Many of the French brands in the cycle industry are pronounced wrongly in English speaking countries, simply because unless you’ve learned the rules of French pronunciation, the way you say these names will more than likely be wrong. It’s not surprising that, in Britain and America, you’ll hear different pronunciations of French brands like “Peugeot”, “Motobecane”, “Mavic” and “Vitus” within the same room. I thought I’d try and provide some clarity about how these different French marques are pronounced in their home country.
Peugeot
Peugeot is pronounced “per jzo” in the UK, but “poo jzo” in the United States. The English pronunciation is closer to the way the French say it, the only real difference being that the French “o” sounds more closed than the “oh” in English, and the stress of the word in French is on the second syllable.
Mavic
Mavic is often wrongly pronounced “May Vick”, the problem being the incorrectly sounded “a”. Instead, Mavic should be pronounced “Ma Veek” ( ma as in man ) if you want to say it like it’s said in France.
Motobecane
Motobecane is often pronounced “Moto be cane“, “cane” with pronounced like the final syllable of “sugarcane”. However, this is not how it is pronounced in French. The name should be pronounced “Moto be can” as in tin “can”, for accurate articulation of the famous brand.
Huret
This is a trickier one, as the name of this vintage parts maker starts with an “H”, which is an unvoiced letter in French. Unlike in English, in which we’d naturally say “Huret“, with an obvious h sound, the French pronounce it quite differently: “Ur eh”. The French “r” is notoriously difficult sound to pronounce for English speakers, so it is a name you’ll be forgiven for not pronouncing perfectly!
Ideale
It’s only natural that we say the name of this old saddle maker like the way we pronounce “ideal” in our own language. However, next time you mention this saddle brand in passing to your cycling friends, try pronouncing like this: “ee day al”. They may look at you with bewilderment, but this is how it’s said in French.
Vitus
The St Etienne bike maker which has made some wonderful frames over the years, is often erroneously pronounced “Vi tus“, where “Vi” sounds like the first syllable of “vital“. This is a common error. Vitus is pronounced: “Vee tus”.
Gitane
Gitane means “gipsy” in French, and this French brand exported large amounts of its bikes to the United States in the 1970’s. There, they are commonly pronounced “gu tan“, but this famous marque should be pronounced “jzee tah”. You’ll get a nod of approval from a Frenchman for doing so.
Great and entertaining information… Learned some things! I mispronounced my “Millet” backpack, Mill-ett for years… its more of a ma-lay or me-lay.
Wonderful and informative article! We see so many of these bikes and components in our shop and it answered a lot of questions.
Thank you! I appreciate the feedback.
everything struck me as spot-on. except for the Peugeot section.
you describe how Peugeot would be pronounced in the UK and in America but …. not in France. and Per-jzo IMO ain’t it.
the front end is tricky. I always think of the French for “very little”. tres peu but that doesn’t help if you don’t speak French.
Hmmm.
wow. I cannot think of an equivalent in English for the “Peu”.
Maybe the middle of “Simply” (or Amply) if you said it overly slowly, in three syllables (which it is not). Simp-pU-lee
Living in France for three years now and being at a pretty good level in French, I still find « Peugeot » a difficult word to pronounce exactly like the natives. I’ve heard it pronounced here hundreds of times but as we don’t have the same two sounds in English, the «peu » and the « geot » it’s difficult to describe how to pronounce it for English speakers.