How do you pronounce IKEA, Adidas or Lidl? Our guide to getting the names right

YOU might have been saying it wrong for years.

Last week, chocolate-maker Ferrero shocked fans after revealing the proper pronunciation for their popular chocolate spread Nutella. People had been calling it nut-ell-ah but, on their website, Ferrero announced the correct way to say it is new-tell-ah.

The revelation sparked outrage on Twitter and Facebook with thousands of fans complaining and the Italian company later backtracked.

“Ferrero aren’t trying to encourage a common worldwide pronunciation on this,” the company said in a statement. “In the UK we call and pronounce it ‘Nutella’ as do consumers. “The US pronunciation is just for them.”

The Sunday Post has compiled a few more commonly mispronounced brands, places and people.

Ikea

Everyone was comfortable with Swedish furniture giants as eye-key-ah but recent adverts made everyone’s preconceptions fold quicker than a cheap flat-pack table. The voice-over clearly says ih-key-ah.

Primark

The battle rages on over how to pronounce the fast-fashion success story. At company headquarters in Ireland they pronounce it pry-mark, though it is accepted that Scots prefer to say pree-mark.

Lidl

German global supermarket chain should be pronounced lee-dil in German and lih-dil in the UK.

Espresso

Many coffee fans order these small coffees by asking for an ex-press-oh. In Italian, and every other language, it should instead be an es-press-oh that’s asked for.

Etc.

It’s not ex-set-ra. It stands for Et Cetera in latin, which means “and other things”. It’s pronounced et-set-err-ah.

Voldemort

JK Rowling last week raised eyebrows after He-Who-Shall-Not-Be-Named was finally named. The final “t” in his name is not pronounced, making the Dark Lord seem a wee bit more French.

Adidas

Most go for ah-dee-dus, but the rest of Europe pronounce the name of this sports brand otherwise. They go for the classier and much more German ahd-id-ass.

Porsche

Who knows how these things are decided, but at some point around 2002 the name of car brand Porsche changed. It went from Porsh to Porsh-ah quicker than one of their Boxsters.

Phuket

You don’t need to sound like a foul-mouthed navvy clocking off for the day when saying this Thai tourist province out loud. Unfortunately the real way to pronounce it is not much better poo-get.

Moet et Chandon

Show how posh you are by saying your champers correctly it’s not mo-way, it’s mo-wett after its creator Claude Moet, whose name has Dutch rather than French origins.

Hoegaarden

Most people ask for a ho-garden, but this popular Belgian beer is actually pronounced who-garden. Although after four or five of these strong wheat beers you’ll probably just point at the bottle and hope the barman understands you.