You guys loved my video about 15 German brands Americans pronounce wrong (ruclips.net/video/PGx5lEDLC4Q/видео.html), so I decided to make a counterpart and talk about *15 AMERICAN brands that Germans tend to pronounce wrong* - and I'm sure people in many other countries too. I hope you guys like it :) Let me know what other brands you can add to the list in the comments below! 👇
When I moved to the US in the 1970’s after having grown up in Germany, I was in for some surprises! The world wasn’t connected the way it is now. As you stated correctly, some brands are so old that the English pronunciation wasn’t used in those days. I thought Colgate was German, and actually did say, oh, you have that over here, too? Ah yeah, we do, it’s American! I do like the German pronunciation better, though! 😄. The absolute weirdest thing I came across though was “Der Wienerschnitzel”. (I think you mentioned that in another video). Wrong article, wrong description. When I informed people here that it’s Das Wienerschnitzel, and no, a Wienerschnitzel is not a hotdog, they looked at me sort of incredulously. Even to this day many Americans think it’s a Hot Dog! I’ve never set foot in a Wienerschnitzel! Thank you, Felicia, I am enjoying your videos very much! You perfectly express the Zwiespalt I am sometimes feeling!
In the United States "Jaguar" is usually pronounced "Jag-war," however in Great Britain where the car brand originated it would be pronounced "Jag-you-are."
Interestingly, the word comes to English via Portuguese, and is originally from a native Amazon language. I don't know what it sounds like in its original language but the American English pronunciation is closer to the (Brazilian) Portuguese than the British version is.
I live here in Wichita where Pizza Hut was founded and they have the original building with a museum in it. Oh, by the way the name of the town is pronounced Which-it-ah
“Hertz” in German is not only pronounced like the word for heart, but also like the unit for frequency (Hz), which was named after a German after all. ;)
Similarities may be depending on the phonetic alphabet, the vowel pronunciations can be similar in some langauages, and English pronunciation is different. Example.. the “I” in English is not pronounced “eee” the English “a “ has a different pronunciation as well where it seems to me German, Spanish, Italian have more similar vowel pronunciations. I only think this because if I pronounced my German surname with the 1 vowel in my surname with the sound of that vowel as it’s pronounced Spanish ir German or even Italian maybe instead of the English pronunciation of that same vowel maybe people could spell my name correctly? Lol Also “adidas” Americans pronounce it with the enlightenment vowel sounds. Imagine if Americans knew the Spanish vowel sounds and pronounced it using Spanish phonetic sounds, it would sound closer to how Italians and Germans pronounce Adidas.
Yes that was great! Most of the time I can barely hear her accent, but that brought it out. I live in Massachusetts and often when TV reporters come here from other states to work they mispronounce some of our towns. They pronounce them phonetically and like a lot of English words, these place names don't follow the rules. For instance, Leominster is pronounced Lemminster and Worchester is pronounced Worster. So it's not just foreigners who get these things wrong. Lol
I wouldn't be surprised if her pronunciation was closer to the original Native American. Most Native American place names do have the emphasis on the penultimate syllable.
City names are a big one. You can always tell who the transplants and tourists are by the way they pronounce them. Here in southeastern Michigan we have a lot of these. Novi Michigan (pronounced nō vai) took its name from the fact that it was the sixth stop on the newly founded American postal route. Since it was the sixth stop, they combined the abbreviation for "number" with the Roman numeral six - Novi. Lake Orion, Michigan is not pronounced like the constellation! The second "o" is pronounced like a short "e" as in Lake Orien (emphasis on the first O not the i). Ann Arbor is simply known as A² (that's "A squared). Of course Detroit is know colloquially as "The D". At the top of "the mitten" we have Traverse City which many people pronounce wrong. Normally the emphasis would be on the last syllable but here it is on the first and the last "s" is subdued. The one that everyone gets wrong (including many native Michigsnders) is Mackinac Island. The name - like many Michigan names - comes from the Algonquin language spoken by many native American tribes in the region. The last syllable is pronounced like the word "gnaw". So Mackinac is pronounced like Makinaw. Fun fact: many American words were borrowed directly from Algonquin like Raccoon. The reason this is so is because from the late 1700s through early 1800s was dominated by the fur trade. Beaver furs to be exact. And the best area for trading beavers was the Great Lakes region where Algonquin family languages were spoken. So if one wanted to trade beaver fur at that time, you had to first learn to speak Algonquin. Fort Michilimackinac was first founded as a military garrison during the Revolutionary War. It was the epicenter of the burgeoning beaver fur trade for approximately 100 years! We also have a rich history with French names. Some Michigan cities and many streets have French names. One street that always trips people up is Dequindre. The "re" at the end is pronounced as if the letters are transposed, and the emphasis is on the second syllable. One street closer to my house is named Lasher, which many pronounce as "lasher".
@@MrBrelindm The big one here in Vermont is "Charlotte". Here it's pronounced "sher -LOT". "Barre" is often mispronounced too, it's "BARE-ee" here and not "BAR" like in Ballet, but "Wilkes-Barre" prompts some people to pronounce it right. There's also Berlin, which is topical. Here it's "BURR-lin"
I love how much information you add instead of just throwing the pronunciations out thete and just ending there. It's kind of funny someone from Germany can teach me things I don't know myself about my own country. Awesome job.
Being an 'old timer' who studied German throughout my schooling years and still tries to keep up, I enjoy your channel because you bring new things to the table. Thanks for the content.
the pronunciation of "jaguar' actually varies greatly. in the US it's mostly pronounced how you say it. british people usually seem to say "jag-yoo-ar". and i think canada is split between the american pronunciation and saying "jag-wire"
@@andy70d35 the reduced u pronunciation with no palletization results in the rounding of the lips, which then turns into a W sound as the mouth transitions into the A sound. this happens even when in the "jag-you-ar" pronunciation where it tends to lean towards "jag-you-war".
One of Pizza Hut's earliest slogans in their German commercials was "Pizza Hut - rundherum gut". I still remember the jingle. At least back then the company itself prounounced its name wrong here in Germany.
With your comment on the difference between U.S. and German ice creams have you ever made your way up to Findlay, Ohio. We have Dietsch Brothers founded by two German immigrants, a contender for top ten best ice cream makers in world, and they still traditionally make all their ice cream in the store, they also make German chocolates as well as Americanized chocolate. Worth the trip if you like sweets.
The german pronunciation of "amazon" is actually closer to "amazonas" the name of the river in Portuguese (the language spoken in Brazil where the river is).
yes and in German we also call the river "Amazonas", we just took the Portuguese name and did not delete the -as like in the English name for the river. Of course there are subtle pronunciation differences, but it sounds similar as well.
i remember, especially when i was younger, when you pronounced "nike" the right way in germany, most people would "correct" you and would say "nik-e" is wrong :D
Feli, considering how late I am in finding this video, you may never see this comment. Nevertheless, you may know by now that the USA has a LOT of cities and towns pronounced in very unexpected ways, mostly because of borrowing from a multitude of languages (specifically, Basque, British English, Dutch, French, German, Greek, Hawaiian, Hebrew, Italian, Latin, Old Norse, Portuguese, Russian, Scottish Gaelic, Spanish, Swedish, Welsh, plus at least 70 tribal languages, some Anglicized, some not). The reason I bring this up is because of the segment on Pizza Hut being started in Wichita (WITCH-uh-taw). There aren't as many McDonald's nicknames as there used to be, such as Ronald's House, Mac's Steak House, Mickey D's, and Golden Arches Supper Club.
👍yup, that wit-CHEE-ta made me chuckle too, but in her defense I've discovered that city name pronunciations are very local. For example, how would you pronounce Vienna? If you are in Austria or Virginia it's vee-ENN-a. In Ohio a small city near Youngstown calls itself vi-ANN-a. Crazy, but who's to tell all of them they're wrong? LOL.
@@robertlarson8370 , good point! Also, I never cease to be amazed by her absolutely perfect, non-accented English. She's amazing, as well as a looong way from ugly--very long way!
Not German, but....My daughter and I rescued a French family who were stranded, with two flat tires, in Death Valley. Driving them to their hotel, they told us they were headed to Yoze Mite next. I kept thinking, where? After they'd said it a few times, I realized they meant Yosemite National Park. LOL
Native American nouns tend to throw a lot of non-Americans off a bit. Yosemite is a Miwok tribe word that literally means "those who kill". Learned that in 2nd grade back in the early 70's when my Family lived in Mariposa(also in Tuolumne County like the park is) for a year.
Felicia, you totally cracked me up. I loved this video, and then when you were talking about Pizza Hut, you said it was founded in wi-cheetah, Kansas. I haven't heard anyone pronounce that city name like that for a long time. It is a Native American name and is pronounced WI-chi-taw, accent on the first syllable, all short vowel sounds. Love your content still, I hope you are well and making it through pandemic fine.
Feli, you've accidentally given me the idea to suggest a video on "Place Names"! Early on, you referred to a place in the state of Kansas as [wi - 'chee-tah]. 🙂 After a second or so, I deciphered what you meant: the city of Wichita, pronounced [ 'witch-i-taw]. I encountered some other interesting mispronunciations while living in Switzerland: Canada's ['NEE - ah - gara] Falls, and ['FUH nix] Arizona. Maybe seeds for segment?
@@coreymunroe8073 Can't blame her, though. "WITCH-i-taw" is not how anyone would pronounce it if they hadn't already heard it before. Indeed, Feli's pronunciation is exactly what one *_would_* expect, based on the spelling.
Calgary in Canada is pronounced CAL-gary and Regina is pronounced Reg-GINa (rhymes with vagina). Most American broadcasters (especially regarding hockey) pronounced them incorrectly. I was surprised to hear how broadcasters went from KEY-ehve to KEY-v when the war broke in the Ukraine.
@@alanef4127 Not to step on your toes, but if I may interject for a moment.... For the sake of others reading this thread, I would probably modify your phonetic spelling of the pronunciation of Calgary and Regina to make it easier to understand and pronounce, as follows: CAL-guh-ree [and] ruh-JYNE-uh. And I, too, was intrigued by broadcasters' change of the traditional pronunciation of the capital of Ukraine after the country was invaded.
I cracked up at the irony of mispronouncing Wichita in a video about mispronouncing American names. I have heard people from other countries mispronounce it as well. I come from Louisville, KY, just 2 hours south of Cincinnati and it's a name lots of people all across the US mispronounce. The farthest away from home I've been was to Los Angeles and when introduced to someone the first question they asked me is how to pronounce the city's name. If you are a fan of horse racing or college basketball you would know. The announcers usually get it right. Incidentally, during the run to Louisville's 3rd national championship we played Wichita State in the Final Four and a rarely used player came up big for us in that game and became nicknamed Wichita. I don't think anyone has called him Wuhcheeta though.
