It's Official: IKEA Reveals Whether It's Pronounced As 'Aye-Keh-Yah' Or 'Eee-Keh-Yah'
Settled once and for all.
By Tamara Jayne — 12 Jul 2023, 10:35 AM
Do you pronounce IKEA's name as 'Aye-keh-yah' or 'Eee-keh-yah'?
Despite being recognised all over the world, IKEA still has many people pronouncing its name wrongly.
Good news! We can finally put the debate to rest.
A spokesperson from IKEA has shared the official way to pronounce the name.
Unlike the store's product names, IKEA isn't a Swedish word. It's actually an acronym that stands for the founder's name, Ingvar Kamprad; the name of his family farm, Elmtaryd; and the location of that farm in the village of Agunnaryd in Småland, Sweden.
Since the furniture retailer originated in Sweden, an IKEA spokesperson told Quartz that the actual Swedish way to pronounce IKEA is... *drumroll*
... 'EEE-KEH-YAH'.
Here's a video to demonstrate how to pronounce it:
Despite many people mispronouncing its name, IKEA isn't pressuring anyone to change the way they say it
"It's only natural that people pronounce 'IKEA' and the Swedish names of its products with a local accent. That's absolutely ok!" added the spokesperson.
According to Mental Floss, IKEA commercials in the US still pronounce it as 'Aye-keh-yah', while UK commercials follow the Swedish pronunciation.
Even the founder himself, Kamprad, who passed away in 2018, was apparently fine with people pronouncing the name differently all over the world.
