TEST: Are You Pronouncing These Brands Incorrectly?

What's up, guys? Today I'm going to be teaching  you how to correctly pronounce brand names in  

English. Now why does it even matter anyways to  be able to pronounce brand names correctly because  

they're not real words right well in fact brand  names are all around us I'm sure today you've  

already come in contact or even had to say some  sort of different brand name like right here for  

example my shirt I have a brand Hollister now  that's one of my favorite clothing brands in  

the United States but when I came to Barcelona  actually people here don't say it like that  

here they say "holister" and so that was a bit  tricky for me the first time I wanted to go find  

the Hollister store here to be able to  say it correctly. So I'm going to help you  

to avoid having that same kind of complicated  situation so that if you go to the United States  

or you're already there you can correctly  say it and people will understand you  

and I will also teach you why you are pronouncing  them wrong so you can apply this to other words  

in English. All right and by the way, if you are  new here I want to let you know that every week  

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All right so I think there's probably no better  place to start than where we are right now okay  

so how do you call the website where you're  watching this video? So with this one the  

correct pronunciation is YouTube not youtube or  something else like that and this is really great  

to look at because we can see that when a word  ends in e in English usually we don't pronounce it  

now let's look at another one that we can actually  see right now so this computer that I have in  

front of me what brand is it so this is a bit of  a tricky word it's a fruit Apple so why is this so  

hard for learners now it's because it has a tricky  sound called the dark l now I think this doesn't  

exist in most languages outside of English it's  a strange sound that we make in the back of our  

throat so probably usually when you see an l you  want to do it like here in the front of your mouth  

which would be if you have it at the beginning  of a word like light because you do kind of like  

a flick here but this is a completely different  sound we say apple so my tongue is actually down  

and i'm making it here in the back of my throat so  that one is very difficult but with some practice  

you can learn to make it and pronounce that brand  correctly so quickly before we move on to the next  

one just to give you a few more examples of the  dark l you can find it in words like world full  

pill now you might want to even go back and  repeat each of those after me so that you  

can kind of master that sound now the next brand  that we're going to look at is probably the most  

famous social network in the world or certainly it  was for a long time. Now how would you say this?  

So if you said Facebook then you got it right now  we don't pronounce again the e at the end of face  

we don't make any extra sounds after the k i've  actually heard I believe in Brazil they'll say  

it like facebooke so that's like a completely  different pronunciation i think americans wouldn't  

even really know what you're saying and another  issue that I think most learners would have here  

is that sound in book so a lot of learners would  say book but it's not book it's not a long oo  

sound it's actually kind of a short u sound so  it's book book all right now repeat after me  

Facebook. Now the next one if you like watching  movies you probably have a subscription here  

how would you say this one? So it's called Netflix  now what's really tricky here is that we have two  

short vowel sounds now these short vowel sounds  are used all the time in english but they don't  

exist in a lot of other languages so first of all  we have that e in net so it's not nate it's net,  

Nate would actually be a man's name and then flix  so it's not fleeks or flicks it's flix now I think  

this is sound is actually probably one of the  ones that my students in the past have had the  

most difficulty with so we actually have a great  lesson that Justin made that's going to also make  

you laugh a lot and that will help you to master  that sound so finally if you want to search for  

anything you probably use this search engine so  how would you say this? If you were in the United  

States now this one has all sorts of problems  it's kind of difficult even for me to say  

I have actually like the Google home assistant  and a lot of times I think it doesn't recognize  

that I'm saying it because Google is kind of a  difficult thing to pronounce so that's exactly  

how we'd say it Google. So we have a long u sound  there first so goo and then we have that dark l  

sound again here gl, Google so try that with me  again Google, Google. Now one of the reasons the  

pronunciation in English is so difficult as I said  is because we have so many sounds that probably  

don't exist in your language so really what it  requires is building those muscles of articulation  

and we help you a lot to do this in our RealLife  Native Immersion Course and actually you can  

try it for free with our Power Learning Week  where we will teach you more American secrets  

of pronunciation as well as vocabulary culture and  so much more so you can sign up for that for free  