Adobe is a Spanish word. In English it originally was a scientific term for clay soils. Add some water and mix in some straw, pour/pack into forms, slowly dry and you have adobe bricks. The Presidio in Santa Barbara (www.parks.ca.gov/?page_id=608) near my office, is made from adobe bricks. Old buildings made with adobe bricks are found all over coastal California, Arizona, New Mexico and Texas; and are referred to as called Adobes. They are very well insulated - the thick walls keep the inside cool in the summer and warm in the winter.
As a Brit, I often find the American pronunciation of Jaguar different to how we say it. We tend to say it like jag-you-are, whereas Americans seem to say it like jag-warr. I always find accents fascinating. Cool video with lots of things I didn't know. I really enjoy the insight into two foreign cultures through these videos.
Obviously, since the car company is British, we should defer to your pronunciation, but I wonder how Spanish speakers say it, as it is the name the Spaniards gave to a South American big cat.
And, as far as accents go, it is kind of sad that regional dialects in the US are dieing due to the prevalence of the "west coast" accent on TV and in movies, especially in news programs. I saw a PBS video on this ~15 years ago, and learned about the Pittsburgh dialect and some others in small pockets of the South I didn't realize existed.
@@michaelb1761 Good point. My personal view is people getting uptight about pronunciations is silly. Whatever flows best in the accent you speak with is the best pronunciation in my opinion.
@Jonathan Parks they aren't called that in the US, except for maybe by Spanish speakers. Most English speakers will say Mt Lion or Cougar or possibly Catamount.
@@realkorgo Eh, I live up north, Flugratten are way too common here, to confuse the Golden M with arches, when they are clearly a bastardbird in flight
I have spent enough time Germany and have learned enough German to not be surprised by German pronunciations of American companies. But I learned so much more about the origins of the companies from Felicia's posting. Fun and informative! By the way, denim, which Levi Strauss used to make his jeans, was invented in Nimes, France. Thus the name de Nimes (denim).
Funny you mentioned McDonald's, when I lived in germany I went there quite a bit. I later found out McDonald's wanted to sell their hamburger buns to germany, but the germans didn't like them. The bakers told McDonald's that they wouldn't sell, so the bakers made their own version of the hamburger buns that the germans did like. They also sell bier at McDonald's, which I found unusual. You also have to pay for the ketchup, because it has to be shipped from overseas. You can get mayo for free, so most of us soldiers would get mayo. I remember going to a gasthaus for lunch one time & told they didn't have ketchup from my friend, you get mayo. So we learned to eat our pomme frittes w/mayo. Ty for the video Felicia, enjoyed it.
They stopped selling beer at McDonald's in Germany a long time ago. Haven't seen that for at least 15 years, maybe 20. And you don't have to pay for the Ketchup because it's shipped from overseas, lol. German MacDonald's gets its ketchup from Develey in Bavaria. We got tomatoes in Europe, it's not that hard to make! You can literally buy a big bottle of Ketchup for 50 cents at every supermarket if you don't want the more expensive brand names. No, MacDonald's gives you a tiny packet of Ketchup for free and sells extra packets because they can! Because they are a quasi monopoly together with Burger King and they both agree on selling tiny, expensive packets of Ketchup and not having free refills for drinks.
In my experience, some German Mac Donald's who used to be frequented by a lot of American soldiers in the past did things differently, for example they offered free refills. One of them that I used to frequent literally stopped offering free refills after the big US barracks in the neighborhood were closed down.
@@highks496 Thank you for the information Heiko, I didn't know some of that stuff. I was in germany back in the 80's so a lot has changed since then. Thanks!
It's all to do with the bizarre contracts from the media companies. There's no rhyme or reason to it. Example - the Glee TV show was broadcast in Europe two days after the US - Hawaii Five-O on the other hand is broadcast so far after the US that we get the Halloween episode for Christmas and the Christmas episode at Easter. This just encourages people to use VPNs.
@@hairyairey 3 Months is actually nothing compared to other shows. Agents of shield for example was 2-3 years late, depending on the season. When the sixth season aired in the US, Germany was still running the 4th season. Thats why I imported the blu-rays from the UK for the first 4 seasons and later on used a VPN to watch it on Netflix America 😅
I kinda knew it existed but it really hit home when I was overseas and added a crap-ton of titles to my Netflix queue only to find they disappeared when I returned to the States.
in Canada we have the Tim Horton's coffee restaurant, but most Canadians refer to the restaurant as Tim's or Timmy's. It was even confusing to me as a Canadian when my friends said they were going to eat at Tim's one time and asked me to come along. I thought we were going to a person' s house for popcorn and was surprised when we went to a coffee shop instead. lol!
Interesting to hear some Germans nickname McDonalds the same as the UK. "Maccas" or "Maccies". Nike is pronounced right by Germans and us Brits :D I'll go with Americans don't know how to pronounce their own brands (j/k) I will say though, Jaguar is actually pronounced wrong in America, the English pronounciation is "Jag-you-ah/arr".
The shoes were named after the Greek goddess Nike which is pronounced Neekay, so I don't think anyone got that right. As far as the automobile goes, I think we pronounce it more closely to the original Portuguese pronunciation which is where the word to describe the animal originated. In other words, instead of pronouncing Jaguar (JAG-you-are) as most British do, we say it as if we were speaking of the animal (Ja-gwaar). The original Portuguese had a softer J sound with the middle part being the same and ended with an er (Ja-gwaar-e). Spanish and Portuguese now drops the e sound at the end.
We nickname McDonalds as "Mickey-Ds" sometimes in the US also. And no, "Jag-you-are" is the worst sounding anglicized name ever. You named it after OUR cat (native here, not in the UK), which is a "Jag-whar".
In the US, Drive-thrus are restaurants where you drive around the building to order and get your food; whereas, drive-ins are places like Sonic Drive-in or drive-in movie theatres. Sonic Drive-in is a restaurant where you can drive up to a menu park your car and carhops deliver the food to your car, many Sonic Drive-ins have recently redesigned to include both a drive-thru and the drive up menus. A drive-in movie theatre is a movie theatre in a parking lot with a huge screen, where you can watch movie while parked in your car. There are currently only 321 drive-in movie theatres still open in the US. In the US, a common nickname for McDonald's is Mickey Dees. I have no idea how that started.
My Oma and and Great-Oma used to speak German around me when they didn't want me to understand. Recently, Ive begun to learn German because I miss it. I learn so much from your videos. Thank you
TBF, Germans are probably pronouncing Heinz correctly its us Americans who messed it up (one of my great-grandfathers immigrated from Germany so my paternal Grandmother and her side of the family all pronounced it the German way).
My last name is technically pronounced wrong in the US as well, but we gave up on that a long time ago, my great great grandfather immigrated from Bendorf, Germany, but was born in Prossekel (now in Poland, not far from Poznan or Szczicin), his name was Ferdinand Degner (as was written down, but last name has variations and German pronunciation is difficult to know what exactly it was, and I'm omitting middle names for safety purposes), but went by Fred (as indicated on his tombstone in Springfield, Illinois), he had 5 children, only 4 survived to adulthood, the one that died was named Emil Otto (a cursed name in my family seeing as they tried and failed to give the name 7 times).
I'd say the same applies to Heinz ;) In general, I think for words and names that exist in different languages, the local pronunciation is just fine - such as Amazon, Mustang, Jaguar, Heinz, Hertz. Nike is quite debatable. That is completely messed up either way. The greek origin would be pronounced Níkē.
@@danielschurmann7558 I found quite often that brands not only live with a local pronunciation, but use them in advertising as well. I guess being recognized in a local pronunciation has more value than trying to insist on the "correct" pronunciation and have people struggling with recognizing the name. Of course on the other hand there are a lot of names where people simply do not know the correct way because they never heard it and from reading, especially if a word exists e.g. in German as well, who would think of using a different pronunciation.
@@thomasthomasthomas296 fun fact: German youtuber Robin Blase (Rob Bubble) did host the english web videos of the MSC and did pronounce his name the American way like blaze
Well hello Feli, nice to see you again, just what everybody needed, a dose of Feli's energy and infectious wonderful smile, today is looking brighter already🥰❤️
Fun fact: adobe is a clay mixture used in a lot of traditional Southwestern architecture. It's excellent for insulation; keeping adobe buildings warmer in winter and cooler in summer ☺ Also, I've known a lot of Americans who use the French pronunciation for Ralph Lauren. Great video!
Döners is actually my favorite food that I miss. I know it’s Turkish, but the abundance of these places throughout Germany is fantastic. We have Turks and other mederterranin food in the US (I live in NYC) and it’s not the same. I suppose Feli doesn’t eat Döner Kebaps tho...
@@Henning_S. Original Turkish Döner does exist in Turkey, but from what I understand it is quite different from the "German" Döner. It was re-invented by Turks in Germany as a fast food with more German ingredients and for German tastes.
Döner is Turkish. The meat is called Döner. In most countries its called kebab. It's also the same. The rest is marketing. The Turkish people who sell it don't want to call it Turkish to sell more of their stuff. And it's not "invented". Putting meat in a bread is not inventing. Its just putting meat in a bread ;) tourkalas.wordpress.com/2018/04/30/the-inventer-of-doner-kebab/
@@JonDoe123456 You seem to think that I'm making more of it than it is. I know all these facts, it's fully called "Dönerkebap", while one part of the word stands for the meat, and the other part stands for the skewer it is mounted on in order to be grilled, I just don't remember which was which, but it's not important. The only thing that I know is that it became a "trend" in Germany that actually started in Berlin, I think in the late 70s or early 80s, when some Turkish guest workers who were imported after WW2 to help building up the country looked for different revenue streams, so they basically put meat in bread and gave it a fancy name.
Interesting that Cougar was one of the alternate names suggested for the Mustang, as Mercury (a division of Ford) produced the Mercury Cougar, the Mercury version of the Mustang. So the Mustang actually was named the Cougar, sort of.
Somebody has probably already pointed out "Which-it-AW Kansas" but still LOVE your vids! Keep it up. One of my new favorite sites when work is slow and I get a little spare time.
I've always wanted to comment this: "I met a German girl in England, who was going to school in France, and we danced the Mississippi at an Alpha Kappa dance." Thank you.
It really is genius. And you know what? Because „everything“ at McDonalds has the Mc in the name the term Chicken McNuggets is really common for any Chicken Nuggets. So you will hear people say that they wanna have Chicken McNuggets at Burger King or when they want to buy some in the grocery store.
Yes, I've said that before - she has really clear diction. I think it helps that she smiles with every word. I watch a number of American TV programs and the actors mumble so much I have to put the subtitles on!
@@craigh.9810 If I didn’t know she wasn’t American I would still guess she’s from some other country. I can still hear a hint of accent. I just probably wouldn’t guess Germany.
When you were talking about the history of Pizza Hut at the 7:00 mark, you pronounced the name of Wichita, Kansas as Witch-EE-tah. The correct pronunciation is "WITCH-i-TAW" (short "i" in the second syllable).
