Hyundai is a multinational car manufacturer from South Korea that is headquartered in
Seoul. Aside from the Hyundai brand, the Hyundai Motor Company also owns two subsidiaries, Kia Motors, and Genesis Motor, its luxury vehicle division that was founded in 2015. In 2019, Hyundai was the third largest car manufacturer in the world and owns the largest integrated automobile manufacturing factory in the world, which can produce 1.6 million cars per year or a car every 10 seconds.
The name Hyundai derives from the Korean word
hyeondae, which translates to "modernity" in English, representing the company's philosophy of continuous innovation.
Hyundai's logo represents the letter "H", the first letter of its brand, but it also has another meaning. The logo was designed as two stylized men shaking hands, representing a company representative and a satisfied customer.
The name Hyundai is often wrongly pronounced by English speakers. This is due to the fact that many of Hyundai's advertisements adapt the company's name to make pronunciation simpler for local populations. Consequently, many people pronounce Hyundai as
hun-day or
high-un-day.
The correct pronunciation of Hyundai is actually
hyohn-deh.
The "y" in the first syllable of Hyundai is not silent and is pronounced. It is then followed by the "u" which is pronounced like a very open "oh" sound, followed by the "n". The second syllable is not pronounced as "day", but the "ai" in Hyundai is pronounced as an "eh". So, the end is actually pronounced as
-deh, making
hyohn-deh the way you pronounce Hyundai.