Hyundai to U.K.: You’re saying our name wrong
There’s a bit of a tempest brewing in Hyundai’s U.K. teapot. We decided it was appropriate to let our coworkers across the pond tell the story. —Ed.
If you’ve ever heard someone from North America say “Peugeot,” you’ll be aware that countries often have unique ways of pronouncing particular car brands.
The U.K. has long stood out for its pronunciation of Hyundai, but the Korean brand has now made it official: We’ve been doing it wrong.
Well, not technically. Because just as car advertisements in the U.S. genuinely urged local customers to pronounce Peugeot as “Poo-joe”, the U.K.’s three-syllable “Hy-un-dai” has long been the official pronunciation over here, incorrect or not.
We suspect it might take a little while for the new pronunciation to take hold—just ask Dacia how the official “Da-cha” line is going, compared to the more phonetic “Day-see-ah”—but as the brand’s wares crawl ever higher up the sales charts, don’t expect Hyun-dai to go away, either.
Still, more of you are bringing Hyundais along to events like the Festival of the Unexceptional each year too, so perhaps the Pony, Elantra, and Atoz owners out there can help spread the word. Or fans of the Hyundai Coupé pictured above.
Though given Hyundai spelled its Elantra-based two-door without the traditional accent over the “e,” perhaps we’ve been saying that one incorrectly, too …
ok, so tell us what to do here.
I decided to live dangerously back in the early 90’s and bought a new Hyundai Excel to use as a train station car (for those who don’t commute by train and/or don’t know what that is, it’s a car that spends every day at the train station, and if some night you get back and it’s disappeared, then oh well). Rhymes with ‘Sunday’ they told me, and though that was the only Hyundai I’ve ever owned, I’ve assumed ever since that that’s how it’s pronounced.
The “Hyundai like Sunday” bit has been part of their USA sales training since at least 2010.
They even ran a Super Bowl ad for it: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vY-5dn3t4xM
It was in the US-market launch ads for the Excel way back in 1986.
Nice. I forgot that, but it makes sense!
Mighty Car Mods did a video years back with a Japanese person pronouncing the Japanese car names… not sure if anyone done similar for the Korean makes?
Most people in North America don’t say Porsche correctly either…
the correct (Japanese) pronunciation of Subaru is sss-BAH-rew. Try to get American SEW-buh-rew owners to say that.
Lived in Germany for a couple of years, really bothers me when I hear an Auto Journalist or well known mechanic mispronounce “Porsche”, they should know better. Minor gripe, but annoying.