The "I" in the middle I've heard pronounced like you said but also like "witch - a - taw" as well as the slightly different "Witch -uh- taw". The hard "I" is what I've always thought to be the correct way, though the native Americans the city is named after may actually be pronounced the way she said it. "Whi-cheet- ah" #Murica
I call it witch-ee-tah.. I am from WA state and unless you actually here it often.. it is called the way she did it. 😁😁😁 Yosemite.. I called it Yo-Se-Mite for years... 😂😂😂😂
Haha I'm American and I've always pronounced Ralph Lauren as "Lor-EN" instead of "Lor-en" I guess I just assumed that because it's posh it should be pronounced in a European way
if it was pronounced the French way, you wouldn't even say EN : D just check how Yves Saint Laurent is properly pronounced : ) (in french, not just english bs : D ) I'm not American but I always knew that Ralph Lauren is American company and it's read like a girl's name - Lauren : )
In Austria we pronounce Colgate pretty much correctly (despite speaking German too), I remember as a child I always wondered why they pronounce it like that in German TV commercials. Also Hertz is also the name for the unit for frequency (with the tz) and it is named after the German scientist Heinrich Hertz so that may be a reason why it's pronounced like that in German :)
In Germany, you might still have to pronounce some American brands the German way because otherwise people won't understand you. I remember once ordering "urinary" special food at the vet's, and they didn't understand me until I pronounced it the German way.
8:47 This reminds me that I sometimes say Zuckerberg the way you would pronounce it in german instead of the american english way, most of the time I do it as joke to confuse people.
The interesting thing about this phenomenon is that most european languages who were in some connection with german words, for example jewish last names also pronounce his name the german way. Like in all eastern European languages his name is pronounced the german way, not english.
Fun video. Question, Feli: Do you use notes when you are reciting all that information? It does not look like it. If not, it is really impressive that you can recall all that detailed information with names and dates, etc. And even if not, your presentations still are impressive. Suggestion: It would be helpful for you to repeat more than once or twice the alternate German pronunciations. They go by so quickly. Thanks.
That's true but it didn't bother me that much and I'm from Kansas. Having lived in Germany from 2003 to 2006 I'd say her grasp of American pronunciation is excellent. However, we have a lot of locations with Native-American names that drive most foreigners crazy.
I dont think anyone that isn't from Wichita or Kansas says it right lol. Im from Wichita KS and the first Pizza Hut building is on the WSU campus and it's still there. It's now a museum
I love the way your accent balances a fine line between German and American. Can you just say Germany a few more times, please. We say Germany but you say Germaneee. Lovely.
What I really like about this video is the background information that you give on all of these brands. For some of them I didn't even know they were American (as you said, as a German you could easily think Heinz was German. I was also surprised about Hertz and Colgate, though :D) It's a really interesting video, thanks for that. Also that was the first time I've ever heard the proper pronuncation of Levi's! I've never dared to even mention the shop because I had no clue how to pronounce that one :D Still I think that there's no problem with "adapting" brand names and pronouncing them in a way that is closer to the original language (like in cases of Mustang or Jaguar or Heinz, which actually do look like German words). Other languages do that as well and I think it's natural. But it is interesting to hear the story behind and how the name is pronounced originally in the country of its origin. And it becomes kind of weird when it ends up in some weird mix of German-English :D
I knowww haha I said it correctly at first but messed up the rest of the sentence and when I repeated it, I messed up the city name but didn't notice it in the moment. It's hard!
Thanks Rich ... as a Wichitan, I was going to comment. Hi Feli, just think, more places for you to visit :) and hear “funny sounding” American accents. Love the videos !
American name pronunciations can be very hard since the origin could be anything from native American (so many names in Washington) to Spanish to French, etc.
9:42 As far as I'm aware, the _zs_ digraph is only used in Hungarian, where it makes a "zh" sound, like the letter _j_ in French and Portuguese, or _ž_ in most Slavic languages. One thing that's important to know about Hungarian is that the letter S makes a "sh" sound for some reason, so to make a "s" sound you just put a Z after it. And of course, the reverse is true for the reverse of that digraph.
Interesting side bar. During the Haagen - Dazs segment you mentioned Bronx NY. Everyone in NY always refers to that area as The Bronx. We never say Queens, Brooklyn and Bronx. It would always be Queens, Brooklyn and the Bronx. Just another strange U.S. thing.
Feli, I lived in Bremerhaven for three years and even learned a little Platt-Deutsch. Your videos are very enjoyable! I did catch a blunder it the item about the founders of Pizza Hut. You mentioned the city in Kansas named Wichita which I believe you pronounced “wi-CHEE-tah” but is pronounced “WI-chi-taw” Mach weiter so mit der tollen Arbeit! Du bist sehr talentiert, weil du schön bist! Tschüss!
Love the research you’ve done for this! I found out about the pronounciation for Nike when I worked at a Nike store for a few months. When you first start working at a Nike branch, they tell you how to pronounce it and give you some background history. An interesting Spanish brand, for a car manufacturer, that gets mispronounced is Seat. It gets even English speakers 😂 cuz it never got “Americanised” in terms of pronunciation.
With 2654 comments, I imagine at least 260 people have already noted that at 7:01 of your video on mispronunciation of American names that you mispronounce Wichita. The mild irony induced a smile.
Hey Feli, I think the German pronounciation for Hertz being as it is comes from the German physicist Heinrich Rudolf Hertz (1857 - 1894). Same way of writing -> same way to pronounce it.
3 года назад+25
Actually, "mustang" is "more precise" the way German say it. It comes from "mustango" (Spanish).
11:56. _Software_ is an uncountable noun in English. The word represents the abstract concept, not a "physical" thing. So, "software" refers to that concept regardless of whether you're talking about more than one or not. Thus, it never takes a -s for plurality. Ever.
The cat food brand Sheeba used the English pronounciation when it entered the German market. As many Germans pronounced it like Shey-bah, the spelling was changed to Sheba and it's called like the customers decided now.
When I first arrived in Germany with the British Army I befriended a German girl and we went Ice skating, I kept bumping into people and asked her what the German was for "Sorry" She told me it was "Entschuldigung" which I thought was such a stupid sounding word it couldn't possible be true. Perhaps you could make a video on the most absurd sounding words in German (To US and Brits) that are actually everyday words in Germany. Great channel by the way, I have no idea why I like it!! Meant in the nicest possible way.
I never thought about Entschuldigung that way but the more I think about it you are kind of right. It is a really silly sounding name for the situation one would use it in. Translated directly it means something like „de-obligate“ which is just „Excuse me“.
You gave "Jaguar" a typically American pronunciation. But the British say it a bit differently. Rendered by someone from the UK, it will typically come out sounding something like “JAG-you-are" Or, perhaps more accurately, "JAG-you-uhh," since Brits do have a tendency to drop those r's. If you look, you'll find entire RUclips videos dedicated to the subject of how to pronounce "Jaguar" in British and American English. If I recall correctly, Jeremy Clarkson, a co-host of the British tv-series "Top Gear," would actually make fun of the way Americans pronounced "Jaguar."
Click and Clack, the Car Guys, kept pronouncing it "JAG-you-are" on their radio show in the early 90s. One day they received a phone call from a Brit, the chief executive of American operations for the company, and he demanded that they start saying it properly, "Jag-Wah" because that had class.
Your videos captivate me and your English is so perfect. It amazes me how you switch from german to English so seamlessly. I love your videos, you are so smart and so good at explaining things. Out of all the RUclips stars I’d love to meet, you are definitely in the top 5, maybe even the top 3! P.S. I don’t usually comment stuff like this but i kinda have a huge crush on you, you seem perfect in all the right ways. And i mean that in the most respectful way possible of course. Okay, this is wired now haha, I’m not sure why i just typed that but yeah. Have a nice day!
As a third generation American taking German as a second language with German ancestors living in the German imagrant concentrated midwest US. I can testify that many Americans say heintz the "German" way with the "ts" sound. Thus, I think it is safe to conclude that the pronunciation of "Heintz" is in fact a regional difference in the USA itself. Great video!
Das ist aber wie bei Colgate, wenn die deutsche Werbung es so benennt, dann kann man es der Kundschaft nicht vorwerfen, dass sie es genauso auspricht. Die Firma hatte offensichtlich selbst Interesse daran, es auf deutsch deutsch klingen zu lassen.
At 7:45 you remarked how Germans struggle to pronounce "thru" as in "drive-thru". When I was in college a JAPANESE exchange student called me "Nasan" instead of Nathan (as CHILDREN often do as well) for the same reason! Apparently pronouncing "th" is an enigma for children and a LOT of nationalities! :oD
That's because the "th" sound only exists in a few select languages today. Of the West and North Germanic languages only English and Icelandic kept it while German, Dutch, Frisian, Luxembourgish, Yiddish as well as Danish, Faroese, Norwegian, and Swedish all gradually dropped it and made it a "d" or "t" sound. This started some 1500 years ago with the second Germanic consonant shift (rolling into the so-called High German consonant shift with more specific sound changes to the High German dialects only).
Nathan is pronounced with a "t" in German (not a very common name but known from literature: "Nathan der Weise" by Gotthold Ephraim Lessing, first published 1779 in Berlin)
Fun fact from Scotland... As McDonald is a common name here we have had several instances of the burger company trying to sue businesses for using the name (even if they don’t sell food) however it is perfectly legal in the U.K. to use your name for a business. Now all they have to do is not use the trademarked Golden Arches!
That compensates if anglo-american speakers telling about "meters" or "volts" or "kilograms" - because Physical Units are always in singular, too - there is no plural form of them. 1 Meter - 25 Meter 1 Volt - 230 Volt 1 Kilogramm - 80 Kilogramm
@F. Q. Du widersprichst mit der Behauptung, "meters" mit "s" würde doch existieren, und schreibst dann in Deinem eigenen Beispiel doch "100 Meter..." OHNE s - danke für Deinen Humor ;-)!
@F. Q. Bitte den Ironiedetektor ölen :-) Es ging ursprünglich darum, daß Feli den "falschen" englischen Plural "softwares" benutzte. Daraufhin schrieb ich, daß die "Anderen" mit ihrem Plural-S hinter Einheiten auch etwas "falsch" machen - als "Ausgleich". Das war alles nur ein kleiner Scherz. Ich weiß sehr wohl, daß jede Sprache ihre eigenen Mechanismen nutzt. Und was hat eine Fallendung jetzt mit Plural zu tun? Da sind wir jenseits von Äpfel und Birnen auf die Nüsse gekommen...... muß nicht sein. Schon gar nicht am Sonntag. Und erst recht nicht bei der netten Feli. Schönes Wochenende ;-)!
@F. Q. Ich habe die ganze Zeit geschrieben, daß wir im Deutschen das Plural-s nicht benutzen - aber Du hast den ursprünglichen Witz immer noch nicht begriffen. Der Klügere ist jetzt raus.
