Famous brands you'll be shocked to hear you're mispronouncing

Globalisation has a lot to answer for, because shopping has never been so fraught with the danger of making a fool of yourself. Apparently, there are a host of household names that the vast majority of people have been pronouncing wrong for years - Nutella or Ikea anyone?

Made by Oomph has brought together some of the most commonly mispronounced brands - along with their correct pronunciation - and there's a good chance there are plenty in the list that will reveal just how much of a fool you have been for all these years.

Embarrassing mistakes

Nutella is one of the most common mistakes. Most people pronounce it nuh-tell-uh, whereas the site says we should be saying new-tell-uh.

Ikea has also caught millions of people out, because instead of being pronounced eye-key-ah, it should actually be said as ih key-yah - which is the Swedish pronounciation.

Nike is slowly becoming more familiar in its true form, as the number of people who mistakenly call it nyke instead of ni-key are on the wane. The turning point came in 2014 when two students wrote to the company chairman for clarification and their letter went viral.

Similarly most people are now cottoning on to the fact that Adidas is pronounced ah-DEE-das rather than AH-de-das - as it comes from a shortening of the founder's name (from Adolf Dassler to Adi Das)

Cars are another danger zone apparently. Posh cars are a minefield, given that Porsche should be pronounced por-sha rather than porch. More everyday car brands can catch us out too, as Hyundai is meant to be pronounced hun-day rather than hi-un-dye, and Volkswagen as vo-ks var-gen rather than volks wag-en.

There are probably plenty of people who are well aware that their pronunciation of high fashion brands could do with some work, so it's worth knowing that Moschino is not pronounced moss-chee-no, but is instead said as moss-key-no. Likewise Hermes should be pronounced air-mes rather than her-meez.

And if all this drives you to drink, it will come as no surprise to learn that you've been calling some of your favourite beers by the wrong names too. Hoegaarden, for example, is usually called ho-gar-den, but should be pronounced who-gar-den.

Why?

In most cases, the mistake arises from the fact that we're not entirely abreast of pronunciation in other languages. It's one of the reasons why American lists like this often have a lot of French words in them. French is less commonly taught in American schools, so people are less likely to know, for example, that Givenchy is pronounced zhee-vahn-shee rather than gah-vin-chee.

The question is whether you should now change the way you pronounce these words - or stick with the same name everyone else uses for fear of being branded a snob.

There is, of course, another option (and one that many people have been successfully using for years), you can just fudge it with phrases like 'chocolate spread', 'the flatpack place' or 'one of those posh French fashion houses'.