Survey finds 95% people pronounce 'BMW' incorrectly. Here's the correct way

Name of car brands can be tricky to pronounce for many, especially when these brands are from Germany or France. But is BMW difficult to pronounce by any stretch of the imagination? One may wonder how one can go wrong pronouncing three letters. But, around 95% people have been pronouncing the name of the German car brand incorrectly, as per a study conducted at Select Car Leasing.

Since 'BMW' is just a three-letter word, people tend to pronounce it in the English version - 'bee em double yoo'. However, being a German brand, the English pronunciation isn't valid for the brand name. Thus, the absolutely authentic pronunciation is 'bee em vee'.

The survey was conducted on 1,000 motorists in the UK and each one was asked to pronounce names of ten car brands. There wasn't a single person who could pronounce the name of all ten brands correctly.

The study further reveals that only six per cent of the people could pronounce 'Hyundai' right. The correct way to say the name is 'Hun-day'. Other common mistakes were made in pronouncing the names of 'Porsche' and 'Skoda'. The latter has a little accent above the S, and is pronounced as 'Schkoda' while for 'Porsche', it is 'Porsch-ha'.

As for 'Volkswagen', people tend to stick to the usual English version and sticking to the 'V' sound at the beginning. However, in native German, that's more like an 'F'.

The mispronunciation of the names of the car brands happens due to lack of awareness among people. "For all the exposure that car manufacturers are subjected to in the digital age, there's still a gap in understanding when it comes to how they're pronounced," said Mark Tongue, director of Select Car Leasing.