If you live in an English-speaking country, there’s a good chance you pronounce ‘BMW’ exactly the way you were taught to pronounce those three letters; ‘Bee,’ ‘ehm,’ ‘dub-uh-you’. That’s not entirely accurate, however.
Those of you who have visited Germany or speak German will know that ‘W’ in German is not pronounced the same way as in English. Consequently, the ‘correct’ way of pronouncing BMW is to actually say ‘vee’ as opposed to ‘dub-uh-you’, as the German brand points out in a series of new videos.
However, it’s not just English speakers that pronounce the German automaker’s name differently than Germans. Follow this link and you’ll discover how BMW is pronounced in French, Chinese, Turkish, Spanish, Italian, and Dutch.
Watch Also: Porsche Shows Everyone How To Correctly Pronounce Its Name
Of course, BMW isn’t the only German carmaker whose name can be pronounced differently in English. For example, the correct way is to pronounce Porsche is ‘Por’ ‘Shuh’ as opposed to ‘Porsh’ like many English speakers say.
Regardless of what language you speak, if you refer to a BMW as a ‘Bimmer,’ ‘beamer’ or ‘beemer,’ there’s a very good chance everyone will know what you’re talking about.
In a separate edition of BMW Explained on the carmaker’s website, we recently discovered that the term ‘Beemer’ originates in the United Kingdom. It was first used there to differentiate BMW’s motorcycles of the day from a British manufacturer whose bikes bore the nickname ‘Beezer.’ In China, BMW’s are referred to as ‘bao-ma’ which translates to precious horse.
The more you know…
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