15:57 "Hertz" (the unit) and "Herz" (heart) are pronounced the same in German. So, I would say rather than pronouncing it like "Herz" Germans just see it as/like the German word/name "Hertz" (after Heinrich Hertz). ;)
When the band Motley Crue came up with their name and logo, they added an umlaut over the 'o' and 'u' because they were drinking Lowenbrau beer and thought it looked cool. No big deal in the English speaking world but in Germany it was a different story when people said the band name. The British band Motorhead had done the same a few years prior.
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Metal_umlaut The article used to be longer and funnier years ago, when it was titled "Heavy metal umlaut." Shame it was edited into its current form.
@@hairyairey How could you have it and not watch it??? It's one of the funniest movies of all time. The whole thing was mostly improvised by comedic geniuses. "Turned up to 11" comes from this movie.
I got one for you! :) The Germans pronounce Palmolive as you did: Palm-Olive; in the US it is one word , Palmolive. (Palmaliv)and the second syllable is accentuated. I have to add something else concerning the German 'W'. It si not the first time you mentioned Germans pronounce it like the 'V'. Not so everywhere! In Franken and also Bavaria. We say W in Wasser...I never heard a south or middle German say Vasser.. If they do they were most likely around family from other regions. Almost the same with the letter "R" but that can wait....that is a big one and often gets personal when mentioned. When the German population sifted so did some of the speech and a lot of the changes came from North German. It is odd that the North Germans and even their children will not adopt the accents or dialects of their new homes. ( I can hear the jokes made now.; we Bavarian know what you RALLY think of us! :) I don't blame you! Imagine Einstein or Beethoven in Lederhosen. No!) I enjoy your videos very much and I am in awe how well you speak American and how well you adopted to your new life.. Amazing! We are from Dayton, left and returned to finish our masters in business admin. Ohio for the most part is so flat that I always loved Cincinnati because right after that comes Kentucky and there my eyes could feast on some rocks and mountains. I missed our Bavarian Berge most....forever homesick and found much later the majestic mountains in the western United States! I called them the American Alps. :) I blabber....sorry. Thanks for your videos and I can only imagine the work it takes for a German who is always driven to to do everything perfect...you succeeded! Please excuse misspellings, backwards sentences as I can not re-read clearly what I typed. When I attempted to make the fond larger I messed up and it got even smaller and I am afraid to get back in and really mess it up! I am 82 and I hope that works as an excuse because I have no other.
Colgate: within german speeking countries there are differences in pronounciation. In Austrian commercials is used the american form. An other example is the french brand Michelin ==> in Germany it is used the german pronounciation in Austria the french one.
Funfact for those not American: fomoco (ford motor company), ended up using Torino for an iconic late 60’s large body muscle car, and under the Mercury brand they used Cougar for an upscale car that shared the Mustang platform.
I think Dana from Wanted Adventure once mentioned that "Weber" Grill is an American brand and is pronounced like "Webber." Personally, I was also amazed at "Pfizer" (pronounced like "Pfeiser") in the context of the vaccination debate, I thought the name of the company is "Pfitzer". (McDonald's: in our area we call it "Mäckes" and some people refer to it as "The golden M" ("Wollen wir zum Goldenen M gehen?")
Not the worst idea: "Das Unternehmen wurde von Charles Pfizer (eigentlich Karl Pfizer) und dessen Cousin Charles F. Erhart aus Ludwigsburg als Charles Pfizer & Company 1849 in Brooklyn, New York, gegründet." - so at least a german pronounciation can be justified.
Weber is a German surname and means "weaver". It's the fifth most common German family name, so I don't really care how the Americans want to pronounce it. It's Weber and not "Webber" ;)
I'm German and even though I speak English very well, I still pronounce most of them wrong because I learned them that way. That really bothers me now 😅
You guys loved my video about 15 German brands Americans pronounce wrong (ruclips.net/video/PGx5lEDLC4Q/видео.html), so I decided to make a counterpart and talk about *15 AMERICAN brands that Germans tend to pronounce wrong* - and I'm sure people in many other countries too. I hope you guys like it :) Let me know what other brands you can add to the list in the comments below! 👇
The way you said Jaguar; Jag-warr, is the American pronunciation; the British say Jag-u-ar.
Wichita - witch-i-tah.
When I moved to the US in the 1970’s after having grown up in Germany, I was in for some surprises! The world wasn’t connected the way it is now. As you stated correctly, some brands are so old that the English pronunciation wasn’t used in those days. I thought Colgate was German, and actually did say, oh, you have that over here, too? Ah yeah, we do, it’s American! I do like the German pronunciation better, though! 😄. The absolute weirdest thing I came across though was “Der Wienerschnitzel”. (I think you mentioned that in another video). Wrong article, wrong description. When I informed people here that it’s Das Wienerschnitzel, and no, a Wienerschnitzel is not a hotdog, they looked at me sort of incredulously. Even to this day many Americans think it’s a Hot Dog! I’ve never set foot in a Wienerschnitzel!
Thank you, Felicia, I am enjoying your videos very much! You perfectly express the Zwiespalt I am sometimes feeling!
And Jaguar is now owned by Tata group
I like to see other countries impression of what they see and think about America.
In the United States "Jaguar" is usually pronounced "Jag-war," however in Great Britain where the car brand originated it would be pronounced "Jag-you-are."
True, and it is the correct way of pronouncing the car brand. Not even sure the American way is correct, given they are not native to the US either.
@@owenshebbeare2999 lol yes Jaguars are native to the southern United States
@@thecampverdekid806 🤣
@@thecampverdekid806 There's bunch of them in Jacksonville.
Interestingly, the word comes to English via Portuguese, and is originally from a native Amazon language. I don't know what it sounds like in its original language but the American English pronunciation is closer to the (Brazilian) Portuguese than the British version is.
I live here in Wichita where Pizza Hut was founded and they have the original building with a museum in it. Oh, by the way the name of the town is pronounced Which-it-ah
I was going to mention the pronunciation of Witchita too! First time I've heard someone say "Wich-ee-ta"
@@MollyFC . That would probably be the Native American pronunciation.
@@rockyracoon3233
She did mention that she wanted to pronounce the names like the founders would. ;)
As a German, if you’ve watched “Zombieland”, you know how to pronounce it. Actually. ^^
Nope, from now on I'm going to call it wiCHEEta! Love it.
“Hertz” in German is not only pronounced like the word for heart, but also like the unit for frequency (Hz), which was named after a German after all. ;)
Heinrich
@@robz.3225 Exactly. :)
“On how many GigaHeinrich is the new intel chip running?” ;)
@@3.k wasnt his name Heinrich Hertz? Otherwise it would make no sense to call it Hz.
@@jtk5274
Yes, that was his name.
Hertz the company is also pronounced like the unit for frequency in English, but not quite the same as the German version.
I'm italian, we practically pronounce all the brands like people in Germany
That's very interesting!
Similarities may be depending on the phonetic alphabet, the vowel pronunciations can be similar in some langauages, and English pronunciation is different. Example.. the “I” in English is not pronounced “eee” the English “a “ has a different pronunciation as well where it seems to me German, Spanish, Italian have more similar vowel pronunciations.
I only think this because if I pronounced my German surname with the 1 vowel in my surname with the sound of that vowel as it’s pronounced Spanish ir German or even Italian maybe instead of the English pronunciation of that same vowel maybe people could spell my name correctly? Lol
Also “adidas” Americans pronounce it with the enlightenment vowel sounds. Imagine if Americans knew the Spanish vowel sounds and pronounced it using Spanish phonetic sounds, it would sound closer to how Italians and Germans pronounce Adidas.
I'm surprised that in Spanish we pronounce so similarly to German. Italian and Spanish... We're cousins, if not brothers.
You´d might be surprised, but in the Czech Republic (where I am from) we pronounce all the brands like german people even when our language is slavic.
even in Russia we're pronouncing most of them more like German way. May be because we have much more phonetical orthography than English has.
Loved the pronunciation of Wichita as wi-CHEE-tuh instead of WI-chuh-tah (or WI-chuh-taw).
Yes that was great! Most of the time I can barely hear her accent, but that brought it out. I live in Massachusetts and often when TV reporters come here from other states to work they mispronounce some of our towns. They pronounce them phonetically and like a lot of English words, these place names don't follow the rules. For instance, Leominster is pronounced Lemminster and Worchester is pronounced Worster. So it's not just foreigners who get these things wrong. Lol
I wouldn't be surprised if her pronunciation was closer to the original Native American. Most Native American place names do have the emphasis on the penultimate syllable.
City names are a big one. You can always tell who the transplants and tourists are by the way they pronounce them. Here in southeastern Michigan we have a lot of these.
Novi Michigan (pronounced nō vai) took its name from the fact that it was the sixth stop on the newly founded American postal route. Since it was the sixth stop, they combined the abbreviation for "number" with the Roman numeral six - Novi.
Lake Orion, Michigan is not pronounced like the constellation! The second "o" is pronounced like a short "e" as in Lake Orien (emphasis on the first O not the i).
Ann Arbor is simply known as A² (that's "A squared). Of course Detroit is know colloquially as "The D".
At the top of "the mitten" we have Traverse City which many people pronounce wrong. Normally the emphasis would be on the last syllable but here it is on the first and the last "s" is subdued.
The one that everyone gets wrong (including many native Michigsnders) is Mackinac Island. The name - like many Michigan names - comes from the Algonquin language spoken by many native American tribes in the region. The last syllable is pronounced like the word "gnaw". So Mackinac is pronounced like Makinaw. Fun fact: many American words were borrowed directly from Algonquin like Raccoon. The reason this is so is because from the late 1700s through early 1800s was dominated by the fur trade. Beaver furs to be exact. And the best area for trading beavers was the Great Lakes region where Algonquin family languages were spoken. So if one wanted to trade beaver fur at that time, you had to first learn to speak Algonquin. Fort Michilimackinac was first founded as a military garrison during the Revolutionary War. It was the epicenter of the burgeoning beaver fur trade for approximately 100 years!
We also have a rich history with French names. Some Michigan cities and many streets have French names. One street that always trips people up is Dequindre. The "re" at the end is pronounced as if the letters are transposed, and the emphasis is on the second syllable. One street closer to my house is named Lasher, which many pronounce as "lasher".
I get a chuckle when I hear people trying to pronounce Olathe or Osawatomie. :)
@@MrBrelindm The big one here in Vermont is "Charlotte". Here it's pronounced "sher -LOT". "Barre" is often mispronounced too, it's "BARE-ee" here and not "BAR" like in Ballet, but "Wilkes-Barre" prompts some people to pronounce it right. There's also Berlin, which is topical. Here it's "BURR-lin"
Again, I appreciate not only learning pronunciation differences, but also the history behind these. Thanks!
I love how much information you add instead of just throwing the pronunciations out thete and just ending there. It's kind of funny someone from Germany can teach me things I don't know myself about my own country. Awesome job.
Being an 'old timer' who studied German throughout my schooling years and still tries to keep up, I enjoy your channel because you bring new things to the table. Thanks for the content.
