My blog puts me in touch with Porsche owners the world over. Lately, what used to be as rare as an original 550 Spyder seems to be as prolific as a Honda Accord (and this from amongst the anointed few.) What blasphemy is this that I speak of? None other than the incorrect pronunciation of our beloved brand. If you’re new to the marque then the confusion is understandable. However, if you are a long time Porsche owner then there really is no excuse. No, it’s not the end of the world it you don’t pronounce it correctly, you just risk sounding like a sheisskopf to those in the know… 🙂
Let’s review. The Porsche brand is of German origin and a family/surname. These two facts combine to provide an easy and definitive pronunciation.
In the German language, the “e” at the end of Porsche is pronounced. IT IS NOT SILENT. Very similar to the the word Deutsche. It’s not DOYTSCH. It’s DOYTSCH-UH.
Fact 2: Forget about Fact 1. This is a family name. If you listen to discussions with, or about, any of the founding family members, they all pronounce the name in one way and one way only.
This means that Porsche is never pronounced PORSH and should always be pronounced PORSH-UH.
The only correct pronunciation of Porsche is Porsh-Uh
By the way, Porsche (you should now be pronouncing it correctly) is not the only German brand or name to suffer this fate. Take a look at the table below for other familiar examples. At the bottom is a link for the correct pronunciation of each name including PORSH-UH!
| Frequently Mispronounced Terms | |
| GERMAN in ENGLISH with correct phonetic pronunciation |
|
| Word/Name | Pronunciation |
| Adidas™ | AH-dee-dass |
| Bayer™ | bye-er |
| Braun™ Eva Braun |
brown (not ‘brawn’) |
| Dr. Seuss (Theodor Seuss Geisel) |
soyce |
| Goethe German author, poet |
GER-ta (‘er’ as in fern) and all oe-words |
| Hofbräuhaus in Munich |
HOFE-broy-house |
| Loess/Löss (geology) fine-grained loam soil |
lerss (‘er’ as in fern) |
| Neanderthal Neandertal |
nay-ander-tall |
| Porsche™ | PORSH-uh |
| Gerhard Schröder German chancellor |
shrer-der (‘er’ as in fern) not shro-der! |
| Phonetic guides shown are only approximate. Terms marked with the ™ symbol are trademarked brands. Hear MP3 Audio for these words! |
|
Related Posts
Introducing Porsche Factoids
Video History of Porsche Racing
The Most Famous Porsche
Porsche Culture: Joey Porsche and Friends
[Table and Audio Source: About.com]
View Comments (16)
Love this stuff. Stumbled and dugg!
Funny you should mention this, almost everyone I have ever met in the UK says Porsch... I'm sure your right but say Porsch-uh here and people will either think you're being anal or pronouncing the name Portia.
Even the Porsch dealers say it!
Yes, and Schaferhund was Alsatian.
P.S., scheisskopf nichts sheisskopf
As a research technician in the foam and rubber industry, I have worked with Adidas in the past 12 years and that is true that the correct pronouciation is Ah-Dee-Dass. After it's founder Adolph 'Adi" Dassler. Nice work.
THANK YOU.
(or should that be Danke, with two syllables?)
I'm going to show this to my dad and hopefully he'll get off my back about pronouncing it Porsch-e!
I understand the reasoning, but I always found it a bit of a "snobbish" thing, like an inside handshake sort of thing among Porsche owners so they can snicker behind their backs at the "uncultured" masses.
If we're going to be so precise, than as an Asian American, I demand that all english speakers start pronouncing Japanese, Korean, and in the very near future, Chinese automakers in their traditional/native pronounciation.
I find it funny when people demand Porsch-uh be pronounced correctly, yet they don't bat an eyelash when they butcher/Americanize Toyota, or Mazda, Honda, Hyundai, etc etc. Because every Japanese automaker is also originated from a family name. If you want to adhere to "fact#2", then you better start learning Japanese ... :rolleyes:
Ichiban!
Hi JC,
I think you might have missed the "tone" of this post. It was meant to be tongue-in-cheek (with a smattering of educational info thrown in for good measure). :-)
No one is "demanding" Porsche be pronounced correctly, just suggesting that you might want to learn how to say the name as it was meant to be pronounced and more importantly as it is marketed. Personally, as someone that speaks a bit of German (but is not of German origin) I am constantly correcting myself. Yes, I admit it. Many times in my excitement I find my self saying "Porsch" vs. "Porsche -uh".
As for Japanese, Korean and Chinese automakers, do they market their cars and brands in the same way globally? Are Honda, Nissan or Toyota (for example) pronounced differently in other parts of the world? If so, I would love to learn the correct/different pronunciation9s). However, until they start marketing them differently here in the US, it will be a hard sell for people to pronounce them any way but the way they hear them.
My best friend in the world and bosom car buddy had just gotten himself a brand new Porsche 924. For a couple of young guys this was a major accomplishment having been driving TR6's, MGB's and some American muscle cars. I asked him after hearing him pronounce it PORSH-UH several times what was the correct pronunciation having myself always pronounced it PORSH (not wanting to give in to this extra effort). His answer trumps all the answers I've heard since. He said its PORSH until you own one, then its PORSH-UH. He's gone 10 years now and it wasn't until 2/2008 that I got my first Porsche at 56 years old. My NY plate reads PORSCHUH.
@Marc,
Good story. Will you send me a pic of your plate for my next post on Porsche vanity plates??? It would be much appreciated.
Thanks - I've always wondered how to pronounce "Adidas."
JC got to my point before I did -- thus showing genius and shrewdness. I've had the same thought before, when hearing some newscaster interrupt his smooth flow of verbiage to awkwardly pronounce some Spanish surname the way it's pronounced in whatever Latin American country is being discussed. But no one seems to care about any other kind of name -- including English names! Maybe we should insist that the name "Arthur," for example, be pronounced the way many in the UK would pronounce it -- sounding something like, "Ahthuh" Why worry about Spanish and German names, when we can't even get the ENGLISH names right?