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
we guide you beyond the classroom to understand fast speaking natives to be able to communicate
confidently with anyone and to connect to the world just like Gregorz who says
that thanks to our lessons he no longer sounds like a robot when he speaks English.
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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.