by clicking up at the top or down description  below. All right so let's move on from internet  

businesses maybe we're a bit hungry so we want  to head to a restaurant I'm actually not such  

a fan of most of these but anyways it's great for  your pronunciation so the first one we'll look at  

is probably one of the most famous in the  world the golden arches how would you call  

this brand in English? So this one of course is  McDonald's so I've heard a lot of learners say  

like McDonald's or Mickey Donald's or some other  kind of weird variation of that but in fact,  

we just say mick so it's a very short sound there  in the beginning we have that short i sound again  

and then Donald's and Donald's is actually quite  difficult because it's got that dark l sound like  

in the name of the American president Donald Trump  so you can practice saying that again Donald,  

McDonald's but maybe you're not such a fan of  McDonald's maybe you prefer the second most  

famous burger chain in the world how would you  say this one? So in America we would call this one  

Burger King so burger is actually a very  difficult word for learners to say I think  

because of that er sound that r that we have  in there isn't very common in other languages  

and really that's kind of like a new vowel  also when you combine the u and the r so it's  

the same actually in both syllables  burger but in the UK they would say  

this a little bit differently, so let's  have Andrea show us how she would say this.  

In England we would say Burger King, Burger  King. All right and then furthermore in the word  

king we have another difficult sound it's that  ng so this is actually a nasal sound that we  

make in our nose so you should feel kind of  like a vibration there if you don't really  

feel anything happening in your nose then you're  probably not saying it correctly you might end  

up just saying like keen but it's not keen that  means actually that we really enjoy something or  

we want to do something like, "I'm keen to go to  the movies this weekend." But we want to say King,  

king. So do you kind of hear that nasal sound  almost as if I were sick you can also try  

closing your nose and try saying it again king all  right so moving on to the next restaurant if you  

want a coffee where would you go? So in the United  States we would say Starbucks but this one's  

really funny for me because the first time that  I came to Spain I actually was talking to someone  

who was from Andalusia which is in the south  and they actually have a famous accent because  

they cut a lot of sounds so instead of saying  Starbucks like I would say it in the United States  

he was saying "estarba" and so I had no idea what  he was trying to say until he started explaining  

you know where you can buy coffee and it's very  very famous and you can get a frappuccino and  

things like that I was like oh you mean Starbucks  so definitely you need to pronounce this one right  

if you're a coffee lover now as I mentioned I  would say this Starbucks but let's take a look at  

how Andrea would say it in her British accent. We  would say Starbucks, Starbucks. All right so maybe  

you're a fan of one of the most famous beverages  in the world so how would an American say this  

so that's Coca-Cola now that last a is actually  a schwa sound which is one of the most common  

sounds in American English so we don't say we say  cola it's like a very reduced short sound there  

cola now that's a really great one to practice  because you see it all the time in English  

and most of the times when we go to a restaurant  in the united states or I believe it's the same  

in the UK or any other English-speaking country,  in fact, we wouldn't say I want a Coca-Cola we  

would actually shorten it. So do you know how  we would shorten this in the United States?

All right maybe you're a bit tired maybe  you've been studying or working a lot  

and you might want one of these energetic  drinks now if you need to ask someone where  

you could buy this in the United States how are  you going to ask for it so this is called Red Bull  

in the United States so this one is very  tricky I think depending on where you come from  

because some of these sounds might change in  other languages for example I know I found the  

name quite funny in Brazil because they called it  Red Bull instead of Red Bull and so make sure you  

don't make any extra sound after that d it's just  red like the color red and then bull we have that  

dark l sound again so Red Bull. All right so if  you are a car lover then you definitely want to  

know how to correctly say each of these car brands  and this is really difficult because a lot of them  

don't even come from the United States but we  change their pronunciation and then other ones  

maybe they have a name that sounds foreign even  though they're from the United States so the  

first one we'll look at is a German car actually  the first three that we'll look at I believe are  

all German so the first one is one of the most  famous luxury car brands how would you say this  

so in the United States we'd say this Mercedes.  Now moving on to my favorite car brand it's  

actually the first car I ever owned was one of  these now how do you think we say this in the  

