10 car brand names YOU pronounce WRONG! | How to Pronounce Car Brands + (Free PDF and Quiz!)

(calming music)

- Hello everyone, and welcome back

to English with Lucy.

I've got another pronunciation video

for you today, and it's one that's been highly requested.

I made a video a couple of months ago

about commonly mispronounced brand names,

and people seem to really really want

commonly mispronounced car names.

Now, I'm not a car expert.

I only passed my driving test a year ago.

But I take great interest in pronunciation

and I've done my research, and I'm here

to help you guys out, it will help you

with your speaking and listening.

If you want to improve your speaking

and listening even further, I really recommend

that you start using audiobooks

whilst reading, so you can find out

the pronunciation of the words that you read.

The platform I recommend is audible.com.

You can get a 30-day free trial

which is a free audiobook, amazing,

if you click on the link in the description box,

and there are loads of recommendations

for different levels of English, down there as well.

Right, let's get started with the lesson.

Okay, so I've got 10 car brands in total.

Let's start with the Italian ones.

The first one, this one.

A lot of people call it Alfa Ro-meo,

because it sounds like Romeo and Juliet,

but it's an Italian brand, so it should be

Al-fa ro-MEY-oh.

So it's not Alfa Ro-meo, it's al-fa ro-MEY-oh,

or Alfa ro-Mey-oh.

The next one, not such a common brand,

but I have heard it referred to as a Lan-cia,

and it should be lan-cha, lan-cha.

Now the next one, number three,

is a very expensive car brand,

and we tend to pronounce it incorrectly

quite frequently.

A lot of people might say lam-bor-gini, or lam-bourg-ini.

It should be lam-bor-ghee-nee, lam-bor-ghee-nee.

So it's that bor sound.

I don't think we have to worry

too much about the rolled r's

because not everybody can do that,

but we should at least try bor, lam-bor-ghee-nee.

The next one, isn't maser-ah-ti, it should be

mazz-uh-ra-ti.

I think you'll be forgiven if you say maser-ah-ti.

(laughs)

Okay, the next one, a German car name.

A lot of people might say Aw-di, but

if we're going to be like the Germans,

we need to say ow-dee, ow-dee.

The next one, another German car brand,

this one I did mention in my brand video.

In the UK, we always call this Porsche,

but it should have a schwa at the end,

it needs to be por-shuh, por-shuh.

The next one, another German one.

This one, volks-wagen?

In Germany, they would say follks-vah-gen.

The v makes a ff sound, and the w makes a v sound.

Follks-vah-gen, follks-vah-gen.

Okay, the next one is possibly the most

complicated one we have on this list today.

It's a Swedish car brand.

I don't even know what I would call this,

I would just give it a go.

Ko-enig-segg, ko-enig-segg, ko-enig-segg sounds beautiful.

It should be kuhn-nig-seg, kuhn-nig-seg.

Now the next one, we've got this one.

A lot of people would call it shev-ro-let.

People get confused by that T on the end,

but it's not pronounced, it is shev-ruh-ley, shev-ruh-ley.

And the final one, and this is the one

I'm going to struggle with most

because it's not the french uh sound.

It is this one.

It often gets pronounced as citron or citroën,

but it should be pronounced see-troh-en.

But you could just say cit-roen, see-troh-en.

Man, I don't know if I'll ever

be able to master the French car brands

but maybe I'll just buy Italian ones.

That being said, I've got a Mini Cooper.

Anyway guys, that's it for today's lesson.

Don't forget to check out audible,

the link is in the description box,

and you can find me on all of my social media.

I've got Facebook, I've got my Instagram,

and I've got my Twitter.

Check out the 'gramme, because we do lots of

giveaways, and they're worldwide giveaways.

They're really really cool ones with cool companies.

Alright, I will see you soon for another lesson.

Muah!

(calming music)