Last updated on September 24th, 2014
This might seem a little frivolous for consumer advice but many people do care about pronouncing a name correctly and worry about appearing foolish if they get it wrong. For years I always pronounced it, “mealy” and so did everyone else in my neck of the woods. As I do prefer to get names right I always worried I could be showing my ignorance by mispronouncing it.
Eventually I sent an email to Miele. The reply advised it is pronounced, “meal-a”. Unfortunately the quality of this information didn’t live up to the high standards I expect from Miele because the letter “a” can of course be pronounced as it is in, “apple” or as in, “ape”. For a while I adopted, “Mealay” which is undoubtedly posher, but eventually I discovered the correct way to pronounce Miele (at least by Miele themselves in the UK) is, “meal-a” as in apple.
thank goodness for that! now I can go buy A Meal-a (as in apple) AKA Miele Cat & Dog Vacuum without having panic attack,
thanks for that!
Even some of the sales people don’t know how to pronounce it :-)
At work, I sell spare parts for theese appliances in a call centre, miele is pronounced “me-lay” it’s funny what people ask for onoccasion over the phone such as “me-elle” and “me-lee” ah well. It’s all fun!
I bought the Miele Vacuum about four years ago and still think it was the best purchase decision I’ve ever made.And till date I am not sure how to pronounce it :)
I service Miele appliances here in the US. I purchased a used Miele washer, and it’s proven to be a work horse. It’s funny to hear it pronounced wrong.
You’re all wrong,
check prononciation at:dailymotion miele is a german brand
Hi Adrian: The video only shows how two people pronounce it in French, and they both pronounce it differently. The interviewer pronounces it Miele meal-A (as in apple) but the bloke being interviewed (presumably from Miele in France) pronounces it meal-eh (30 secs in). The people working for Miele in the UK told me it’s Miele-a as in apple. Clearly the mystery continues ;-)
Hi, live in Germany (I am not german) and I just found this article today. So the answer is:
1) First, break the word in two: “Mie” “le”
2) Pronounce “Mie” just saying a long “me”. In german e+i= a long english “e”
3) Complete saying “le” this way “leh” (NOT “lay”).
4) Miele = mee-leh (putting more emphasis on “mee”)
Thanks IGotIT. From what I’ve gathered it’s pronounced differently even by Miele themselves depending on which country they are in :)
Sure, It will be pronounced differently in several countries because (or perhaps) they don´t have germans working there ;-)
But in Germany, where the brand comes from, will be pronounced the way I explained.
Something similar happens here with words like “Apple” and “Pall Mall” they (germans) insist to pronounce them “eppel” and “pel mel” ;-)
Just saw this today and thanks IgotIT, i got it.
Its actually really simple and funny also. Its pronounced pretty much like – A WASHER without the -r. Wash-uh.
1. Long German “Mie” as in i+e = long “ee”
2. French “le” as in french for “the”.
And taking the pun – I fery much like Zie Cherman washuh fon Meee-luh.