auto manufacturing facility in the world.
The Korean word hyeondae, which in English is translated as “modernity,” is the source of the name Hyundai and symbolizes the company’s commitment to ongoing innovation.
The first letter of Hyundai’s brand, the letter “H,” is represented in the company’s logo, but it also has another meaning. The two stylised guys shaking hands in the logo stand in for a company representative and a happy client.
English speakers frequently mispronounce the word Hyundai. This is because a lot of Hyundai’s commercials modify the brand name to make it easier for locals to pronounce. As a result, a lot of people pronounce Hyundai as high-un-day or hun-day.
Hyundai’s first syllable contains a pronounced “y” rather than a silent letter. The “n” comes next, which is followed by the “u,” which is pronounced like a very open “oh.” Hyundai’s “ai” is pronounced as a “eh,” not as “day,” for the second syllable. In other words, you pronounce Hyundai as hyohn-deh since the final consonant is actually pronounced as -deh.
How is Hyundai pronounced in the United States?
For 11 years, Hyundai will sponsor Turbine Hall at Tate Modern. Tom de Castella queries, “How do you pronounce it, though?”
Tate Modern visitors are accustomed to stumbling over obscure names. Paul Klee has a play or a plea sound in it. There is currently a fresh obstacle. Hyundai, a South Korean automaker, will begin sponsoring the gallery’s Turbine Hall in 2015 and continue for the following 11 years, introducing modern art enthusiasts to one of the most mispronounced brand names in the world. The company has played on people’s phonetic uncertainty in its own marketing. A few years ago, it aired an advertisement during the Super Bowl that depicted furious BMW and Lexus officials yelling the word Hyundai at ever-increasing volumes. A voiceover concluded: “Win one small prize, and all of a sudden everyone knows your name. Like Sunday, it’s a Hyundai.”
But is it? Jo Kim, a linguist and Korean expert at the BBC Pronunciation Unit, says it depends on where you are. The pronunciation in its native Korean is most similar to HYUN-day. Hyundai UK uses a distinct pronunciation, high-UUN-digh, in all of their advertisements.
According to Hyundai UK press representative Laura King, this is the conventional British way to phrase it. However, she continues, you’ll hear two separate versions utilized in the UK HQ. The anglicized sound will be used by those who deal with the domestic market. Employees working on international business, however, will use the Korean version. According to the Super Bowl commercial, Hyundai’s US unit pronounces its name as HUN-day. However, there is another variant that sounds much like Han-die in a Spanish-language advertisement for a Californian car dealership.
How do you pronounce Hyundai in Korean?
Toyota, Honda, Lexus, and Mazda are all well known, and Americans have even grown accustomed to multisyllabic names like Mitsubishi, but some people still have trouble pronouncing Hyundai. Chung Ju-yung established Hyundai Engineering and Construction Co. in South Korea in 1947, and in 1967 it launched an automotive division. The word “modernity” in Korean is transliterated into the name. It is pronounced “hyeondae” with the “y” being spoken clearly when spoken by Koreans. However, the company’s official stance for the Americas is that it’s “Hyundai like Sunday.”
The model names haven’t gotten too complicated, at least. Hyundai has long preferred naming their cars after short, simple English terms, starting with the Hyundai Excel in the past and continuing with the contemporary Sonata, Accent, Palisade, and Santa Fe. The lone exception may be Veloster, a three-syllable name that is frequently mispronounced as the four-syllable phrase “Velociter.”
Regarding the business and brand name, choose Hyundai because Sunday is my pleasant day and the day when I don’t have to run.
How is Hyundai pronounced in Canada?
It is wrongly pronounced “Hun-day” by Americans and Canadians. However, the true pronunciation is “Hy-un-die,” and the rest of the world does as well. 15 people think this to be beneficial.
What does the Korean word Hyundai mean?
The name “Hyundai,” which roughly translates to “modernity” in Korean, was adopted in 1947 when Hyundai Construction, a South Korean business, was created. When it became a separate brand, it changed its tagline to “New thinking, new possibilities” to reflect what the new brand stood for.
How do you say Hyundai in Australia?
Like humans, language also travels, and many terms in the English language have their origins in French, Italian, Spanish, Greek, Latin, and Latin. Because English phonetics cannot be used, pronunciation can be challenging. Consider Kath and Kim’s Kim, an Australian comedic legend, trying to pronounce chardonnay. Alternatively, some of our favorite foreign brand names that nobody can quite pronounce.