Ja, sie ist wirklich erstaunlich!
ha ha "Oldtimer" is the German word for classic car
the pronunciation of "jaguar' actually varies greatly. in the US it's mostly pronounced how you say it. british people usually seem to say "jag-yoo-ar". and i think canada is split between the american pronunciation and saying "jag-wire"
My Chicago self over here saying "Jag-wahr"
It should be pronounced jag-you-ar there is no W in it
@@andy70d35 the reduced u pronunciation with no palletization results in the rounding of the lips, which then turns into a W sound as the mouth transitions into the A sound. this happens even when in the "jag-you-ar" pronunciation where it tends to lean towards "jag-you-war".
Australians use "jag-yoo-ar". or "jag-yoo-a".
@@binaway Keep trying, you guys will eventually get it. 🤣
One of Pizza Hut's earliest slogans in their German commercials was "Pizza Hut - rundherum gut". I still remember the jingle. At least back then the company itself prounounced its name wrong here in Germany.
oder vielleicht wollten die das auch einfach Hut nennen wir das aufm Kopf. Muss ja nicht komplett amerikanisch ausgesprochen werden
With your comment on the difference between U.S. and German ice creams have you ever made your way up to Findlay, Ohio. We have Dietsch Brothers founded by two German immigrants, a contender for top ten best ice cream makers in world, and they still traditionally make all their ice cream in the store, they also make German chocolates as well as Americanized chocolate. Worth the trip if you like sweets.
The german pronunciation of "amazon" is actually closer to "amazonas" the name of the river in Portuguese (the language spoken in Brazil where the river is).
yes and in German we also call the river "Amazonas", we just took the Portuguese name and did not delete the -as like in the English name for the river. Of course there are subtle pronunciation differences, but it sounds similar as well.
I think germans got that pronunciation from greek. The word Amazonas is originaly greek.
Fascinating, thank you. I appreciate all of the company history research that must have gone into making this video.
YES..I so agree with you. This young lady is refreshing..while educating us Americans 😊
i remember, especially when i was younger, when you pronounced "nike" the right way in germany, most people would "correct" you and would say "nik-e" is wrong :D
It’s like telling someone that they are pronouncing their personal name incorrectly.
Feli, considering how late I am in finding this video, you may never see this comment. Nevertheless, you may know by now that the USA has a LOT of cities and towns pronounced in very unexpected ways, mostly because of borrowing from a multitude of languages (specifically, Basque, British English, Dutch, French, German, Greek, Hawaiian, Hebrew, Italian, Latin, Old Norse, Portuguese, Russian, Scottish Gaelic, Spanish, Swedish, Welsh, plus at least 70 tribal languages, some Anglicized, some not). The reason I bring this up is because of the segment on Pizza Hut being started in Wichita (WITCH-uh-taw).
There aren't as many McDonald's nicknames as there used to be, such as Ronald's House, Mac's Steak House, Mickey D's, and Golden Arches Supper Club.
Right? Witch-EE-ta was the only place Feli stumbled without knowing it
@@SharpAssKnittingNeedles , yes, she's learned English extremely well--not the slightest hint of an accent.
👍yup, that wit-CHEE-ta made me chuckle too, but in her defense I've discovered that city name pronunciations are very local. For example, how would you pronounce Vienna? If you are in Austria or Virginia it's vee-ENN-a. In Ohio a small city near Youngstown calls itself vi-ANN-a. Crazy, but who's to tell all of them they're wrong? LOL.
@@robertlarson8370 , good point! Also, I never cease to be amazed by her absolutely perfect, non-accented English. She's amazing, as well as a looong way from ugly--very long way!
We still say Mickey D's. Or sometimes joke about eating Scottish food. Though, I think "Mc" is Irish; "Mac" is Scottish.
Not German, but....My daughter and I rescued a French family who were stranded, with two flat tires, in Death Valley. Driving them to their hotel, they told us they were headed to Yoze Mite next. I kept thinking, where? After they'd said it a few times, I realized they meant Yosemite National Park. LOL
For the curious, it’s pronounced “yoh-SEM-it-ee” in English, which was borrowed from the Miwok language, according to Wikipedia.
True, i did this wrong pronunciation just one single time on my first Visit to Yose mite 😂
I learned it at last when Apple had this as OS name. 🇩🇪
Well heck, that was nice of u!
Native American nouns tend to throw a lot of non-Americans off a bit. Yosemite is a Miwok tribe word that literally means "those who kill". Learned that in 2nd grade back in the early 70's when my Family lived in Mariposa(also in Tuolumne County like the park is) for a year.
Nike is esspecially funny to me because "Niih-keh" is the more correct pronounciation for the Greek Goddess this brand is named after^^
It is
Was about to say this.
Same here :-)
Just because Nike is named after the Greek Goddess, doesn't mean the correct pronounciation should be 'Niih-keh' though. 'Nik' sounds like a nickname.
I have a coworker who's Hungarian and her name is Enniko, but for short she goes by Niké, and it's pronounced "knee-kay".
Felicia, you totally cracked me up. I loved this video, and then when you were talking about Pizza Hut, you said it was founded in wi-cheetah, Kansas. I haven't heard anyone pronounce that city name like that for a long time. It is a Native American name and is pronounced WI-chi-taw, accent on the first syllable, all short vowel sounds. Love your content still, I hope you are well and making it through pandemic fine.
Feli, you've accidentally given me the idea to suggest a video on "Place Names"! Early on, you referred to a place in the state of Kansas as [wi - 'chee-tah]. 🙂 After a second or so, I deciphered what you meant: the city of Wichita, pronounced [ 'witch-i-taw]. I encountered some other interesting mispronunciations while living in Switzerland: Canada's ['NEE - ah - gara] Falls, and ['FUH nix] Arizona. Maybe seeds for segment?
I had to do a double take and rewind to make sure I heard her correctly. And yep she indeed did flub Wichita.
@@coreymunroe8073 Can't blame her, though. "WITCH-i-taw" is not how anyone would pronounce it if they hadn't already heard it before. Indeed, Feli's pronunciation is exactly what one *_would_* expect, based on the spelling.
Calgary in Canada is pronounced CAL-gary and Regina is pronounced Reg-GINa (rhymes with vagina). Most American broadcasters (especially regarding hockey) pronounced them incorrectly. I was surprised to hear how broadcasters went from KEY-ehve to KEY-v when the war broke in the Ukraine.
@@alanef4127 Not to step on your toes, but if I may interject for a moment....
For the sake of others reading this thread, I would probably modify your phonetic spelling of the pronunciation of Calgary and Regina to make it easier to understand and pronounce, as follows:
CAL-guh-ree [and] ruh-JYNE-uh.
And I, too, was intrigued by broadcasters' change of the traditional pronunciation of the capital of Ukraine after the country was invaded.
I cracked up at the irony of mispronouncing Wichita in a video about mispronouncing American names. I have heard people from other countries mispronounce it as well. I come from Louisville, KY, just 2 hours south of Cincinnati and it's a name lots of people all across the US mispronounce. The farthest away from home I've been was to Los Angeles and when introduced to someone the first question they asked me is how to pronounce the city's name. If you are a fan of horse racing or college basketball you would know. The announcers usually get it right. Incidentally, during the run to Louisville's 3rd national championship we played Wichita State in the Final Four and a rarely used player came up big for us in that game and became nicknamed Wichita. I don't think anyone has called him Wuhcheeta though.
Witch-ih-tah. You pronounced Wichita in the cutest way I’ve ever heard but...wih-cheetah is wrong 😂 keep doing you. We love ya!
"Adobe" is also a type of brick, often found in the southwestern US and Spanish for "mudbrick."
I always assumed that was the derivation of the way the word is pronounced
Fun fact, Adobe is named after Adobe Creek in Palo Alto, CA, which runs near the house that one of the founders lived in at the time.
@Grand Moff Porkins That is a real tongue-twister.
Yes,I was surprised there were US people mispronouncing it.
Adobe is a Spanish word. In English it originally was a scientific term for clay soils. Add some water and mix in some straw, pour/pack into forms, slowly dry and you have adobe bricks. The Presidio in Santa Barbara (www.parks.ca.gov/?page_id=608) near my office, is made from adobe bricks. Old buildings made with adobe bricks are found all over coastal California, Arizona, New Mexico and Texas; and are referred to as called Adobes. They are very well insulated - the thick walls keep the inside cool in the summer and warm in the winter.
Love the new intro.
As a Brit, I often find the American pronunciation of Jaguar different to how we say it. We tend to say it like jag-you-are, whereas Americans seem to say it like jag-warr.
I always find accents fascinating. Cool video with lots of things I didn't know. I really enjoy the insight into two foreign cultures through these videos.
Obviously, since the car company is British, we should defer to your pronunciation, but I wonder how Spanish speakers say it, as it is the name the Spaniards gave to a South American big cat.
And, as far as accents go, it is kind of sad that regional dialects in the US are dieing due to the prevalence of the "west coast" accent on TV and in movies, especially in news programs. I saw a PBS video on this ~15 years ago, and learned about the Pittsburgh dialect and some others in small pockets of the South I didn't realize existed.
@@michaelb1761 Good point. My personal view is people getting uptight about pronunciations is silly. Whatever flows best in the accent you speak with is the best pronunciation in my opinion.
Because in Spanish its pronounced Hag-wuar not Jag-you-ah
@Jonathan Parks they aren't called that in the US, except for maybe by Spanish speakers. Most English speakers will say Mt Lion or Cougar or possibly Catamount.
You do an excellent job of producing these videos. Well researched and you English is maybe better than most of us who only speak it. Great job.
My most favorite nickname for Macdonalds I've ever heard is actually 'Restaurant zur goldenen Möwe'
It exists in Denmark, too: "den gyldne måge", lit. "the golden gull". 😎🇩🇰
Interesting, I am more familiar with the "golden arches"/"goldene Bögen" ones.
@@realkorgo Eh, I live up north, Flugratten are way too common here, to confuse the Golden M with arches, when they are clearly a bastardbird in flight
FYI: It is spelled, "McDonalds".
@@thomasluby1754 *McDonald's
The brothers' surname was McDonald. Add then the genitive apostrophe and genitive "s", and there you go. 😉
I have spent enough time Germany and have learned enough German to not be surprised by German pronunciations of American companies. But I learned so much more about the origins of the companies from Felicia's posting. Fun and informative! By the way, denim, which Levi Strauss used to make his jeans, was invented in Nimes, France. Thus the name de Nimes (denim).
Funny you mentioned McDonald's, when I lived in germany I went there quite a bit. I later found out McDonald's wanted to sell their hamburger buns to germany, but the germans didn't like them. The bakers told McDonald's that they wouldn't sell, so the bakers made their own version of the hamburger buns that the germans did like. They also sell bier at McDonald's, which I found unusual. You also have to pay for the ketchup, because it has to be shipped from overseas. You can get mayo for free, so most of us soldiers would get mayo. I remember going to a gasthaus for lunch one time & told they didn't have ketchup from my friend, you get mayo. So we learned to eat our pomme frittes w/mayo. Ty for the video Felicia, enjoyed it.
