How Do You Pronounce ‘IKEA’ And Does It Matter?
The popular furniture store… Wait… They also sell meatballs, plants, batteries…
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Put down your forks and knives, guys. The debate on how to pronounce ‘IKEA’ correctly has been finally settled by the Swedish company’s Singapore branch.
On Monday (October 18), IKEA Singapore shared some fun facts about the brand on its Instagam in conjunction with IKEA Tampines’ 15th birthday.
Anyone who pronounced ‘IKEA’ as ‘EE-KAY-UH’ should feel super validated because that’s the correct way to say the name of the brand. It’s not pronounced as ‘AI-KAY-UH,’ ‘EE-KIA’ or ‘AI-KEE-UH.’
Despite this revelation, IKEA isn’t particularly strict about pronunciation. “It’s only natural that people pronounce ‘IKEA’ and the Swedish names of its products with a local accent,” a spokesperson told QUARTZ. “That’s absolutely ok!”
The spokesperson also revealed that ‘IKEA’ is an acronym comprising the founder’s name (Ingvar Kamprad), the name of Kamprad’s family farm (Elmtaryd), and the location of the farm (the village of Agunnaryd in Smaland, Sweden).
IKEA founder Kamprad, who passed in January 2018, was also at peace with the different pronunciations of ‘IKEA’ around the globe.
He even removed the original ‘e’ with an accent from the company’s name when it expanded internationally in the late 1960s.
TLDR: It’s fine no matter how you pronounced it!
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