Xiaomi, Porsche, Asos: 10 companies with names you never knew how to pronounce
When it comes to these businesses, you will no longer be tongue-tied
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Your support makes all the difference.Chinese electronic company Xiaomi has started 2015 with the announcement that its sales more than doubled last year to $11.9 billion (£7.8 billion).
But if you read that sentence and skimmed over the name "Xiaomi" with a hint of confusion, then you're not alone.
Meaning "little rice", Xiaomi - or "show-me" - is the kind of word that tends to elude the company's international consumers.
In fact, as part of its online expansion, the firm last year purchased the two-letter web address Mi.com, in order to help the brand’s global reception.
For those who want to get it right though, vice president of international for Xiaomi, Hugo Barra, offered the following advice: "Think of 'show me' and then pronounce the first word as if it [were] 'shower'."
It’s not the first company to come up against a pronunciation hurdle. Here are some of the other big businesses, whose names might not quite roll off the tip of your tongue...
Now you can rest easy at the dinner table and talk about Xiaomi's reported 135 per cent leap in sales with ease.
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