Early last year, I wrote about how I realized I was mispronouncing the name of ITA Airways. That started a fascinating discussion in the comments section, which made me realize that there are quite a few airlines where people are confused with pronunciation.
Often this confusion comes down to acronyms vs. initialisms, with the former being abbreviations that are pronounced as words, and the latter being abbreviations that are pronounced as letters. So with that in mind, I figured it would be fun to cover some of the airline names that people struggle most with.
Let me emphasize that I have no claims of being a language expert. For that matter, there’s often more than one acceptable way to pronounce the name of an airline, and it also depends on whether you’re speaking in English, or in the carrier’s native language. But this is intended to be a general and basic guide based on how carriers choose to market themselves.
With that in mind, let’s cover some of the airlines that tend to cause the most confusion…
In this post:
ANA is pronounced “A-N-A”
Japanese Star Alliance carrier All Nippon Airways has the abbreviation “ANA,” and that’s generally sounded out letter by letter. So you’d call it “A-N-A, and not “anna.”
Etihad Airwys is pronounced “eti-had”
Abu Dhabi-based Etihad Airways’ name shouldn’t be hard to pronounce, in my opinion, but I do frequently hear people mispronounce it. It’s pronounced as two syllables, exactly as it looks, “eti-had.” I frequently hear people pronounce it as if there’s an “h” behind the “t” — “eth-ee-had,” and I also sometimes hear people start the name with an “i” sound, like “it-tee-had.”
EVA Airways is pronounced “E-V-A”
Taiwanese Star Alliance carrier EVA Air is supposed to be pronounced as “E-V-A Air.” Personally I think just pronouncing it as “ee-vah” sounds so much nicer, but that’s not the official pronunciation. That being said, lots of people do still refer to the airline as “ee-vah,” so odds are that people will know what you’re talking about if you pronounce it that way. For example, it’s much more common to sound out “EVA” than it is to sound out “ANA.”
ITA Airways is pronounced “ee-tah”
Italian national carrier ITA Airways is sounded out “ee-tah,” rather than reading out the letters as “I-T-A.” This is also in part because in Italian, the letter “I” is pronounced as a long “E,” while the “A” in Italian is pronounced as a short “A,” which explains why it’s pronounced this way.
JAL is pronounced “jah-l”
Japanese oneworld carrier Japan Airlines has the abbreviation “JAL,” and generally that’s sounded out as one syllable. So you’d call it “jah-l,” rather than “J-A-L.” Now, some people still do call it “J-A-L,” but that’s not the way it’s pronounced in official marketing. It’s interesting to see how ANA and JAL approach this differently.
Qatar Airways is pronounced “ka-tar”
Qatar Airways is known for being one of the world’s best airlines, but how do you pronounce its name? I suppose this comes down to whether you want to pronounce the carrier’s name in an Arabic-sounding way, or more of an English-sounding way. I’m by no means an expert on Arabic, but generally the airline officially pronounces the carrier’s name in two syllables, as “ka-tar.”
Some mild deviations from that are fine as well, like depending on where you want to put the emphasis. Something along the lines of “cutter” also isn’t the worst pronunciation, if you’re looking for something simple to remember. Just avoid the beginning of the word being along the lines of “kwah” or “kyu.”
SAS is pronounced “sass”
SkyTeam carrier Scandinavian Airlines is commonly abbreviated as SAS. In Northern Europe (at SAS hubs), you’ll generally hear people refer to the airline as “sass,” saying it all as one syllable. Outside of the region it’s common to hear people sound out the letters, “S-A-S,” but that’s not the official way it’s pronounced.
Bottom line
It can be hard for the average person to keep track of the names of airlines. While some airline names can be hard to pronounce due to the words originating in foreign languages, in other cases it’s hard to figure out whether a carrier’s abbreviated name is using acronyms or initialisms.