They stopped selling beer at McDonald's in Germany a long time ago. Haven't seen that for at least 15 years, maybe 20.
And you don't have to pay for the Ketchup because it's shipped from overseas, lol. German MacDonald's gets its ketchup from Develey in Bavaria. We got tomatoes in Europe, it's not that hard to make! You can literally buy a big bottle of Ketchup for 50 cents at every supermarket if you don't want the more expensive brand names. No, MacDonald's gives you a tiny packet of Ketchup for free and sells extra packets because they can! Because they are a quasi monopoly together with Burger King and they both agree on selling tiny, expensive packets of Ketchup and not having free refills for drinks.
In my experience, some German Mac Donald's who used to be frequented by a lot of American soldiers in the past did things differently, for example they offered free refills. One of them that I used to frequent literally stopped offering free refills after the big US barracks in the neighborhood were closed down.
@@highks496 Thank you for the information Heiko, I didn't know some of that stuff. I was in germany back in the 80's so a lot has changed since then. Thanks!
When you just learned that Netflix has shows that have limited access depending on the location of your IP address...
It's all to do with the bizarre contracts from the media companies. There's no rhyme or reason to it. Example - the Glee TV show was broadcast in Europe two days after the US - Hawaii Five-O on the other hand is broadcast so far after the US that we get the Halloween episode for Christmas and the Christmas episode at Easter. This just encourages people to use VPNs.
@@hairyairey 3 Months is actually nothing compared to other shows. Agents of shield for example was 2-3 years late, depending on the season. When the sixth season aired in the US, Germany was still running the 4th season. Thats why I imported the blu-rays from the UK for the first 4 seasons and later on used a VPN to watch it on Netflix America 😅
Not just Netflix, all video (movies, shows, events) are sold by territory to maximum prices. If you buy the license you want exclusivity.
I kinda knew it existed but it really hit home when I was overseas and added a crap-ton of titles to my Netflix queue only to find they disappeared when I returned to the States.
American teens in the 1980s sometimes referred to McDonald's as "Mickey D's."
When my kids where younger it was Mackey D's in the UK
Or Mac's Supper Club.
It is most usually refered as McDuck in Russia.
In the 1980's? LOL, in Canada we still called it that in the 2000's.
Still is macky d's.
in Canada we have the Tim Horton's coffee restaurant, but most Canadians refer to the restaurant as Tim's or Timmy's. It was even confusing to me as a Canadian when my friends said they were going to eat at Tim's one time and asked me to come along. I thought we were going to a person' s house for popcorn and was surprised when we went to a coffee shop instead. lol!
lol, even though I call it Tim Horton's most often...probably call it Timmy Ho's just as much. Not Canadian though. New York person.
Interesting to hear some Germans nickname McDonalds the same as the UK. "Maccas" or "Maccies". Nike is pronounced right by Germans and us Brits :D I'll go with Americans don't know how to pronounce their own brands (j/k)
I will say though, Jaguar is actually pronounced wrong in America, the English pronounciation is "Jag-you-ah/arr".
The shoes were named after the Greek goddess Nike which is pronounced Neekay, so I don't think anyone got that right. As far as the automobile goes, I think we pronounce it more closely to the original Portuguese pronunciation which is where the word to describe the animal originated. In other words, instead of pronouncing Jaguar (JAG-you-are) as most British do, we say it as if we were speaking of the animal (Ja-gwaar). The original Portuguese had a softer J sound with the middle part being the same and ended with an er (Ja-gwaar-e). Spanish and Portuguese now drops the e sound at the end.
@Jan Dzikowski lol
We nickname McDonalds as "Mickey-Ds" sometimes in the US also.
And no, "Jag-you-are" is the worst sounding anglicized name ever. You named it after OUR cat (native here, not in the UK), which is a "Jag-whar".
@@garyco766 its our language we can mispronounce things however we like! :D
Jaguar is a British brand and is pronounced differently in British English. "Jag you uh"
thank you sir ive just commented this
true, the American pronunciation is the same as that of the animal, which is why it's different
@@porsche911sbs The British pronunciation is also the same as the animal.
I just posted the same thing.
@@bremCZyeah but the American pronunciation is closer to the original Portuguese and Tupi pronunciation.
In the US, Drive-thrus are restaurants where you drive around the building to order and get your food; whereas, drive-ins are places like Sonic Drive-in or drive-in movie theatres. Sonic Drive-in is a restaurant where you can drive up to a menu park your car and carhops deliver the food to your car, many Sonic Drive-ins have recently redesigned to include both a drive-thru and the drive up menus. A drive-in movie theatre is a movie theatre in a parking lot with a huge screen, where you can watch movie while parked in your car. There are currently only 321 drive-in movie theatres still open in the US. In the US, a common nickname for McDonald's is Mickey Dees. I have no idea how that started.
The irritating, "Mickey D's" came from a commercial. Just like the awful, "I'm lovin' it" jingle.
My Oma and and Great-Oma used to speak German around me when they didn't want me to understand. Recently, Ive begun to learn German because I miss it. I learn so much from your videos.
Thank you
TBF, Germans are probably pronouncing Heinz correctly its us Americans who messed it up (one of my great-grandfathers immigrated from Germany so my paternal Grandmother and her side of the family all pronounced it the German way).
My last name is technically pronounced wrong in the US as well, but we gave up on that a long time ago, my great great grandfather immigrated from Bendorf, Germany, but was born in Prossekel (now in Poland, not far from Poznan or Szczicin), his name was Ferdinand Degner (as was written down, but last name has variations and German pronunciation is difficult to know what exactly it was, and I'm omitting middle names for safety purposes), but went by Fred (as indicated on his tombstone in Springfield, Illinois), he had 5 children, only 4 survived to adulthood, the one that died was named Emil Otto (a cursed name in my family seeing as they tried and failed to give the name 7 times).
I'd say the same applies to Heinz ;)
In general, I think for words and names that exist in different languages, the local pronunciation is just fine - such as Amazon, Mustang, Jaguar, Heinz, Hertz.
Nike is quite debatable. That is completely messed up either way. The greek origin would be pronounced Níkē.
@@danielschurmann7558 I found quite often that brands not only live with a local pronunciation, but use them in advertising as well. I guess being recognized in a local pronunciation has more value than trying to insist on the "correct" pronunciation and have people struggling with recognizing the name.
Of course on the other hand there are a lot of names where people simply do not know the correct way because they never heard it and from reading, especially if a word exists e.g. in German as well, who would think of using a different pronunciation.
I'm American and i pronounce Heinz with the t sound. I didn't realize some or most others don't??? What do most use? A z sound or an s?
@@thomasthomasthomas296 fun fact: German youtuber Robin Blase (Rob Bubble) did host the english web videos of the MSC and did pronounce his name the American way like blaze
Well hello Feli, nice to see you again, just what everybody needed, a dose of Feli's energy and infectious wonderful smile, today is looking brighter already🥰❤️
Fun fact: adobe is a clay mixture used in a lot of traditional Southwestern architecture. It's excellent for insulation; keeping adobe buildings warmer in winter and cooler in summer ☺ Also, I've known a lot of Americans who use the French pronunciation for Ralph Lauren. Great video!
Now you have another idea for a video. how germans pronounce certain American city names and vise versa. that's almost endless content right there:)
That awkward moment when the greek goddess of victory is actually pronounced Néke (Νίκη) = win
Another fun fact: Berlin has more Döner Kebap places than there are McDonald's and Burger King branches in all of Germany together! ;-)
Döners is actually my favorite food that I miss. I know it’s Turkish, but the abundance of these places throughout Germany is fantastic. We have Turks and other mederterranin food in the US (I live in NYC) and it’s not the same. I suppose Feli doesn’t eat Döner Kebaps tho...
@@hansbrix2495
I would consider it a German food because as far as I know it was invented in Germany (by Turkish people)
@@Henning_S. Original Turkish Döner does exist in Turkey, but from what I understand it is quite different from the "German" Döner. It was re-invented by Turks in Germany as a fast food with more German ingredients and for German tastes.
Döner is Turkish. The meat is called Döner. In most countries its called kebab. It's also the same. The rest is marketing. The Turkish people who sell it don't want to call it Turkish to sell more of their stuff. And it's not "invented". Putting meat in a bread is not inventing. Its just putting meat in a bread ;)
tourkalas.wordpress.com/2018/04/30/the-inventer-of-doner-kebab/
@@JonDoe123456 You seem to think that I'm making more of it than it is. I know all these facts, it's fully called "Dönerkebap", while one part of the word stands for the meat, and the other part stands for the skewer it is mounted on in order to be grilled, I just don't remember which was which, but it's not important. The only thing that I know is that it became a "trend" in Germany that actually started in Berlin, I think in the late 70s or early 80s, when some Turkish guest workers who were imported after WW2 to help building up the country looked for different revenue streams, so they basically put meat in bread and gave it a fancy name.
It’s so crazy that in Brazil we usually pronounce the brands like in German. Mustang and Colgate is basically exactly the same
Interesting that Cougar was one of the alternate names suggested for the Mustang, as Mercury (a division of Ford) produced the Mercury Cougar, the Mercury version of the Mustang. So the Mustang actually was named the Cougar, sort of.
and then the Torino was used for another Ford model
@@Tarv1 The big luxury coupe based on the Fairlane family car line.
If you google ford cougar prototype you can find a picture of a 1965 mustang with cougar badges
Somebody has probably already pointed out "Which-it-AW Kansas" but still LOVE your vids! Keep it up. One of my new favorite sites when work is slow and I get a little spare time.
Nice video, however you sadly missed the best of them all: Tupperware 😁
Tapahwäääär
Tapperwär 😆
I've always wanted to comment this: "I met a German girl in England, who was going to school in France, and we danced the Mississippi at an Alpha Kappa dance." Thank you.
you must've met some other body, no, no, child, it wasn't me
7:43 We need "McDrive" everywhere, that's so genius
It does sound better. I hate the word “Thru” anyway. McDrive looks and sounds a lot better
"Let's go hit up the McDonald's McDrivethru, get some chicken McNuggets, a couple of McBrownies, and McFlurries."
@@chitlitlah And a McWhiskey
It really is genius. And you know what? Because „everything“ at McDonalds has the Mc in the name the term Chicken McNuggets is really common for any Chicken Nuggets. So you will hear people say that they wanna have Chicken McNuggets at Burger King or when they want to buy some in the grocery store.
@@annkaschu7264 I used to do that when I was a kid.
This girls Germamerican accent is amazing. Anyone else think she should do voice overs!?! 🎶🎶👂
Compare her accent with that of Claudia Schiffer. Look up her fitness videos.
YES I could fall asleep listening to Feli’s voice haha (I mean that in a good way it’s so soothing)
A casual listener would have no clue that she's not American. It is truly amazing.
Yes, I've said that before - she has really clear diction. I think it helps that she smiles with every word. I watch a number of American TV programs and the actors mumble so much I have to put the subtitles on!
