Pronounce Top 50 Brand Names in English
hi i’m vanessa from speak english with
vanessa.com
netflix nike toyota let’s talk about it
[Music]
do you use netflix do you wear nike
shoes do you drive a toyota
well you’re not alone there are many
global brands that are used
internationally
in fact it’s quite rare to find
something that was 100 percent
made in your country maybe the cotton of
this shirt was grown in one place
the thread was put together in another
place the dye
for the color was made in another place
the cloth was put together in another
place and then it was sewn
somewhere else and finally it landed in
the store
near you needless to say we live in a
connected global economy so i would like
to help you today
to pronounce 50 most common brands that
you will hear as you travel
and then as you interact with people
internationally
these are brands for clothing food money
beauty food drinks there’s so many
categories
there’s a lot to learn before we get
started i want to make a quick note that
there are many ways to pronounce these
brands
but let’s imagine that you are walking
around new york city
someday when we’re allowed to do that
again you’re walking around new york
city and you want to look for
this store so you approach someone and
you ask them
where is ash a m
they’re gonna say what so i would like
to help you pronounce these
name brands the same way that is pretty
standard in the u.s
if you asked them where is hm
they’ll say oh yeah it’s right over
there or if you ask them where’s the
closest
ikea i want you to be able to find what
you’re looking for
communicate clearly and have other
people feel comfortable
understanding what you’re talking about
so let’s get started i’m gonna say each
name brand
two times i want you to listen the first
time and the second time i would like
you to speak out loud and repeat with me
you might hear birds in the distance or
an airplane overhead
don’t worry we are out here in my
backyard enjoying a little bit of
greenery so i hope that this will add to
the lesson let’s get started with our
first category which is clothing
gucci gucci
notice the ch sound in the middle of
this word gucci
next is chanel chanel
don’t be fooled this word has a ch
but we don’t say ch it sounds like
be quiet chanel chanel
next is louis vuitton
louis vuitton we do not say
luis the s is lost
instead we say louis vuitton
nike nike
adidas adidas
h m h
m i didn’t really say h and
m instead i just said the letter n
h n m h m
h m zara
zara our next category is electronics
can you say with me
google google
apple apple del
del make sure you have a clear l sound
with your tongue out of your mouth
dell microsoft
microsoft notice the middle vowel that’s
happening in this
word micra microsoft this is a schwa
sound it kind of sounds like a
sound microsoft microsoft
samsung samsung
amazon amazon
our next category is media youtube
the vowel is the same here you youtube
notice how my lips don’t really change
youtube
facebook facebook
don’t forget a clear f sound at the
beginning
facebook instagram
instagram tick tock
tick tock this is the same sound that a
clock makes
tick tock tick tock tick tock twitter
twitter in american english the t’s in
the middle of this word
change to a d sound listen when i say
this
twitter twitter
twitter on twitter you send a tweet
whatsapp whatsapp
this is kind of a play on words because
sometimes when we greet someone
we say what’s up what’s up
but here they’ve kind of changed this to
be clever to say
what zap because it’s an application on
your phone so that’s where the
uh expression originated from whatsapp
next we have zoom zoom which we are all
becoming more and more familiar with
this year right
skype skype skype
maybe you watch netflix netflix
or
this also has the same vowel
let’s go to our next category which is
money
visa visa
make sure that your lips vibrate when
you say this v
visa master card
master card american
express american express
sometimes you’ll see this written simply
as a e
but it stands for american express
make sure in that second word you have a
clear x sound express
express or you might pay with paypal
paypal our next category are cars
do you have a toyota i do
let’s make sure that the second t in
this word changes to a d
this is what happens in american english
often when there is a t
between two vowels let’s say it together
toyota toyota
bmw bmw
sometimes we give these cars a cute name
and call them
beamers do you have a beamer
look at that cute beamer or you might
say
mercedes mercedes
the full word is mercedes-benz but we
often just say
mercedes ford
ford audi
audi porsche
porsche notice this word has an
s-c-h but we don’t say porch
a porch is where i’m sitting right now
it’s like a deck a place on the back of
your house
or on the front of your house but make
sure for this car
we don’t say ch instead you just say
it’s a porsche
the next category are stores restaurants
hotels
all of this kind of mixed together our
first one is
mcdonald’s mcdonald’s
mcdonald’s sometimes we call this
mickey d’s i know as a kid or maybe this
is just a kid thing
sometimes kids say i want to go to
mickey d’s
i want to go to mickey d’s this is uh in
my opinion a rather unfortunate thing
that has spread from the us
around the world fast food but we all
know it
so we need to make sure we say it
correctly mcdonald’s at least
in the american style way right
kfc kfc
subway subway ikea
ikea costco
costco notice that t is often silent
sometimes we might say
costco but usually we just toss it out
costco costco fedex
fedex ups
ups hilton
hilton marriott
marriott the next category are food and
drinks so we’re going to get started
with a very common
name brand coca-cola
coca-cola we often just call this coke
i want to go to the store to buy some
coke
now this is also a word for a type of
drug
cocaine so i think that in general the
context will be pretty clear
if you are not a drug user people will
not think that you’re buying a drug
they will know that you’re gonna buy the
carbonated
sweet drink coca-cola if you say i
need to buy some coke or i’m gonna go
buy some coke or can you bring some coke
to our house for the dinner party
they’ll know that you’re talking about
coca-cola most likely
pepsi pepsi
starbucks starbucks
a long time ago my husband used to work
at starbucks
and they often joked around that it’s
actually called
five bucks bucks is a slang way to say
dollars and every drink is a little bit
at least the reputation is that it’s a
little bit overpriced
so they say that everything costs at
least five bucks
when you go in you’re gonna spend
probably five bucks which is a lot for a
cup of coffee
you can get plain coffee for less but
anyway this is kind of a silly nickname
for starbucks i’m gonna go to five bucks
nestle nestle
next we have the two most popular maybe
not the two most delicious
but the two most popular beers are
corona
a little bit ironic nowadays right i
would like to drink some
corona not the virus please
and the second one is budweiser
sometimes we just shorten this to
bud budweiser bud
our final category for the 50 most
common brand names are
beauty products the first brand name is
maybelline
maybelline gillette
gillette don’t say gillette
instead we say j gillette
colgate now this one has a true g sound
colgate colgate and the final one
is dove dove be careful with that v
sound make sure your teeth are on your
lip
dub dub congratulations on practicing
these pronunciations and also
exercising your pronunciation muscles
now i have a question for you
what brand names do you like let me know
in the comments
and also read each other’s comments to
learn more thank you
so much for learning english with me and
i’ll see you again next friday for a new
lesson
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thanks so much bye