The above are some of the airlines I see people most struggle with, so hopefully that’s a useful rundown of how to go about pronouncing a carrier’s name, based on how they officially present themselves. Of course in many cases there are variants that are widely used, and it’s not the end of the world if you don’t get the pronunciation right.
What’s your take on pronouncing the names of these airlines? Any other airlines I’m missing that tend to cause confusion?
Delta Air Lines. Not, Delta Airlines.
I have another case: airline codes that are confused. AA is American Airlines, but a majority of Argentinian people say AA referring to Aerolíneas Argentinas, their flagship carrier. Aviation experts have to correct them saying that Aerolíneas Argentinas’ code is AR, not AA. But the confusion comes from the airline acronym in Spanish…
When speaking english, all my japanese friends call it "Anna", not A-N-A.
Unfortunately, Ben, you have to I understand semantics of the language in each of the home countries of the respective airlines.
Qatar: Arabs pronounce it Ka-tur
JAL : jal for westerners and japanese folks who speak English. Otherwise it is Ja-ru
Suggest you call airlines reservations numbers and listen to the opening Greeting and also pay full attention to beginning of safety video.
It isn't Ka-tur. It is more "Ka-tar," but with a shorter A and a gutteral R. Closer to "Ka-ter" in a way, which is why I think the super gringos often say cutter.
I’ve never understood why Qatar Airways, in its own materials, misprounces the name of the airline and country! It certainly gets it right in Arabic publications (kah-tahr, both syllabes short a’s), but in English it goes with this infuriating "ka-taaaaaar" in a British accent.
The "E" in Etihad is indeed supposed to be pronounced like a soft "i
Pretty sure "Etihad" is three syllables, not two as mentioned.
Don't forget Alaska Airlines! It's not Alaskan Airlines or Alaska Airways.
Poor Americans
Etihad is pronounced with a TH as in Thanos. Not T as in tin. There is no letter in Arabic for the T as in tin sound. The leading E is pronounced closer to I as well since thats how its said in Arabic. In the logo, the Arabic text is read as Al Ithihad (again TH as in Thanos). Etihad in Arabic means United / Union (Union of the 7 Emirates)
You are correct. It is also true that the word is often spelled "Ittihad" in our alphabet (e.g., the name of the Saudi soccer team.) There is no one-one correspondence between letters in Latin and Arabic alphabets. I guess that's why we had about 20 different ways to spell "Qaddafi."
How about TAP? I've heard both "T-A-P" and pronounced like water from the faucet.
The “a” in TAP is a clean a, not ae
For JAL the official way to say it is NOT jah-l. It should be jaru
I thought that as well. At least that's how the grown-ups around me pronounced JAL back in those childhood days.
(Disclaimer: I have Jaru dreams of flying intercontinental business class.)
If we are getting this down in the katakana weeds, I should all point out that ANA is officially pronounced "ei-enu-ei."
Unlike the other airlines mentioned in this story, JAL is indicated in the logo on the tail of their aircraft while the full name Japan Airlines is on the fuselage. Because of this I've always called it Japan Airlines. That said EVA was a surprise as was SAS.
Some more that come to mind:
Air Guilin
Fuzhou Airlines
Hebei Airlines
Ibom Air ("I bomb air flight 1" is probably not an announcement one would expect to hear at the airport)
Juneyao Airlines
SCAT Airlines ("scat" seems to have a certain fecal association, so my suggestion would be to go for S-C-A-T)
Americans can't pronounce Chinese words or execute pinyin phonetics in general. Particularly bad offenses include "Bay-zhing" and "Sche-zhwan."
Ooh, do one for airport names, too.
Haneda is "hot without the T," "neigh" and "dawn without the N." The accent is on the first syllable. All the travel bloggers on YouTube put the emphasis on the second syllable.
Same for NArita, which most foreigners pronounce NaRIta.
And that would be just scratching the surface…
Yeah it always throws me how Japanese doesn't really do stress, or have diphthongs.
