15 German brands YOU pronounce WRONG! | German Girl in America

hey have you seen my adidas shoes your what shoes um adidas the brand oh adidas um not sure maybe you've left them in the car oh and your friends volkswagen huh volkswagen the car brand it's a german car brand you should know that oh for v okay [Music] [Applause] hello servos and welcome back to my youtube channel my name is felicia i'm originally from munich germany but have been living here in cincinnati ohio on and off since 2016. so a little update before i get into the topic i had my wrist surgery last tuesday everything went well and my insurance approved it so they're fully paying for it which is great um i was pretty knocked out afterwards for a few days but i'm doing better every day and today is the first time that i thought i would try to record something as you can see i'm having my first follow-up appointment in four days and as promised there will be another video about this topic in a few weeks but a few weeks ago before i broke my wrist i made a video about mistakes that many germans make when speaking english and a lot of you guys asked me to make a video the other way around about mistakes that non-native speakers make in german and that's definitely going to come but there's actually a very similar topic that i've been wanting to cover for a while so that's what i'll talk about today german brand names that english native speakers often pronounce very differently than we do in germany and some of these brands you may not even realize that they're german so i made a list of 15 german brand names that are typically mispronounced in english and i'm going to tell you how they're pronounced correctly in german and also give you a little background information on some of them as well this video was sponsored by skillshare which i've talked about before it's an online learning community that offers thousands of classes for creative and curious people like you and me they have countless video classes about things like photography video making interior design marketing or lifestyle topics like minimalism or journaling or you can find and practice new hobbies and take painting or dance classes and of course you can also learn a language on there including german which i know a lot of you guys are interested in the question that i think i get asked the most is if i have any advice for how to learn german and i always say that you should listen to it and speak it as much as possible but taking classes to get some formal instruction and exercises at your level is definitely part of it too and the great thing about skillshare is that there's no ad breaks and it's actually coherent lessons so you don't have to worry about what's going to be the next step and google for another tutorial you just move on to the next chapter i just recently checked out the class video editing transforming footage into evocative travel stories by oliver astraligo even though i obviously do know how to video edit but i actually find it interesting to check out how other people do it every now and then and get some inspiration as to how i could improve things or do things a little differently now if you're interested in joining skillshare as well make sure to check out the link in the info box below because the first thousand people to use this link will get a free trial of skillshare premium membership and even without that offer it's less than ten dollars a month with an annual subscription and with that let's jump into our german brand names first of course we have to talk about car brands because german cars are being sold all over the world they're famous all over the world and a lot of people talk about them or even own a german car the first one is audi most americans that i know pronounce it like i just said it audi in german we say audi audi and there's actually a funny story as to where this name came from in 1904 a guy called august hoyt founded a car company called apontoy un company motor and wahrenberg zwickel but a few years later he left the company and founded a new one but he wasn't allowed to call it horse again and since that's not only his last name but also means listen in the imperative form he ended up translating it into latin and that's audi so audi means listen the company is located in ingoshtat in bavaria then of course one of the most famous car brands in the world is this one it's located in stuttgart germany i've heard americans pronounce it porsche or porsche in german we say porsche so there is like this short a sound in the end porsche it was founded by ferdinand porsche in 1931 as a company for vehicle development work and consulting and one of the first assignments that the company had was from the nazi government at the time to design a car for the general public which was what later would become volkswagen and so they designed the volkswagen beetle the fauve kefa this one sounded super funny to me when i first heard how people pronounce it in english i actually used to drive one back in germany um so most americans call this mercedes in german we pronounce it mercedes so mercedes versus mercedes mercedes so it's really pretty different and the full name of course is mercedes benz i've also heard that in england people also refer to mercedes as merck a german will not know what you're talking about if you say that just for your information originally it was just the company daimler moturan gesellschaft founded in 1890 the name mercedes was added later inspired by a daimler car dealer called emil jelinek who was also driving car races under the alias monsieur mercedes which was based on his daughter's first name mercedes jelinek the name was later also used for one of the car models in the year 1900 and then eventually became the name of the brand itself this one simply has three letters but of course they're pronounced differently in english and in german in english people say bmw in german we say bmv because w is pronounced v in german and it stands for byriche motoren verke which means bavarian engine works and of course bmv is located in my hometown munich which is the capital of bavaria the company was founded in 1916 and originally mainly produced aircraft engines it said that the logo represents a plane propeller and it also has the colors of bavaria blue and white to show the company's origin then after world war one they survived by producing motorcycle engines farm equipment household items and railway breaks and builds their first motorcycle in 1923 and then became a car manufacturer a few years later they then went back to concentrating on aircraft engines again during world war ii using forced labor from prisoners in concentration camps and didn't get back into car manufacturing until 1952. overall all of these german car brands that i just mentioned are more or less considered luxury brands in the us i mean porsche of course is considered a luxury brand in germany as well but audi mercedes and bmv are pretty much just regular car brands to us obviously they do have expensive luxury cars as well but the regular models are driven by people from all social classes in germany english speakers call this volkswagen while in germany we usually just call it fauve vw fauve but even if we did go by the full name it would be pronounced volkswagen and not volkswagen so just imagine that it was spelled with an f and v instead folks wagon