@@craigh.9810 If I didn’t know she wasn’t American I would still guess she’s from some other country. I can still hear a hint of accent. I just probably wouldn’t guess Germany.
When you were talking about the history of Pizza Hut at the 7:00 mark, you pronounced the name of Wichita, Kansas as Witch-EE-tah. The correct pronunciation is "WITCH-i-TAW" (short "i" in the second syllable).
I was hoping to find someone saying this. As I was born and raised there it hurt my soul a bit.
WITCH-ih-taw
The "I" in the middle I've heard pronounced like you said but also like "witch - a - taw" as well as the slightly different "Witch -uh- taw". The hard "I" is what I've always thought to be the correct way, though the native Americans the city is named after may actually be pronounced the way she said it. "Whi-cheet- ah" #Murica
I call it witch-ee-tah.. I am from WA state and unless you actually here it often.. it is called the way she did it. 😁😁😁 Yosemite.. I called it Yo-Se-Mite for years... 😂😂😂😂
@@stacycamacho59
Interesting, do you also pronounce Ohio as O-Hee-o?
What's really funny is hearing my German born uncle pronounce "Piggly wiggly" it's one of the funniest things I've ever seen
I want to hear that.
Haha I'm American and I've always pronounced Ralph Lauren as "Lor-EN" instead of "Lor-en" I guess I just assumed that because it's posh it should be pronounced in a European way
if it was pronounced the French way, you wouldn't even say EN : D
just check how Yves Saint Laurent is properly pronounced : ) (in french, not just english bs : D )
I'm not American but I always knew that Ralph Lauren is American company and it's read like a girl's name - Lauren : )
I am an American and we pronounce it Lor- In
He pronounced his last name like the girl's name. How do we know? Some girl wrote to them and asked. twitter.com/Milbermann/status/769610559910129664
@@johnd8788 so then how do you pronounce the name Loryn/Lauryn? ; >
Yes, I am American and most Americans pronounce it incorrectly as La-REN.
In Austria we pronounce Colgate pretty much correctly (despite speaking German too), I remember as a child I always wondered why they pronounce it like that in German TV commercials. Also Hertz is also the name for the unit for frequency (with the tz) and it is named after the German scientist Heinrich Hertz so that may be a reason why it's pronounced like that in German :)
Austrians also pronounce 'Michelin' and 'Tupperware' the original and not the the germanized way.
@@Ehterlink Yes true. We also say Bonbon (French pronounciation) not Bong-Bong :)
I really dislike the concept of toothpaste in a jar. Imagine how horrendous the dry crust would be 🤢
Just image everyone ‘dipping’ their brush heads into the same jar🤮
@@rachellemckenzie9636 Or their fingers.
I was thinking the same thing! Toothpaste in a jar was a breeding ground for bacteria. 😧
In Germany, you might still have to pronounce some American brands the German way because otherwise people won't understand you. I remember once ordering "urinary" special food at the vet's, and they didn't understand me until I pronounced it the German way.
8:47 This reminds me that I sometimes say Zuckerberg the way you would pronounce it in german instead of the american english way, most of the time I do it as joke to confuse people.
The interesting thing about this phenomenon is that most european languages who were in some connection with german words, for example jewish last names also pronounce his name the german way. Like in all eastern European languages his name is pronounced the german way, not english.
Suger Mountain. :D
Fun video. Question, Feli: Do you use notes when you are reciting all that information? It does not look like it. If not, it is really impressive that you can recall all that detailed information with names and dates, etc. And even if not, your presentations still are impressive. Suggestion: It would be helpful for you to repeat more than once or twice the alternate German pronunciations. They go by so quickly. Thanks.
While I was watching your video all I could think was: "I wish to speak fluently like her one day"
I'm brazilian by the way.
LOL...you mispronounced Wichita. Short "i"s and the accent should be on the first syllable. Love your videos.
in a video about mispronunciation no less. lol
The more you know... 😏
That's true but it didn't bother me that much and I'm from Kansas. Having lived in Germany from 2003 to 2006 I'd say her grasp of American pronunciation is excellent. However, we have a lot of locations with Native-American names that drive most foreigners crazy.
I dont think anyone that isn't from Wichita or Kansas says it right lol. Im from Wichita KS and the first Pizza Hut building is on the WSU campus and it's still there. It's now a museum
Yeah, the Wichita was off. Her over stylized Chicago pronunciation of the city gave me a chuckle.
Being from Kanas originally I had to listen 3 or 4 times at the way you said Wichita. Made me laugh so hard. Love your videos.
I was definitely thinking this i was like idk what city she's talking about then i realized ohhhhh Wichita
I love the way your accent balances a fine line between German and American. Can you just say Germany a few more times, please. We say Germany but you say Germaneee. Lovely.
What I really like about this video is the background information that you give on all of these brands. For some of them I didn't even know they were American (as you said, as a German you could easily think Heinz was German. I was also surprised about Hertz and Colgate, though :D) It's a really interesting video, thanks for that.
Also that was the first time I've ever heard the proper pronuncation of Levi's! I've never dared to even mention the shop because I had no clue how to pronounce that one :D
Still I think that there's no problem with "adapting" brand names and pronouncing them in a way that is closer to the original language (like in cases of Mustang or Jaguar or Heinz, which actually do look like German words). Other languages do that as well and I think it's natural. But it is interesting to hear the story behind and how the name is pronounced originally in the country of its origin. And it becomes kind of weird when it ends up in some weird mix of German-English :D
Yes, adapting is perfectly fine. Possibly you would get as strange looks saying Ah-doh-bee in Germany as you would saying Adie-dass in the U.S.
The town in Kansas is pronounced witch-a-taw.
I knowww haha I said it correctly at first but messed up the rest of the sentence and when I repeated it, I messed up the city name but didn't notice it in the moment. It's hard!
Thanks Rich ... as a Wichitan, I was going to comment. Hi Feli, just think, more places for you to visit :) and hear “funny sounding” American accents. Love the videos !
American name pronunciations can be very hard since the origin could be anything from native American (so many names in Washington) to Spanish to French, etc.
@@michaelb1761 I always laugh when people call Spokane "Spo-cane"
I had to replay that four times, so funny!
9:42 As far as I'm aware, the _zs_ digraph is only used in Hungarian, where it makes a "zh" sound, like the letter _j_ in French and Portuguese, or _ž_ in most Slavic languages.
One thing that's important to know about Hungarian is that the letter S makes a "sh" sound for some reason, so to make a "s" sound you just put a Z after it. And of course, the reverse is true for the reverse of that digraph.
Interesting side bar. During the Haagen - Dazs segment you mentioned Bronx NY. Everyone in NY always refers to that area as The Bronx. We never say Queens, Brooklyn and Bronx. It would always be Queens, Brooklyn and the Bronx. Just another strange U.S. thing.
I was going to say that, but later on in the video she did say “The Bronx”
I thought it was da Bronx!
@@chrisk5651 Right on!
Feli, I lived in Bremerhaven for three years and even learned a little Platt-Deutsch. Your videos are very enjoyable! I did catch a blunder it the item about the founders of Pizza Hut. You mentioned the city in Kansas named Wichita which I believe you pronounced “wi-CHEE-tah” but is pronounced “WI-chi-taw” Mach weiter so mit der tollen Arbeit! Du bist sehr talentiert, weil du schön bist! Tschüss!
Love the research you’ve done for this! I found out about the pronounciation for Nike when I worked at a Nike store for a few months. When you first start working at a Nike branch, they tell you how to pronounce it and give you some background history.
An interesting Spanish brand, for a car manufacturer, that gets mispronounced is Seat. It gets even English speakers 😂 cuz it never got “Americanised” in terms of pronunciation.
With 2654 comments, I imagine at least 260 people have already noted that at 7:01 of your video on mispronunciation of American names that you mispronounce Wichita. The mild irony induced a smile.
Hey Feli, I think the German pronounciation for Hertz being as it is comes from the German physicist Heinrich Rudolf Hertz (1857 - 1894). Same way of writing -> same way to pronounce it.
Actually, "mustang" is "more precise" the way German say it. It comes from "mustango" (Spanish).
11:56. _Software_ is an uncountable noun in English. The word represents the abstract concept, not a "physical" thing. So, "software" refers to that concept regardless of whether you're talking about more than one or not. Thus, it never takes a -s for plurality. Ever.
Same for ‘hardware.’
Great job!! You speak English beautifully. Length, timing, speed, energy..etc all great. You have a future in public speaking!
Ah, the good old days; saving up all those Book-It coupons so I could enjoy an epic feast at Pizza Hat.
their logo is a hat
YES - I remember readings books so I could get free pizza in grade school. Good times!
@@kasel1979krettnach The 'hat' is Pizza under the red roof.
@@kbtred51 doesnt look like a roof to me. why should a roof have that bump in the middle ?
Had me laughing with how you said Witchita for Pizza Hut. It's witch-ih-taw 😊
The cat food brand Sheeba used the English pronounciation when it entered the German market. As many Germans pronounced it like Shey-bah, the spelling was changed to Sheba and it's called like the customers decided now.
But it's called Sheba everywhere. Did they change that worldwide?
That's it. I'm calling Pizza Hut Pisza hoot from now on 😂
When I first arrived in Germany with the British Army I befriended a German girl and we went Ice skating, I kept bumping into people and asked her what the German was for "Sorry" She told me it was "Entschuldigung" which I thought was such a stupid sounding word it couldn't possible be true. Perhaps you could make a video on the most absurd sounding words in German (To US and Brits) that are actually everyday words in Germany. Great channel by the way, I have no idea why I like it!! Meant in the nicest possible way.
I never thought about Entschuldigung that way but the more I think about it you are kind of right. It is a really silly sounding name for the situation one would use it in. Translated directly it means something like „de-obligate“ which is just „Excuse me“.
Now you know where the movement started to change Wichita to W’Cheetah!
lol
You gave "Jaguar" a typically American pronunciation. But the British say it a bit differently. Rendered by someone from the UK, it will typically come out sounding something like “JAG-you-are" Or, perhaps more accurately, "JAG-you-uhh," since Brits do have a tendency to drop those r's. If you look, you'll find entire RUclips videos dedicated to the subject of how to pronounce "Jaguar" in British and American English. If I recall correctly, Jeremy Clarkson, a co-host of the British tv-series "Top Gear," would actually make fun of the way Americans pronounced "Jaguar."
Click and Clack, the Car Guys, kept pronouncing it "JAG-you-are" on their radio show in the early 90s. One day they received a phone call from a Brit, the chief executive of American operations for the company, and he demanded that they start saying it properly, "Jag-Wah" because that had class.
I was thinking of Jeremy Clarkson whilst watching this. I think in UK we say something like “Jag-u-ah”, whilst Americans are more like “Jag-wahh”.
aluminium drives me nuts- absolutely will not ever drop the extra syllable- where did they get that pronunciation- it's spelled a-lu-mi-num
Next time we do place names, maybe we can include "WICHITA"! (emphasis on 3rd syllable)
Your videos captivate me and your English is so perfect. It amazes me how you switch from german to English so seamlessly. I love your videos, you are so smart and so good at explaining things. Out of all the RUclips stars I’d love to meet, you are definitely in the top 5, maybe even the top 3!