A LOT of Japanese words appear to English speakers like they should have second syllable stress.
Another of the worst is when people say "wag-yu" instead of "wa-gyū," or "To-ki-yo" instead of "Tō-kyō."
Etihad is actually pronounced Itt-i -haad in Arabic, with the stress on the last syllable, which is a long vowel. The first two vowels are short. Qatar has two short syllables (ka-tar) and the stress is on the first syllable (i, e., NOT like you pronounce “catarrh”, which is how I hear most people pronounce it). There is no equivalent in English to the first letter of Qatar. It’s a more guttural sound than “q”...
Etihad is actually pronounced Itt-i -haad in Arabic, with the stress on the last syllable, which is a long vowel. The first two vowels are short. Qatar has two short syllables (ka-tar) and the stress is on the first syllable (i, e., NOT like you pronounce “catarrh”, which is how I hear most people pronounce it). There is no equivalent in English to the first letter of Qatar. It’s a more guttural sound than “q” or “k”. Nor is there for the “t” in Qatar, which is a different letter in Arabic. Same with the “h” in Etihad.
Regional friends tend to pronounce it like "Cutter" (or even "Cuttrrr"), with emphasis on the first syllable and pretty much no vowel between the 'T' and the rolled 'R'.
But indeed definitely not like the respiratory ailment.
Use phonetic pronunciations next time, your attempts did nothing much to clear things up where name pronunciations are concerned
Anyone who says cutter instead of Qatar is a dbag.
Eva is pronounced AVA
And it’s Jal. The name AL with a J
Having just come back from south america I was pleased to learm Latam Airlines is pronouncec La-tam. Sounds french to me.
Also, you don't do the "th" sound in Lufthansa.
Hainan Airlines is also not "hey-nan" but "high-naan".
WTF - if we will vbe refused to get on plane if misprounce the airline
Myabe planes will need new pronouns too?
dork. weirdo.
>>> "Any other airlines I’m missing that tend to cause confusion?"
Ben? Are YOU confused when you say "eye-tee-a" instead of "ee-tah"? "Jay-a-el" instead of "jah-el? "Ess-a-ess" as opposed to "sass"?
Neither is anyone else.
No, you just sound like an ignorant weirdo.
Ben, you’re wrong about “it-tee-had” being incorrect. It’s an Arab airline, and the exact correct way to say it is “it-tee-had”.
I liked this because I was wondering how to pronounce some airlines. Maybe you could do an update on Emirates...or someone online can help me. Is it like EMIR or Em - Ir....Thanks
EL AL is one also
You're an antisemitic if you pronounce it incorrectly.
Is the "Al" like "Al Capone" or like "all capons"?
SAS is pronounced "es ey es" in many English announcements on board. While I prefer the "Scandinavian" pronunciation, that's usually only used for the announcement in Swedish/Danish/Norwegian.
ITA pronunciation means PAIN in the Japanese. No wonder it’s a pain in the ass.
Not a pronunciation thing but for Singapore Airlines, everyone in Singapore would refer to it as S-Q nowadays, even though the more official abbreviation is SIA (which we would say S-I-A if we do use that term, and not seeyah or sire). It seems like only the older generation of people (gen X and above) still calls it SIA
Then there's Qantas, which is a bit funny... pronounced as Kwantas, sometimes misspelled as Quantas...
I like saying Aeromexico. Rolls off the tongue so easily with the Spanish pronunciation.
EVA always confused me - good to know b ow to say it now!
It would never come to my mind to say A-N-A. For me it remains "anna" Same goes for E-V-A which for me will still be "ee-vah" - as much as JAL always has been "jah-l", SAS is "sass" and ITA is "ee-tah". As long as one knows what the abbreviation means it is all fine that way. Far too long to spell out the abbreviation when you can name them in one word with mostly...
