Mick F Posted July 11, 2020 Share Posted July 11, 2020 Heard today, someone pronouncing Prius as "pree-oss". I've always thought of it as "pry-uss". Which is correct? ....................... or is an issue of "eeth-er" or "eyeth-er"? Mick. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Harters Posted July 11, 2020 Share Posted July 11, 2020 I always pronounce it the same way as the Americans do, pri-us which his basically how its spelt. Years ago I remember saying pry-us Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Chris Dance Posted July 11, 2020 Share Posted July 11, 2020 Pri-us is how most folk I talk to say it. Our dealer pronounces it this way as well. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Stivino Posted July 11, 2020 Share Posted July 11, 2020 Pree-oos for me Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TheProfessor Posted July 11, 2020 Share Posted July 11, 2020 Pree-us Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mick F Posted July 11, 2020 Author Share Posted July 11, 2020 So ............ the Scottish pronunciation is with E ......................... and the English is with I. Correct, or not? Mick. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ancient Nerd Posted July 11, 2020 Share Posted July 11, 2020 I'm English, but go with Pree-us. Although, there is some Scottish in the family from long long ago! 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TheProfessor Posted July 11, 2020 Share Posted July 11, 2020 I'm English, even though I live in Scotland. To be honest, I've never heard another pronunciation, ever. Both Scottish and English dealerships both call it a Pree-us. Every YouTube video on the vehicle, including official Toyota videos, or ones created by amateurs (American, Canadian, Australian, British, etc) all call it Pree-us. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ancient Nerd Posted July 12, 2020 Share Posted July 12, 2020 I think that most of the weird pronunciations were in the early days ( I bought my first one in 2008, after missing one in 2006 as the seats were seriously uncomfortable that year). It seems to have stabilised in recent years. AFAIR, the pree-oos was only seen once in an article by a journalist who knew nearly as much about the car as he did about how its name was pronounced. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mick F Posted July 12, 2020 Author Share Posted July 12, 2020 Anyone here speak Latin? Prius is a Latin word for "first" or "to go before". Mick. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mick F Posted July 12, 2020 Author Share Posted July 12, 2020 ........... and how do we pronounce "priority"? It's an I followed by a vowel just as Prius is. Mick. 1 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Stivino Posted July 12, 2020 Share Posted July 12, 2020 2 hours ago, Mick F said: Anyone here speak Latin? Prius is a Latin word for "first" or "to go before". Mick. Not Latin but, I have studied Italian and I am currently studying Spanish. I have Spanish homework today if anybody wants to help? In both these languages, and as far as I know, the other Latin languages too, the letter "I" is always pronounced ee. In English we pronounce the letter i as ah-i. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
kithmo Posted July 12, 2020 Share Posted July 12, 2020 English Pr- eye-uss for me. 😉 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
PeteB Posted July 12, 2020 Share Posted July 12, 2020 When I managed a fleet of Prius I met a number of people from Toyota head office, and also met some Toyota people at a pre-launch event for the Gen 2 Prius in 2003 and the Gen 3 in 2009. All of them called it Pr-ee-us. I suspect the other pronunciation came from a number of Top Gear presenters (one in particular!), who I strongly suspect did it in the knowledge it irked a fair few owners. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
flash22 Posted July 12, 2020 Share Posted July 12, 2020 Pri'hus There is another spelling Pi'dantic 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Stivino Posted July 12, 2020 Share Posted July 12, 2020 19 minutes ago, flash22 said: Pi'dantic I hate to be a pedant but, it's pedantic. 😀 1 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
flash22 Posted July 12, 2020 Share Posted July 12, 2020 It's the pronunciation not the spelling 😋 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Stivino Posted July 12, 2020 Share Posted July 12, 2020 7 minutes ago, flash22 said: It's the pronunciation not the spelling 😋 In that case, both are wrong. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
flash22 Posted July 12, 2020 Share Posted July 12, 2020 ok then pəˈdæn.tɪk I did not know this was such a punctiliousness forum 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mick F Posted July 12, 2020 Author Share Posted July 12, 2020 Sorry for bringing this subject up! Seemed to me, that the word was being pronounced wrongly. I'm a Lancastrian by upbringing though having lived in Cornwall for most of my life, but I still have a Wigan accent and pronounce with flat vowels. Bath is a word for instance. There is no R in bath. Prius is pry-uss ........... spoken with a Wigan accent. Mick. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
QuantumFireball Posted July 13, 2020 Share Posted July 13, 2020 I never heard anyone say "pry-uss" outside of that troll Clarkson. Latin doesn't have the same ambiguity with vowel sounds as English. A long "i" sound like in "prius" should be pronounced like the "i" in "machine". The Japanese transliteration プリウス (puriusu) also maintains this "i" = English "ee" sound. It would need to be "ai" to sound like "eye", e.g. the "ai" in "Daihatsu". Similarly there's no ambiguity in vowel sounds in Japanese, so there's only one "i" sound. Considering this, many English Speakers pronounce "Isuzu" and "Hino" incorrectly... 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TonyHSD Posted July 13, 2020 Share Posted July 13, 2020 Prius is a Prius same as IKEA is IKEA 😂👍 3 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ten Ninety Posted July 13, 2020 Share Posted July 13, 2020 I've always said pree-us, as have all the Toyota staff I've interacted with in the UK. Given the number of dealerships I've visited in search of a car, that's quite a few across a wide swathe of the country from Bristol to Norwich to Sheffield, so I don't think it's a regional dialect thing. That doesn't mean pree-us is correct, especially given the legendary lack of knowledge that Toyota staff tend to exhibit about these cars, but it does suggest that it may be the more common pronunciation. To be honest, I always thought pry-us was a p***-take, coming from Clarkson and others mocking early adopters in the 00s, who were often somewhat 'pious' about their green credentials. And if we're talking of p***-takers, I must confess that I laughed out loud when I first saw some dude on a US car show sporting a t-shirt with the following logo. That most definitely requires pree-us to be the pronunciation for the joke to work! 2 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
FROSTYBALLS Posted July 14, 2020 Share Posted July 14, 2020 Response from Toyota GB: " Hello Mike, Thank you for your email. The correct pronunciation of the 'Prius' would be pronounced as 'Pre'. I hope this helps and thanks for contacting Toyota Customer Support. Kind regards Joseph Coke Customer Support Toyota (GB) PLC " 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Stivino Posted July 14, 2020 Share Posted July 14, 2020 Is that pre as in preh or pre as in previous? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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