You're probably pronouncing 'Ikea' wrong
You say to-may-to, I say to-mah-to.
And, as it turns out, when referring to the most famous Swedish furniture manufacturer, most English speakers pronounce it eye-kee-uh while the Swedes call it ee-kay-uh.
Who knew?!
It might seem like a small thing but if you're ever in Europe and want to buy a new lamp, bedside table or chest of drawers, it'll help to know how to find your favourite furniture store - you know, Ikea.
The big news on how to pronounce Ikea properly landed on a recent episode of Jimmy Kimmel Live when Swedish soccer player Zlatan Ibrahimovic talked about filling his home with goods from the Swedish furniture giant.
Kimmel had to stop him and ask about the pronunciation.
Ibrahimovic laughed at Kimmel's eye-kee-uh, and corrected him. But, it turns out, both versions are correct.
Ikea is an acronym
Founded in 1943 by Ingvar Kamprid – when he was just 17 – Ikea began as a small mail order service.
The name Ikea is an acronym that stands for Ingvar Kamprid Elmtaryd Agunnaryd. Elmtaryd is the name of the farm that Kamprid grew up on and Agunnaryd is the town where he lived.
So the pronunciation is actually dependent on how you say the letters of the alphabet, as opposed to English versus Swedish.
Fun Ikea fact
More copies of the Ikea catalogue are printed than the Bible.
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