We've all been there. Chatting away with mates or colleagues about a certain brand and you pronounce it wrong. All eyes are on you and you face the tough decision of wholeheartedly committing to it or admitting you haven't a clue how to say it.
In this situation, knowledge is power my friend. New research from tech brand Huawei has found that so many words (names, foods and brands) are regularly mispronounced - their own name being one of them. (It’s pronounced “wah-way” by the way!).
We've done a bit of digging and found some well known brands are in the same boat. Here are some you can master in less than 5 mins.
You'll thanks us later.
1. Amazon
First off the bat, seems fairly straight forward yeah? Touché!
Most of us have been saying "Ama-zohn" when in fact, we should be saying "Ama-zun".
2. Huawei
Ok - time to set things straight once and for all. The world's second largest smartphone brand and most of us still don't know how to say it.
It's wah-way. And again, WAY-WAY.
3. Volkswagen
Not gonna lie, this one caught us off guard a bit.
Easy, this is "Volks-Wagon" right? Well it's time to polish up your Leaving Cert German, this brand should be pronounced "Foaks-Vaa-Gun".
4. Desigual
Firstly, when a brand throws in a backwards 'S', things are bound to get a bit tricky. Cheers for that.
We've always thought it was "Desi-gwal".. shock horror, we're wrong! It's all about the inflection for this brand - "Dess-ig-wal". Safe to say we'll be practicing this one for a while.
5. Zara
Just when we thought we were safe, it turns out we can't even say Zara properly. Can't win here lads!
Four letters, easy enough name - oh no, this bad boy is apparently pronounced "Tha-dah". Think of yourself as a magician revealing a trick and you'll nail this one.
6. Nutella
Nutella sambos were a rare school-lunch treat, so it's safe to say we've been saying this wrong since we can remember.
The correct way of saying it is "New-tell-uh"... who cares, we still love this chocolate jar of happiness.
7. Moët & Chandon
No matter how snazzy you may feel ordering this tipple, you've been saying it so very wrong. We all have.
Being our fancy selves, we've always said "Mo-way" - ah, what fools! Oddly enough we should be pronouncing the 'T', so it sounds like "Mo-et". Lesson learned.
Huawei knows all about mispronunciations. Watch below as Doireann Garrihy takes to the streets of Dublin to teach people how to pronounce 'Huawei'. Say it with us... 'Wah-way'