It would never come to my mind to say A-N-A. For me it remains "anna" Same goes for E-V-A which for me will still be "ee-vah" - as much as JAL always has been "jah-l", SAS is "sass" and ITA is "ee-tah". As long as one knows what the abbreviation means it is all fine that way. Far too long to spell out the abbreviation when you can name them in one word with mostly one or two syllables. Also, in my view it defies any logic that ANA should be spelled out while sister Japanese airline JAL is pronounced as one word.
Re Qatar: Many of my Arab friends seem to swallow the last vowel when they pronounce "katr" (or "cuttr")
What about the correct pronunciation of these:
Asiana
Vueling
Iberia
LATAM
The Korean reading of Asiana is "Ah-see-ah-nah" but most English speakers I know say "Ay-see-ah-na". Both work.
Iberia: ee-beria
Latam: la-tam (with the a like in British English, not American English)
Vueling: wueling
The recorded onboard announcements at SAS really welcome you on board S-A-S, not sass, when the announcement is made in English. It's not a sassy airline, so it's not pronounced that way. However, in Swedish, Danish and Norwegian it's pronounced 'sass'. Really weird how that works, isn't it?
Which reminds me of failing Norwegian startup airline 'Flyr'. They offered international flights but were so smart to choose a completely Norwegian name. In Norwegian it's...
The recorded onboard announcements at SAS really welcome you on board S-A-S, not sass, when the announcement is made in English. It's not a sassy airline, so it's not pronounced that way. However, in Swedish, Danish and Norwegian it's pronounced 'sass'. Really weird how that works, isn't it?
Which reminds me of failing Norwegian startup airline 'Flyr'. They offered international flights but were so smart to choose a completely Norwegian name. In Norwegian it's pronounced something like 'Fleer', which basically means 'to fly'. I've seen them being announced as 'flier', 'flirr' and even 'flurr' when abroad. Not having a name that's easy to understand to at least half of your targeted audience is a key ingredient in the recipe for failure.
Disagy. Flyr was a good name, as it is basically "flyer" in English but has that tech business thing of missing out the last vowel like flickr. I don't think that was why it failed. I didn't know it had a Norwegian meaning but that makes it even cooler.
Asiana is pronounced Ah-see-ah-nah, even in English announcements.
"Iti-hod" and "Cutter" are more true to the actual Arabic pronunciation than "eti-had" and "ka-tar," though.
I say "Et-ee-had" (the "a" is the "ah" sound from the doctor's request), not "hod", because the "a" is not pronounced like an "o" (as in "awe"). Perhaps there are some US midwest pronunciation differences being expressed here.
And since nobody in this post is speaking Arabic your point is not relevant.
A couple of errors (or at least incompletenesses):
1. Etihad is THREE syllables, not two: Et -tee - haad. Emphasis is on the second syllable. This is what I remember from countless hours on hold a few years ago, being forced to listen to their ads...
2. For Qatar, "ka - tar" is still ambiguous. It's pronounced (jn Arabaic) more like CUT - ter, although the u is sort of between an English "u" as...
A couple of errors (or at least incompletenesses):
1. Etihad is THREE syllables, not two: Et -tee - haad. Emphasis is on the second syllable. This is what I remember from countless hours on hold a few years ago, being forced to listen to their ads...
2. For Qatar, "ka - tar" is still ambiguous. It's pronounced (jn Arabaic) more like CUT - ter, although the u is sort of between an English "u" as in "cut" and "a" as in "cat". And the emphasis is on the first syllable. It's certainly not "Qua - TAR" - that's the opposite of the correct pronunciation.
What you are stating to be the correct way to pronounce Qatar is the pronunciation in British English. That is how they pronounce it in their safety videos and ads when said in English. However, in Arabic, Qatar sounds like "Ka-tar". It's two syllables, and the second syllable does not have an emphasis on the "a" (which is a common mistake I see people make). Rather, the second syllable is said slightly faster than the...