United States? Now I would probably say this one  Audi but depending on who you talk to you might  

also hear it pronounced more like the German  pronunciation which I believe is Audi but for  

example that Audi is really difficult because  that ah sound that we have at the beginning  

doesn't exist in a lot of other languages in  fact you know on this channel all the time I say  

aww yeah now it's not oh yeah a lot of learners  believe that I'm saying oh yeah but it's not an o  

now we hear the sound also in dog or like in the  word awesome which means something's really cool  

so that's a really great one to practice with  this car brand. Now let's take a look at another  

german car brand this one's just three letters  how would we say this? Now maybe that one wasn't  

so difficult it's just simply BMW now a lot of  learners want to pronounce acronyms like in their  

own language maybe you say every acronym as more  of a word like the whole sound but in English it's  

much more common that we just say each letter  so is this the case with this car brand bmw  

however you might also hear this by its nickname  we can also call a bmw car or motorcycle called a  

Beamer all right so another one that is confusing  even for native english speakers is this one how  

would you say it now I would probably say this  Porsche but I've also heard a lot of people say  

Porsche now probably if you say either of these  people will understand you in the United States  

it kind of will just depend on your preference but  make sure that you're saying this sounds correct  

so it's Porsche all right let's take a look at  another very famous German car brand now in the  

United States we would call this a Volkswagen now  it's really important that you pronounce that w  

not as a vu sound but as a sound so Volkswagen but  if you don't even want to have to mess with that  

it's very common in the United States that  we call it by its initials so it would be  

VW or we might also call this V-dub as kind  of a nickname. All right let's move out of  

Germany and move a little bit more south to  Italy how would you call this famous luxury  

brand? All right so in the United States we love  our r's so we would call this Ferrari Ferrari.  

Now let's actually hear how they would call  it in the UK. We pronounce this as Ferrari,  

Ferrari. And really this always makes me think  of that episode of Friends where Joey really  

wants to pretend that he owns a Ferrari so that he  can flirt with girls and he's wearing all of the  

gear just so he can seem like he owns a Ferrari  for some reason he attributes those two things  

but now let's move over to an American car brand  because that's definitely really important that  

you know how to pronounce. This one's a bit  tricky let's see if you can get it right so  

although this one is American we pronounce it like  as if it were French so we don't say chevrole or  

something like that we say Chevrolet so you should  actually just leave off that t sound at the end  

and pronounce an open e so Chevrolet and if you  want to make it even simpler you can just call  

it by the nickname that we Americans use all the  time and that's Chevy and if you want to improve  

your English pronunciation even more like you are  in this lesson with brands we have another really  

fantastic lesson that Andrea made all about how to  speak English fast so you'll get some great tips  

there they're going to help you to have a little  bit more native-like English or if you don't  

really care about that then it will really help  you just in understanding natives better so be  

sure to check that out at the top or down in the  description below after you finish this lesson.  

I know a lot of people's favorite activity when  they go to the united states is shopping of course  

because the United States is a really great place  to shop it's kind of like the home of capitalism  

we have so many malls and shopping centers and  different streets that you can go down and go  

to different luxury shops and I know a lot of  people love to go there as well because a lot  

of times you can find them cheaper than you would  in your home country now if you're shopping there  

and you want to look for a particular brand then  you definitely need to know how to say it like  

an American would, right? So the first one we're  going to look at is one that you might recognize  

from the series Friends let's take a look.  Now maybe a lot of people think that this is  

a French brand like a lot of clothing brands are  but it's actually American and so I've heard a lot  

of people say Ralph Lauren but it's actually Ralph  Lauren so Lauren is actually a girl's name as well  

I actually have a cousin Lauren and so that can be  a really great way for you to remember it this is  

if you had Ralph which is a man's name and Lauren  which is a woman's name so Ralph Lauren and of  

course you can also remember that Rachel from  Friends worked at Ralph Lauren. Now let's move  

on to a French brand how would you say this famous  one with the alligator? Now this one in the United  