IKEA, which is frequently pronounced “eye-key-yah,” is really pronounced “ee-kay-uh” or “ih-key-yah.” Or perhaps the German luxury automobile manufacturer Porsche, whose brand name is pronounced “por-sha,” grew so fed up with customers pronouncing it incorrectly that they produced a how-to video?
Some businesses have simply given up and changed their brand’s pronunciation to fit the local phonetics. Hyundai, a Korean automaker that is marketed as “Hun-day” in the USA but as “High-uuun-di” in Britain and Australia, is pronounced “Hi-un-day” in Korea.
A word’s lengthy history, as well as our increasingly diverse society, can all have an impact on how people pronounce it. Along with more travel and immigration, the flow of American TV shows, movies, music, and even Siri and Alexa is progressively changing how we pronounce words in Australia. Think about the distinction between the terms “advertize-ment” and “ad-vertis-ment,” or “schedule” and “she-dule.”
Australian English is typically more similar to British English, however Dr. Shokouhi notes that certain of our pronunciation has become more similar to American English and less like its British roots.
How should BMW be pronounced?
One thousand drivers in the UK participated in the survey, which asked them to correctly pronounce the names of 10 different car brands.
None of the ten brands’ names could be accurately pronounced by a single person.
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Many people find it difficult to pronounce automobile brand names, especially when they come from Germany or France. But by any stretch of the imagination, is BMW impossible to say? One might question how three letters can be pronounced incorrectly. But a survey done at Select Car Leasing found that about 95% of individuals pronounce the name of the German automaker inaccurately.
Since “BMW” is only a three-letter word, many people pronounce it that way: “bee em double yoo.” The English pronunciation, however, is incorrect because the brand is German. So, “bee em vee” is the only pronunciation that is totally correct.
Why doesn’t Hyundai use a Y?
Language barriers have caused Westerners to mispronounce Hyundai, removing the unsettling “Y” and changing the final syllable’s rhyming to “die” rather than “day.” The outcome resembles the Japanese automaker Honda, sounding similar to “Hondai.”
Do you say “vehicle” with a h?
In HONOUR, HOUR, HONEST, HEIR, VEHICLE & VEHEMENT, H is always silent. You don’t pronounce it after the letter “g” in words like GHOST, GHASTLY, AGHAST, GHERKIN & GHETTO or the letter “r” in words like RHINOCEROS, RHUBARB, RHYME and RHYTHM. After a “w,” there is typically silence: WHAT? WHICH? WHERE? WHEN? WHY? but HOW is it pronounced? Who would have believed it? Furthermore, we don’t always use it after the prefix “ex,” which might be either exhilarating or exhausting.
How should Versace be pronounced?
Since many fashion terms are famously challenging to pronounce, it might be simple to make a mistake in conversation if you don’t hear the names of some high-end brands pronounced rather than just written down. Hermes, Miu Miu, Balmain, and even Zara all have distinctive voices that contrast with their exteriors.
It turns out that a large portion of the world has been pronouncing Donatella Versace’s last name incorrectly all along, so we’re pleased to have been corrected by the fashion designer. She was asked which Italian phrase she wishes English speakers would cease mispronouncing during an edition of Vogue’s renowned “73 Questions” series, which is filmed at her Milan apartment (which was formerly held by her late brother Gianni).
Versace was the reply. The right pronunciation is “Versach-eh,” not “Versach-ee,” as you might have assumed. Her pronunciation does sound lot more beautiful. (In the video below, you can hear her say it.)
Versace chose “minimalism” when asked which fashion style she hoped would never come back. (You’ll understand why after taking a look at her most recent house collection.) She also selected leather over lace, gold over silver, heels over flats (obviously), gold over silver, and, perhaps most startlingly, New York over Milan. Oh, and what is her favorite aspect of fashion? “That it’s constantly changing.”
She revealed that Barack would be her ideal dinner date while Michelle Obama would be her choice for coffee (how long till someone makes it happen?).
She also said that she would “want to learn Chinese” and that she would “certainly be having a mental breakdown” if she weren’t in charge of Versace.
Versace also discussed the 2018 Met Gala, which she believes will be “the best [one] ever” (since she is in charge), and she shared some insightful advice on what it means to be a woman in the modern world: It involves being conscious of what’s going on in the world and taking action to change it.