how do you pronounce Hyundai?

785

Asked by Joshua Sep 12, 2009 at 02:43 PM

Question type: General

how do you pronounce Hyundai? Is it pronounced "high-un-dye" or "hoon-dye" or "hun-day"? this has bothered
me for a long time and I dunno how to pronounce it. can u guys help me out on this one please?

sincerely

Josh Chilcott

22 Answers

125

I believe it is Hyun-Dye

12 people found this helpful.
365

Hun-Day it should rhyme with sunday, watch the mad-bosses commercial from the superbowl... copy and paste this link to watch it on youtube http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=puG0WOgAUfs&feature=PlayList&p=14A583FCFE3AC250&playnext=1&playnext_from=PL&index=58

22 people found this helpful.
785

Thanx sooo much 4 the help dude!!!!!!!!! it means alot 2 me

4 people found this helpful.
40

Hyundai should be pronounced Hundie as in bonsai or Mai Tai! ai is pronounced as i!!!

4 people found this helpful.
175

high-un-dye personaly,,, cant say its the way the koreans say it though,,, that would be the proper way scope it out on u tube man!!!!

7 people found this helpful.
175

oh wait i just seen the link!!!! LOL

2 people found this helpful.
150

Americans and Canadians pronounce it incorrectly as "Hun-day". However the correct way of pronouncing it is "Hy-un-die" and that's how the rest of the world pronounces it.

15 people found this helpful.
60

Go on YouTube and listen to Koreans pronounce it properly!

6 people found this helpful.
140

According to HyundaiUSA, it's HUN-day in the U.S. It makes no difference how they pronounce it in Korea - that's a different language. Look at it this way, in Korea "Buick" is pronounced something like "KEEG" because that's how it translates. In Korea that pronunciation is correct even though it does not agree with the U.S. pronunciation. HUN-day is correct in the U.S. because Hyundai says it is.

14 people found this helpful.

Hmmmm wonder why an automaker doesn't want to have their brand pronounced in English as "DIE" Yes, it's pronounced Day in North America for the most part.

170

Based on actually owning six Hyundai-built cars, I disagree with calling them “junk,” at least since 2002. We’ve had a 2002 XG350, an Azera, a Genesis 4.6, an Equus, a G90 and a G70. They all performed very well (some EXTREMELY well) and none of them has ever required a repair of any kind. Not junk.

13 people found this helpful.
60

Here's a link to a Korean pronouncing it "Hyun-day": https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=K0UovyM8Ni0

6 people found this helpful.
70

I hear so many people pronounce it as “High- un-die”. It’s a Korean brand, written as 현대 in Korean. The official romanisation would be ‘hyeondae’. It’s pronounces as “Hyun” (the ‘y’ making the same sound as it does at the beginning of ‘you’. And the ‘u’ the same as in the word ‘sun’) and then “deh”. I think “Hyundeh” would be a better romanisation, as the ‘ai’ sound in the current one doesn’t match the English sound for ‘ai’ at all.

7 people found this helpful.
170

Again, Hyundai says the U.S. pronunciation is HUN-DAY. It’s their name so they get to decide. End of debate.

4 people found this helpful.
120

OMG. These answers are all wrong. US corporate marketing decided in 1984 when they started exporting to the US to Americanize it as Hun-Day rhymes with Sunday, but that’s a butchering of the original Korean. But for God’s sakes, it is is NOT pronounced “High-Un-Dye” — that’s even worse. The correct way to say it, and yes, there’s a correct way because it’s actually a real word in Korean that means “modern”, is the way it’s spelled. There’s a reason there’s a Y in there. It’s not hard. I’ll break it down. Say “YUN” like it rhymes with “fun”. Then add an h sound in front: “HYUN”. Then say the word “DAY” but take the “ee” sound off the end. So it’s more like “DEH”, rhymes with “meh”. Put it together: HYUN-DEH. Not hard!

12 people found this helpful.
20

WOW. OK Mr Yoon Guru guy. So if the true answer is HYun da (or deh) with the "a" sound cut short, the national ads from Hyundai that say Hunday are all incorrect. Got it. Sort of like Jaguar being pronounced Jag YOU ar by the Brits and trying to force feed that to North American audiences. Of course the entire continent mangles Porsche. But at least THEIR national ads do pronounce it correctly as "Por sha. I fear HYUN deh is not a shoo in to be accepted now. Too late.

2 people found this helpful.
20

"Hhhhhhhhhhh"+"yyyyyyyyyyy" un Day Hy is an actual sound in Korean. the Hyun is one syllable, all letters are pronounced. Day is just like in English.

2 people found this helpful.
60

U.S. military Korean linguist here. Hyundai is a Korean word (현대). It is pronounced with a "Y" sound. This explanation (from another source) is pretty clear and close enough: "Hyundai is 현대 in Hangul. ㅎ ㅕ ㄴ ㄷ ㅐ. ㅎ is like h in hot ㅕ is yu. y like in yellow, u like o in song. ㄴ is like n in nut ㄷ is like d in dog ㅐ is like ai in strait The English equivalent of the Hangul characters will be different depending on how you pronounce each letter in English due to your accent so it probably still won't be pronounced correctly anyway." The poster in this thread who claimed Buick was pronounced "KEEG" in Korean is completely wrong. Buick is spelled "뷰익" and pronounced nearly identically ("byoo-eek"). The only English words Koreans have significant trouble with are those with an "F" sound (nonexistent in Korean). Otherwise, they duplicate the original (British English or American English) as best they can. Since English has a "Y" sound already, we might as well use it. We don't need to give the Koreans another reason to think us lazy or stupid.

6 people found this helpful.
10

None of you can pronounce Hyundai correctly. lol. The correct pronunciation sound is "Yhon-Deh" without putting any emphasis on each word. You're Welcome!!!!! Another car brand people struggle with is 'Porsche'. It is NOT pronounced 'Porsha or Porsher. The correct pronunciation has a short sharp 'eh' on the end NOT "Porshah' but P O R S H "EH" I was lucky enough to drive on one of the Porsche World Tours and the German Instructors drummed this into us.

1 people found this helpful.

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