P.S. I don’t usually comment stuff like this but i kinda have a huge crush on you, you seem perfect in all the right ways. And i mean that in the most respectful way possible of course. Okay, this is wired now haha, I’m not sure why i just typed that but yeah. Have a nice day!
_"It amazes me how you switch from german to English so seamlessly."_
I know, right? It blows me away! 😄
As a third generation American taking German as a second language with German ancestors living in the German imagrant concentrated midwest US. I can testify that many Americans say heintz the "German" way with the "ts" sound. Thus, I think it is safe to conclude that the pronunciation of "Heintz" is in fact a regional difference in the USA itself. Great video!
Lol. Just realized I spelled Heinz phonetically. Sorry grammar police.
I also live in the midwest (Chicago area) and I’ve never heard anyone pronounce Heinz with a “ts” sound
Du hast Miracle "Mirakel" Whip vergessen ;)
Mirakel Wipp - gutes Beispiel! :D
Schreib das als Vorschlag für Teil 2 unter ihren angepinnten Kommentar. :)
Das ist aber wie bei Colgate, wenn die deutsche Werbung es so benennt, dann kann man es der Kundschaft nicht vorwerfen, dass sie es genauso auspricht. Die Firma hatte offensichtlich selbst Interesse daran, es auf deutsch deutsch klingen zu lassen.
In Deutschland heißt das Produkt aber "Miracel Whip" also mit el und nicht le, insofern kann man die deutschen kaum blamen
@@DerLukaner13
Ist mir gar nicht aufgefallen... mirakulös! xD
And Miracle Whip is made by Kraft Foods.
I’m from Wichita, Kansas. It’s pronounced Witch-it-ah. You’re wonderful. Don’t stop. 😘
At 7:45 you remarked how Germans struggle to pronounce "thru" as in "drive-thru". When I was in college a JAPANESE exchange student called me "Nasan" instead of Nathan (as CHILDREN often do as well) for the same reason! Apparently pronouncing "th" is an enigma for children and a LOT of nationalities! :oD
It's all nationalities that isnt English.
That's because the "th" sound only exists in a few select languages today. Of the West and North Germanic languages only English and Icelandic kept it while German, Dutch, Frisian, Luxembourgish, Yiddish as well as Danish, Faroese, Norwegian, and Swedish all gradually dropped it and made it a "d" or "t" sound. This started some 1500 years ago with the second Germanic consonant shift (rolling into the so-called High German consonant shift with more specific sound changes to the High German dialects only).
Nathan is pronounced with a "t" in German (not a very common name but known from literature: "Nathan der Weise" by Gotthold Ephraim Lessing, first published 1779 in Berlin)
@@uncinarynin I'm glad I didn't grow up in Germany, then. My classmates might have started calling me "Satan" for it rhyming with "Natan"! :oD
@@nathan2813 That actually rhymes in German, right!
I absolutely love the segments where you talk back and forth with your twin sister. Keep it up. How about some arguing or fighting?
Fun fact from Scotland...
As McDonald is a common name here we have had several instances of the burger company trying to sue businesses for using the name (even if they don’t sell food) however it is perfectly legal in the U.K. to use your name for a business. Now all they have to do is not use the trademarked Golden Arches!
The German pronunciation of "Häagen-Dazs" sounds like an American trying to read a German sign 😂
Played it twice and could not hear a difference!
@@kbtred51 "Heggen" in German, rather than "Hahgen" in American English.
At 11:55 you said "softwares". Plural (more than one) is just, "software" (without the "s") just as with "kitchenware" or "hardware".
That compensates if anglo-american speakers telling about "meters" or "volts" or "kilograms" - because Physical Units are always in singular, too - there is no plural form of them.
1 Meter - 25 Meter
1 Volt - 230 Volt
1 Kilogramm - 80 Kilogramm
@F. Q. Du widersprichst mit der Behauptung, "meters" mit "s" würde doch existieren, und schreibst dann in Deinem eigenen Beispiel doch "100 Meter..." OHNE s - danke für Deinen Humor ;-)!
@F. Q. Bitte den Ironiedetektor ölen :-) Es ging ursprünglich darum, daß Feli den "falschen" englischen Plural "softwares" benutzte. Daraufhin schrieb ich, daß die "Anderen" mit ihrem Plural-S hinter Einheiten auch etwas "falsch" machen - als "Ausgleich". Das war alles nur ein kleiner Scherz. Ich weiß sehr wohl, daß jede Sprache ihre eigenen Mechanismen nutzt.
Und was hat eine Fallendung jetzt mit Plural zu tun? Da sind wir jenseits von Äpfel und Birnen auf die Nüsse gekommen...... muß nicht sein. Schon gar nicht am Sonntag. Und erst recht nicht bei der netten Feli. Schönes Wochenende ;-)!
@F. Q. Ich habe die ganze Zeit geschrieben, daß wir im Deutschen das Plural-s nicht benutzen - aber Du hast den ursprünglichen Witz immer noch nicht begriffen.
Der Klügere ist jetzt raus.
Indeed. Rather than "many softwares", the phrase would be "many pieces of software".
4:07 "Why not name it after the biggest river on earth ..."
Ähem ... maybe because otherwise it would be called Nile?
Technically, you're right, but not by much: Nile: 4,132 miles, Amazon: 4,000 miles.
That's the anecdote that I found about this but you're right!
True, the Nile is longer, but the Amazon river is wider and holds by far the most water. depends how you define biggest.
Biggest and longest are not necessarily the same
@@thatmarchingarrow That´s what she said ... 🤗
Switched letters in Miracle vs Miracel Whip... I actually went to a (of course german) supermarket to check, and yes, they did it.
15:57 "Hertz" (the unit) and "Herz" (heart) are pronounced the same in German. So, I would say rather than pronouncing it like "Herz" Germans just see it as/like the German word/name "Hertz" (after Heinrich Hertz). ;)
When the band Motley Crue came up with their name and logo, they added an umlaut over the 'o' and 'u' because they were drinking Lowenbrau beer and thought it looked cool. No big deal in the English speaking world but in Germany it was a different story when people said the band name. The British band Motorhead had done the same a few years prior.
Which was no doubt a factor in the This Is Spın̈al Tap punctuation, which I've been told doesn't actually exist in any language.
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Metal_umlaut
The article used to be longer and funnier years ago, when it was titled "Heavy metal umlaut." Shame it was edited into its current form.
@@sschmidtevalue I still haven't watched that movie but I have just checked the DVD case - how did I not notice that before?
@@hairyairey How could you have it and not watch it??? It's one of the funniest movies of all time. The whole thing was mostly improvised by comedic geniuses. "Turned up to 11" comes from this movie.
@@sschmidtevalue busy life! I promise to watch it this week.
I got one for you! :) The Germans pronounce Palmolive as you did: Palm-Olive; in the US it is one word , Palmolive. (Palmaliv)and the second syllable is accentuated. I have to add something else concerning the German 'W'. It si not the first time you mentioned Germans pronounce it like the 'V'. Not so everywhere! In Franken and also Bavaria. We say W in Wasser...I never heard a south or middle German say Vasser.. If they do they were most likely around family from other regions. Almost the same with the letter "R" but that can wait....that is a big one and often gets personal when mentioned. When the German population sifted so did some of the speech and a lot of the changes came from North German. It is odd that the North Germans and even their children will not adopt the accents or dialects of their new homes. ( I can hear the jokes made now.; we Bavarian know what you RALLY think of us! :) I don't blame you! Imagine Einstein or Beethoven in Lederhosen. No!) I enjoy your videos very much and I am in awe how well you speak American and how well you adopted to your new life.. Amazing! We are from Dayton, left and returned to finish our masters in business admin. Ohio for the most part is so flat that I always loved Cincinnati because right after that comes Kentucky and there my eyes could feast on some rocks and mountains. I missed our Bavarian Berge most....forever homesick and found much later the majestic mountains in the western United States! I called them the American Alps. :) I blabber....sorry. Thanks for your videos and I can only imagine the work it takes for a German who is always driven to to do everything perfect...you succeeded! Please excuse misspellings, backwards sentences as I can not re-read clearly what I typed. When I attempted to make the fond larger I messed up and it got even smaller and I am afraid to get back in and really mess it up! I am 82 and I hope that works as an excuse because I have no other.
The break is just different. We say Pal-molive, not Palm-olive.
The German advertisement for Colgate nowadays is still col-ga-te., 😂
Colgate: within german speeking countries there are differences in pronounciation. In Austrian commercials is used the american form. An other example is the french brand Michelin ==> in Germany it is used the german pronounciation in Austria the french one.
Ich finde im Gegensatz zu ihr, das klingt sogar besser. 🤔
Funfact for those not American: fomoco (ford motor company), ended up using Torino for an iconic late 60’s large body muscle car, and under the Mercury brand they used Cougar for an upscale car that shared the Mustang platform.
I was coming down here to say this. My first car was a 1970 Torino 2-door. I wish I still had it today. Also, nice name. Made me giggle.
dat transition music though ! after binge watching so many episodes i'm starting to have ptsd !
It's cute when you were speaking about Mustang's pronunciations and then accidentally say 'plan' for 'plane' short for airplane.
That was corrected with an *plane in the lower corner
I think Dana from Wanted Adventure once mentioned that "Weber" Grill is an American brand and is pronounced like "Webber."
Personally, I was also amazed at "Pfizer" (pronounced like "Pfeiser") in the context of the vaccination debate, I thought the name of the company is "Pfitzer".
(McDonald's: in our area we call it "Mäckes" and some people refer to it as "The golden M" ("Wollen wir zum Goldenen M gehen?")
Not the worst idea: "Das Unternehmen wurde von Charles Pfizer (eigentlich Karl Pfizer) und dessen Cousin Charles F. Erhart aus Ludwigsburg als Charles Pfizer & Company 1849 in Brooklyn, New York, gegründet." - so at least a german pronounciation can be justified.
Weber is a German surname and means "weaver". It's the fifth most common German family name, so I don't really care how the Americans want to pronounce it. It's Weber and not "Webber" ;)
I'm German and even though I speak English very well, I still pronounce most of them wrong because I learned them that way. That really bothers me now 😅
Don't stress over it. You should hear me try to pronounce German words. It's terrible. Lol.
My German is far far more terrible than your English can ever be Franziska!
No problem, I'm American and I've always said Heintz!
@@goldfieldgary That’s definitely the pronunciation that the company used in its advertisements decades ago.
@@markhamstra1083 7 Heintz Ketchup! Reminds me to it
“And nobody says that, thank god” that got me dying 💀💀💀
Danke! Thanks dear. Very interesting. Can share with my grandkids.🙏💓🇩🇪🇺🇸