What you are stating to be the correct way to pronounce Qatar is the pronunciation in British English. That is how they pronounce it in their safety videos and ads when said in English. However, in Arabic, Qatar sounds like "Ka-tar". It's two syllables, and the second syllable does not have an emphasis on the "a" (which is a common mistake I see people make). Rather, the second syllable is said slightly faster than the first syllable, since the first syllable has a small pause at the end of "Ka". And the K is not like the English sounding K. It's more of a cross between a Q and a K. In Arabic, the first letter in Qatar is "Kaaf" (big one with the two dots on top).
A cross between Q and K? Perhaps my education was deficient, but coming out of my mouth, Q and K are identical sounds. 100%, no difference. Did you mean a cross between G and Q/K?
I've never heard anyone call SAS, "sass" and my best friend is even Swedish. It's always S-A-S. Also in Italy it is convenention to pronounce acronyms like a word - hence how ITA is pronounced or like Rai their state broadcaster.
Swede here. I would not say "S-A-S" as three letters. But I also wouldn't pronounce it "sass" (as in "sassy"). It's closer to "suss" or "sahs".
Replying to myself. If I was talking to an English-speaking person, I might say all three letters. But certainly not if I was talking to another Scandinavian.
@Johan: Next time you're on board one of their flights, listen to the safety briefing when it's one of those pre-recorded ones. In English it's S-A-S, in 'a Scandinavian language' it's 'sass' (or 'sahs', or 'sus' as you wish).
Dane here, yes if in Danish/Norwegian/Swedish it will always be sass (the 'a' vowel depends on which flavour of Scandinavian you prefer). I've said it as a 'word' with English speaking people before and they were hopelessly confused so it's much easier with those outside Scandinavia to just spell out the letters. I'm curious to see how the French at AF will approach it vs the Germans.
Definitely agreed. In English, it's always "es-ey-es", including from the crew in their English announcements. But I can't imagine I'd ever say it that way in Swedish! "ess-ah-ess" på svenska?? Uh, no.
I think the Norwegians say it the same way we do. The Danes might have a little different pronunciation of the 'a' part, but I think they would still say it as one word, rather than three letters (as indicated by @achph below).
Fair enough that makes sense, I don't speak Swedish and converse with my best friend in English obviously so makes sense I have never heard him refer to it as that and only as S-A-S!
Disagree on Etihad pronunciation - the pronunciation you wrote is a Western English way of pronouncing it, but using Indian English the t would be pronounced as "th" as you noted. The carrier frequently markets itself to Western audiences where I'm sure you have heard the other pronunciation, but just because they do code switching for some of their Western-based marketing or inflight announcements doesn't mean that that is the "right" way to pronounce it....
Disagree on Etihad pronunciation - the pronunciation you wrote is a Western English way of pronouncing it, but using Indian English the t would be pronounced as "th" as you noted. The carrier frequently markets itself to Western audiences where I'm sure you have heard the other pronunciation, but just because they do code switching for some of their Western-based marketing or inflight announcements doesn't mean that that is the "right" way to pronounce it. In fact, most Abu Dhabi-based Etihad employees would probably not pronounce it that way when speaking naturally.
Honestly, this is what phonetic alphabets like IPA are for. It would be way less ambiguous than this (not that IPA is perfect).
'It’s pronounced as two syllables, exactly as it looks, “eti-had.”'
But is it 'eteee-had', or rather 'eteye-had'?
Flew EVA Air to Bangkok once. The purser pronounced it “Vee-ah” Air. Sent me into a spiral because I thought I had been lied to my whole life
I've led many discussions on the proper pronunciation of the country Qatar. The simple fact is that it's solely made of 3 consonance sounds (no proper vowels) - none of which fully exist in English. Thus I use the British pronunciation (similar to the first option described in this article) and really only hear "cutter" or "cuttah" from American military personnel.
Also BA is not pronounced like sheep.