this literally means people's car or car of the people and it was founded during the third reich in the late 1930s because hitler wanted to have a car that was affordable for middle class germans and that met the needs of an average family so this was his attempt to make cars something that wasn't only available to upper class people but to the general public and the company is based in wolfsburg now let's move on to something other than cars so this is one of the brands where when i heard americans say this for the first time i didn't understand at all what they were referring to because they usually pronounce it adidas and in germany we say adidas adidas adidas super different it's the second largest sportswear manufacturer in the world after nike and i don't think that a lot of people know that this is a german company it also has an interesting backstory it was founded by adolf dassler whose nickname was adi so the brand name is based on his first and last name adi das he founded the company at his mother's house after he returned from world war one and he actually played a big role in developing spiked running shoes in 1924 his brother hudov joined the company and they founded the dasla brothers shoe factory but they later got into a fight split up and his brother actually founded his own company called puma which became the biggest rival of adidas so both adidas and puma are german brands another shoe manufacturer that many germans would probably consider very very german like if you talk about something typically german birkenstock is definitely going to be mentioned but of course this brand is known all over the world nowadays and it's natural that people pronounce it with their native accent so english speakers usually say birkenstock in german we say birkenstock birkenstock birkenstock which literally translates to birch stick the roots of the company go all the way back to the 18th century by the way from shoes to alcohol this is pronounced yiga maesta in german jagermeister english speakers usually say jagermeister which is pretty much the same just with a pretty thick accent and people also often use the abbreviation jaeger like can i have a shot of jaeger please it literally means hunt master yiga is the hunter and maesta is master and it's a german herbal liquor this is a german grocery store you can also find them in other european countries and they even have some stores in the u.s i usually get the majority of my groceries at id here in the us in germany we call stores like id or leader discounters because they sell groceries for very low prices in english people usually pronounce this aldi i think i've also heard aldi before but i think most people say aldi or they also sometimes add an s that isn't there in the end and say aldi's in germany we just say aldi it has its origins in 1945 when the two brothers theo and kyle albrecht took over their mother's corner store and came up with the concept of having a small selection while having low prices the name id comes from albrecht discount so albrecht which is their last name discount in germany we have id suit and id noit id south and id north again this is because of two brothers splitting up into two different businesses in the us the store is simply called id and it actually belongs to id south while the store trader joe's belongs to id north now let's move on to cosmetics nivea is a german brand from hamburg that's mainly known for its face lotion in the little blue container but of course they offer a large variety of products nowadays again i find the english pronunciation pretty funny here english native speakers usually say nivea nivea in german we say nivea nivea so the emphasis is on the e nivea this is a german hair cosmetics brand that you can find all over the world pretty much in german we pronounce it schwarzkopf which literally means blackhead schwarzkopf english native speakers usually pronounce it schwarzkopf or schwarzkopf or something along those lines deutsche bank is the largest bank in germany deutsche bank also literally means german bank of course you can find deutsche bank not only in germany but in other countries as well a good friend of mine here in cincinnati actually just did an internship with them in their new york city location and she's also going to start a full-time job with them soon and americans usually pronounce it deutsche bank or something along those lines and my friend always uses the abbreviation deutsche when she refers to it so like she said i got a job offer from deutsch which is just really funny to me because that literally just means german this is a german manufacturer of high-end domestic appliances and it's not exactly pronounced wrong in english but english native speakers usually say something like mila mila so it usually sounds more like an a in the end whereas in german we say mile mile so the last letter is just a little bit different and miele really does stand for quality if you invest in a miele dishwasher or washing machine you just know that it's going to be a good product and it's going to last this is something that everyone knows and loves hopefully maybe not everyone knew that haribo is actually german we pronounce it haribo haribo and again the name originates in the name of the founder of the company which was hans riegel and he was from the city of bonn in germany so hans riegel from bonn and he always took the first two letters put them together and it became haribo hans riegel bonn harrybo and last but not least let's talk about a company that is not doing super well during these times but it's one of the largest companies in germany and second largest airline in europe and maybe you've flown with them before in english people usually say lufthansa but in german we say lufthansa so the emphasis on the first syllable lufthansa versus lufthansa [Music] and that was the last brand name on my list so now of course i want to know from you guys which of these brand names you've always mispronounced and maybe which ones you didn't even realize were german brands and also let me know in the comments below which german brand or maybe german celebrity name or something like that you've always wanted to know how to pronounce it correctly and maybe i can do a follow-up video soon and let you guys know what the pronunciation is thank you guys so much for watching i hope you enjoyed this video make sure to check out my other language related videos as well you can find them in this playlist and of course don't forget to subscribe to my channel if you haven't done so yet and also make sure to activate the little bell next to the subscribe button to make sure that you get a notification whenever i upload a new video because right now with my broken wrist things are just a little tricky for me and i can't really predict when and how many videos i'm going to be able to make in the next few weeks but whenever i do manage to finish something i'm just going to upload it whenever it's finished so make sure to get the notification whenever that happens and until then you can see what i'm up to on instagram at german girl in america and on facebook and you can also support me even more and join my patreon family patreon.com ggia or support me with a small donation on buy me a coffee.com ggia thank you guys so much stay safe and healthy everyone and i hope i'll see you next time [Music] cheers [Music] you

