The Most Mispronounced Tech Terms and Brands May Surprise You

Consumer tech can be intimidating, especially as it changes and evolves year after year. On top of that, many of the most commonly used tech terms and brand names are sometimes just flat out tough to pronounce.

For instance, should you say the word GIF with a hard g sound or more of a j sound? It’s not as clear as you think. Considering that about 60 percent of tech terms and web content is in English, but just over 16 percent of the world’s population speak the language, it only further contributes to the disconnect.

Seeking more insight, the folks over at SimpleGhar—a consumer goods review site—created a list of the most commonly mispronounced consumer tech terms and brands. By reviewing the number of times those words were listened to via the pronunciation library Forvo, they whittled the lists down to the top 10 in each respective category. The results may surprise you.

The No. 1 most mispronounced consumer tech term is Linux, which refers to the open-source computer operating system. Pronounced “li-nuhks,” the word  has been listened to approximately 267,000 times on Forvo for the correct pronunciation. Coming in at No. 2 with 232,000 listens is the aforementioned (and long-debated) GIF. And while technically it’s supposed to sound like “jif,” both pronunciations—“jif” or “gif”—are considered acceptable.

With around 225,000 listens overall, Wi-Fi is the third most mispronounced tech term in the world. If English is your native language, then it’s likely that you pronounce the term as “wahy-fahy” or “wye-fye.” However, people from France, Spain, and other European countries typically pronounce it like “wee-fee.” Meanwhile, Polish people pronounce it “vee-fee,” as the Polish language swaps w sounds with v sounds.

As far as mispronounced tech brand names go, the frontrunner is Samsung with roughly 279,000 listens on Forvo. As the tech company is based in South Korea, it’s actually pronounced like “sam-suhng” in English, or “sam-soong” in Korean.

Want to know more? Check out our list below, and for a complete list of all the mispronounced tech, computer, gaming, photography, and smartphone terms, you can head here.

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