States we would actually call Lacoste so make sure  you don't say lacoste or something like that it's  

just like you could ask what's the cost of the  shirt la-cost. So then you might also have some  

jeans that come from this famous brand, how would  you say it? Now in the United States we would call  

these Levi's so don't say levees or levees or  something like that alright maybe you're someone  

who loves shoes now there's quite a few shoe  brands that are a little bit tricky to pronounce  

now this is definitely one of the most famous  ones and we pronounce it differently in the US  

or the UK so I'll give you both but how would you  say this one? Now in the United States we would  

call this Nike now it's a bit surprising also  because as I told you before usually in English  

words we don't pronounce that e that comes at  the end now I'm not sure why we do this I believe  

Nike is actually a Greek god or a Roman god or  something like that and let's take a look at  

how Andrea would say this because in the UK they  pronounce it differently. In England we say Nike,  

Nike. So there you go that actually makes a lot  more sense to me how Andrea says it but don't  

say it like that in the United States because  people might not know what shoe you're looking for  

now the most prominent competitor of Nike is  probably this one how would you say it this  

one is called Adidas now this actually comes  from the founder's name his name was Adolf  

Dassler so it comes from his nickname Adi plus the  das part of his last name so Adidas but we don't  

say it like that we actually shorten it to Adidas  so let's look at how Andrea would say this one.  

We would say Adidas, Adidas. Now these boots have  been very famous recently how would you call this  

brand? Now in the United States we would call this  Timberland now you probably said something like  

timberland or timerland or something like  that so let's actually look what is this  

made of so timber is basically the product of  wood so like you kind of cut down at the trees  

and then you have timber which can be used to make  all sorts of different products that we make with  

wood so the correct pronunciation is timber with  that short eye and then the other hard thing that  

you'll find all the time any word that ends in  land usually we reduce land to [lind] so it's  

Timberlands and this is very similar to one of the  countries in northern Europe which is called the  

Netherlands but we call it the [Netherlinds]  we reduce that a to an a sound so timberlands  

Netherlands you can remember that and let's just  quickly look at how Andrea would say this one.  

In England we pronounce this as Timberland  Timberland. Now these boots are extremely famous  

they're from Australia and I know in the United  States people really like to wear them actually  

in the winter they were very popular in  Colorado maybe you have a pair if you also live  

in a country where it gets a bit chilly in the  winter, so how would you say this so this one?  

In fact is not an acronym so if you said something  like u-g-g-s then sorry that's not correct but we  

would say it as a very very short word just  UGGS UGGS, so it's that schwa sound again  

and you can almost think of it it sounds a little  bit to me like something that a caveman would say  

UGG. All right so we just have a few more guys  so one of the most famous animators all over  

the world is this one how would you say it? So  an American would say this Disney so if you're  

going to the United States maybe you want to visit  Disneyland now did you hear how I said that it's  

Disney so it's not disney or daisney or something  like that it's actually just Disney so that's  

short I sound that we heard earlier and you  might have also heard that like before I said  

in Timberlands we also might say Disneyland. All  right and then maybe you also have some packages  

delivered by this famous delivery company how  would you say this? So once again we have an  

acronym so as I said before we usually don't say  this as a word so it's not oops it's UPS and then  

finally if you want to buy some furniture you're  probably going to go to this place how would you  

say it? So this one might have been tricky for  you because I'm saying like we don't actually say  

the acronym as a word but this isn't actually  really an acronym so we call this place IKEA all  

right and I want to hear from you guys what do  you think is the hardest brand to pronounce in  

English? You could choose one that I taught you  today or maybe there's another one that I missed  

and I could even create another video teaching  you those or maybe I'll create a post over on  

Instagram so comment that down below and I really  hope that you will take these tips I've given  

you today on pronunciation to heart so that when  you're having a conversation whether it's with a  

native or another English learner that you will be  able to speak clearly and people will understand  

you without any problem and now it's time to  go beyond the classroom and live your English,  

aww yeah! So we often teach our students  what to do to improve speaking English  

but today we're taking an alternative method and  we are going to be telling you the seven things  

not to do when speaking in English so we're going  to dive straight into the lesson to help you to be  

more confident and to know about the things that  you should not be doing when speaking in English.