Channel: German Girl in America

Views: 3,751,624

Rating: 4.8274698 out of 5

Keywords: Germany, USA, America, Cultural Differences, Amerika, USA vs. Germany, Expat, Living abroad, Move to Germany, Life in Germany, Move to Europe, Life in USA, U.S., mispronounced brands, mispronounced brand names, pronounce adidas, pronounce brands, pronounce mercedes in german, pronounce audi, pronounce volkswagen in german, german car brands pronounced, pronounce aldi, pronounce porsche in german, pronounce Haribo, pronounce Birkenstock, jagermeister pronunciation

Id: PGx5lEDLC4Q

Length: 16min 32sec (992 seconds)

Published: Wed Sep 23 2020

Reddit Comments

[u/omegadirectory]

This is kind of off-topic, but as a non-German person, if I pronounce the German brand with the correct German pronunciation in an otherwise English conversation, is that considered pretentious, respectful, or tryhard?

I wonder if as a person speaking North American English it's better to stick with the North American accent. I'm sure Germans pronounce North American brand names in German accents.

[u/Rusty-Shackleford]

I like how casually she explains the Nazi history of Volkswagon. awkwardly tugs at collar

[u/ianjm]

Interesting, while we don't say them the correct German way either, our British English pronunciations are on average a little bit closer to the native ones.

[u/StairheidCritic]

Wrongly.

[u/QDP-20]

Language is a lot less precise than this in reality...

Pronouncing a word in a language other than the one the word came from doesn't make you wrong. I can appreciate the native pronunciations but I think saying a word according to what is more widely used and understood wherever you are is more 'correct' than saying it how you would where it came from. Probably sounds irritating to a native speaker but it's kind of a reality globalization.

[u/pretendingrobot]

I've heard Americans pronounce it "Porsh"...

Yup, heard that one a lot

... or "Porshee"

Wait, what?? She serious? Do these people also say "Dodgee"?

[u/[deleted]]

If we all spoke the words of their respective origin with their proper accents we would all sound pretty stupid.

[u/boot20]

I've never heard a German with a Valley accent....It's tripping me the fuck out.

[u/JesusAkaMohammed]

Das gibt ein Hochwähli