Wow, I’ve always forced myself to say J-A-L like A-N-A and L-A-X. Guess I was wrong all along, and I must now say Jal, in contrast to A-N-A and E-V-A! (Jal is also the Hindi word for water, for what it’s worth.)
For that matter, how about airport codes? Especially for those that can be pronounced as words, do people say Sin and Hel and Del and Bom, or spell it out?
Correction: Jal is a more formal Hindi word for water; the everyday word is paani. And yes, I’m guilty of saying ‘Lax’ in the past, but later I realised that that’s as big a mistake as saying ‘Sea’ and ‘Mia’ when it comes to some other US airports!
Okay, but now how do you pronounce the acronym for this website: OMAAT? I always say "oh-mat".
“Oh-Ford”
Arabic speaker here. If you want to be specific like you are, Etihad is actually more like “itti-haad”, which is not what you’ve written. Just FYi.
How about QANTAS?
And don't forget that the proper pronunciation of "American Eagle" is actually "dee-laid at oh-hair."
“American Weasel” is also acceptable.
Great post!
How does one pronounce the "eti" part of Etihad as a single syllable?
It’s more like It-ti-haad when pronounced in Arabic.
Right -- the t is "geminated" (indicated by ّ in written Arabic, though diacritics such as that one are usually omitted), so it is pronounced with a slight pause while the tongue is forming the t sound, which makes it sound like the t ends the first syllable and starts the second. Definitely two syllables for the "eti" part alone (non-adjacent pronounced vowels always result in a separate syllable).
Very informative article. Great educational experience.
I knew some of the correct pronunciations already, but not all of them. One that you should add: Lufthansa. No matter how much I try--and I even flew on the airline recently--I can't get my tongue to say "Lufthansa" correctly!!!
LUFT - Thansa
I worked with a travel agent who pronounced it Luft-STANSA. Lol.
There's a bit more about on the pronunciation JAL and ANA.
JAL - in Japanese, it's pronounced "jaru-" (ジャル) in Japanese since (I believe that) there is no "L" sound in Japanese
ANA - "ANA" is spelt (エー・エヌ・エー) in Japanese, and read as "e-en-e". It's probably due to the characteristics of "え/エ (e)" sounds, which becomes long sound when combined with "い/イ (i)" with neglected "いイ (i)" sound.
My Japanese skill is at...
There's a bit more about on the pronunciation JAL and ANA.
JAL - in Japanese, it's pronounced "jaru-" (ジャル) in Japanese since (I believe that) there is no "L" sound in Japanese
ANA - "ANA" is spelt (エー・エヌ・エー) in Japanese, and read as "e-en-e". It's probably due to the characteristics of "え/エ (e)" sounds, which becomes long sound when combined with "い/イ (i)" with neglected "いイ (i)" sound.
My Japanese skill is at a very beginner stage, so I'm almost sure that something would be wrong here... Hopefully someone finds this helpful, as I also found the ways they pronounce JAL and ANA to be quite different from what I expected, back in some time.
Nice! I scrolled thru the comments to see if anyone mentions about JAL and ANA. I always heard JAL being referred to as “jaru” and ANA as “e-en-e” or “e-ene-e” or even “jen-niku” (which is Japanese way of shortening the official airline name of All Nippon Airways”) as shown in J-Dramas “Attention Please” and “Good Luck!”
But yeah, different countries may have different ways of referring to different airlines. Some Koreans may also refer JAL...
Nice! I scrolled thru the comments to see if anyone mentions about JAL and ANA. I always heard JAL being referred to as “jaru” and ANA as “e-en-e” or “e-ene-e” or even “jen-niku” (which is Japanese way of shortening the official airline name of All Nippon Airways”) as shown in J-Dramas “Attention Please” and “Good Luck!”
