There’s nothing worse than learning you’ve been pronouncing someone’s name wrong for an extended about of time. While my name is easy to pronounce (Taylor, like Swift) I still sometimes get called Tyler. However, nothing feels worse than knowing we as a collective, English-speaking people have been pronouncing “Ikea” wrong for gosh… decades now.
Well, as it turns out that worse nightmare has come true but don’t worry, I’m here to enlighten you.
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Let’s just get something straight — I friggin love Ikea.
Sure, I’m not a broke college student anymore, but I’m still a human who likes to save money on trendy furniture.
I’m not the Queen of England, alright?!
Ikea has taught us a lot of life skills like patience, puzzle making, and the fun of the Swedish language!
As we know, the Swedish company is best known for its affordable furniture and tasty food court.
It’s Ikea. Everyone loves Ikea. EYE-KEY-AH, right?
WRONG!
As it turns out, all of us English speakers have been pronouncing Ikea wrong this entire time! YouTuber MacDoesIt went viral when he tweeted to his followers that the correct pronunciation is EE-KAY-AH.
Naturally, my world has been rocked.
A spokesperson for the company explained the name’s origin to Quartz back in 2018.
“‘IKEA’ is an acronym for the founder’s name, Ingvar Kamprad; the name of his family farm, Elmtaryd; and the location of that farm, in the village of Agunnaryd, in Småland, Sweden,” they explained.
He added: “When Ingvar founded IKEA in 1943, he of course pronounced it with a typical Swedish accent: ‘Eee-KEH-Yah’.”
Chances are, I will continue to pronounce it the way I always have, but deep down I will always know I’m wrong.
