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Irish Mirror
Irish Mirror
Lifestyle
Freddie Bennett & Cian O'Broin

People only just discovering what IKEA means and how to pronounce it correctly

IKEA is a brand that we are all familiar with, however many of us may not know what the four letters mean, or how to pronounce the word correctly.

Visiting a huge IKEA store can be an exciting and uplifting experience, as you plan out your new home or apartment or add the finishing touches to some much needed renovations.

The story of how IKEA came to get its name isn't common knowledge, The Mirror reported.

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As it turns out, the four letters contain quite the story as the first two letters stand for the initials of the man who initially started IKEA, Ingvar Kamprad.

The E is for the farm he grew up close to, named Elmtaryd, while the A is for a nearby village called Agunnaryd, The Sun reported.

Ingvar Kamprad began his business journey at the tender age of five, selling matches in 1931. A highly sought-after product at that time meant that his products were in demand.

After some time, he knew he could start selling to more people and went around to farms further away to get his products out there.

From there he started selling items like fish and magazines. When he was a teenager, he sold school supplies to those in his class.

After that he made the leap to furniture, leading up to the Swedish giant that we have all come to know so well.

While we all may be familiar with the brand, there is some arguement on how to pronounce 'IKEA.'

Some say it should be pronounced 'eye-keeya', but alternatively, others have suggested it is 'ee-kay-uh' instead.

IKEA themselves have weighed in to set the record straight on the correct pronunciation, adding a caveat that those wish to pronounce it in another way are entitled to do so.

Back in 2021, the official Instagram page for IKEA Singapore shared fun facts about the brand, one being that the actual pronunciation of its name is in fact, 'ee-kay-uh.'

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