But yeah, different countries may have different ways of referring to different airlines. Some Koreans may also refer JAL as “jaru/자르“ or “JAL/잘항공“ or “Il-bon Hang-gong/일본항공“ (a Korean way of saying Japan Airlines. Most Koreans, from my experience, refer to ANA as “anna/아나항공“ or “전일공/jeon-il-gong” (which is Korean way of saying “jen-niku”.
I was also on an EVA Airways from ICN to TPE and I hear the Korean EVA flight attendant refer EVA as “ee-vah hang-gong/에바항공”, which I thought was interesting.
ANA is 全日本空輸 (Zen Nippon Kuuyu) which is shortened to 全日空 (Zen Nikku)
It's pronounced identical the Buddhist concept of Zen and does not have a 'J' sound like JAL does.
It's true that there is no L sound in Japanese, but there also isn't an R sound. It's kind of in between. Your tongue touches the roof of your mouth briefly when you say it, but further back than when you say an L.
The U at the end of ジャル is really short in a sentence. It only sounds long in isolation or when followed by another vowel.
Etihad is actually three syllables: e-ti-had, not eti-had
Yes... and no in fact. It all depends on the reference language.
Like in Japanese ANA is indeed A-N-A but JAL is not JAL, it is Nihon Kōkū, that would you hear a lot in NRT.
Qatar is Qatar.. but in fact it is al-Qaṭariyya in Arabic... and Arabs would pronounce, in English, Qatar more like a Kra-tar.
So back to ANA for instance... in French we will all say 'Ana', nobody...
Yes... and no in fact. It all depends on the reference language.
Like in Japanese ANA is indeed A-N-A but JAL is not JAL, it is Nihon Kōkū, that would you hear a lot in NRT.
Qatar is Qatar.. but in fact it is al-Qaṭariyya in Arabic... and Arabs would pronounce, in English, Qatar more like a Kra-tar.
So back to ANA for instance... in French we will all say 'Ana', nobody would say A-N-A (spelling in English or spelling in French...). So what rules... JAL is wrong then as this is not the name of the airline.
So at the end... just pronounce it the way you feel it or like people do where you are...
While you may hear 日本航空 often on airport PAs, many Japanese people, including those who work for JAL, just say ジャル when they're referring to Japan Airlines.
Yes true - which is my point .. what is the reference to say “this” is the right way or not
"Arabs would pronounce, in English, Qatar more like a Kra-tar."
No, they wouldn't.
…. and you would know all about such Arabic trivia J.
Yes they would and they do. Lives 5 years there.
“cutter” also isn’t the worst pronunciation, ... sorry in my view it is. The only place I ever hear it pronounced "Cutter" is in the US, it appears the rest of the world pronounce it "Qa-Tar"
BBC newsreaders say "cutter" all the time.
When you fly Qatar Airways you'll hear all announcements as Ka-TAR (emphasis on the second syllable) Airways. No one in Qatar says something similar to "cutter". It's wrong.
It's more nuanced than that. It's a country where the English pronunciation is quite different than the Arabic. To many English speaking ears, the Arabic sounds closer to "cutter" but the reality is that the actual consonance sounds don't exist in English
Now I need to know what words E V A stand for. When it was EVA in my mind, I was good with it but if each letter represents a word, I need to know what the words are
"EVA" comes from Evergreen Group, the parent company of EVA Air. Just like many Chinese-language company names, it sounds very different in Chinese though.
@farnorthtrader In English, I think that it is short for Evergreen Airlines. So, the EV is from the first two letters in Evergreen and the A is for Airlines.
I learned a lot from this post! Turns out I was pronouncing a lot of the names wrong.
I need to do some kegel exercises.
Great topic, Ben. Similar to posts on pronunciation I’ve seen on fashion and watch blogs (for names like Hermes, Jaeger Le Coultre, etc.). Also reminds me of a beloved Indian uncle in the 1980s who saw my TWA carryon bag and asked if “Twah” was any good.
Now THIS is a great topic Ben!!!