They often say, “It’s all in the name.” That’s because a brand’s name is meant to evoke emotion, ideas, and even visuals. It’s meant to be catchy and stay in your mind. However, a lot of car brands don’t seem to fit into this concept, with many of them getting consistently mispronounced all over the world. BusinessFinancing.co.uk recently studied how often leading brands are mispronounced on a pronunciation library, and many car brands topped the list.
The car brand that caused the most confusion was Peugeot, with over 1.7 million listens. By just looking at the name, you might guess something like “pew-get.” However, this French name is actually pronounced “puh-zhoh,” which is quite different from how it looks on paper to English speakers. Peugeot is actually the last name of the founder. The lion symbol comes from a goldsmith Peugeot hired to create an emblem — the lion embodies the car’s speed, flexibility, and aggression, and has nothing to do with the name.
Surprising car brands you may be saying incorrectly
Most of the car brands that made it to the top of the study are from France and Germany. Following Peugeot is Porsche, with 794,000 listens. A lot of people in the United States seem to pronounce it “porsh,” a single-syllable word. However, it’s actually two syllables: “por” and “shuh.” This is another car brand named after the founder’s last name. While Porsche may trip you up, at least some of the model names are a bit easier, like the 911.
Here’s another one that may seem surprising: BMW. The German automaker is the third-most mispronounced car brand at 467,000 listens. Most people assume it is pronounced exactly as it looks. However, BMW stands for “Bayerische Motoren Werke,” and therefore is meant to be said like “bee-em-vee.”
Citroën is next on the list of carmakers, with 442,000 listens. This is another French name that has confused English speakers — it’s hard to blame you, since it’s probably not often you come by a Citroën. English speakers tend to pronounce the “r” heavily, but in French, it is much softer, sounding closer to “see-troh-en.” The trema above the “e” means that it’s pronounced separately from the “oh” before it. While this is another brand named after the founder’s last name, Citroën is a bit comical since it means “lemon” in Dutch — not something you’d want your vehicles to be known for.
Stephan is the sports journalist for the Maple Grove Report.
