# How do you pronounce 'Toyota'? **URL:** \ **Category:** In My Humble Opinion\ **Created:** [August 20, 2009, 12:20am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-do-you-pronounce-toyota/507012 "2009-08-20T00:20:40Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 11\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![Nava](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/da6949/32.png) [@Nava](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Nava)\ **Post date:** [August 20, 2009, 1:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-do-you-pronounce-toyota/507012/21 "2009-08-20T13:56:32Z")
toYOta ---
**Author:** ![Swallowed\_My\_Cellphone](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/9d8465/32.png) [@Swallowed\_My\_Cellphone](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Swallowed_My_Cellphone)\ **Post date:** [August 20, 2009, 2:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-do-you-pronounce-toyota/507012/22 "2009-08-20T14:01:56Z")
toy-O-ta ---
**Author:** ![Really\_Not\_All\_That\_Bright](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/e8c25b/32.png) [@Really\_Not\_All\_That\_Bright](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Really_Not_All_That_Bright)\ **Post date:** [August 20, 2009, 2:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-do-you-pronounce-toyota/507012/23 "2009-08-20T14:57:15Z")
> [@PatriotGrrrl](#): > > Actually, the family name is Toyo **d** a. It was changed to Toyo **t** a for the motor company. I’ve heard various different reasons given for the change. The one I’ve always heard (including in an _Top Gear_ [magazine] interview with Shoichiro Toyoda) is that the number of brush strokes used to write Toyota in Japanese calligraphy is luckier than the number used to write Toyoda. [Wikipedia](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/History_of_Toyota) agrees, too. ---
**Author:** ![gigi](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/a587f6/32.png) [@gigi](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/gigi)\ **Post date:** [August 20, 2009, 4:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-do-you-pronounce-toyota/507012/24 "2009-08-20T16:41:10Z")
Toy-ohta with no real stress anywhere. ---
**Author:** ![Elendil\_s\_Heir](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/7cd45c/32.png) [@Elendil\_s\_Heir](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Elendil_s_Heir)\ **Post date:** [August 20, 2009, 4:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-do-you-pronounce-toyota/507012/25 "2009-08-20T16:54:12Z")
> [@Claire\_Beauchamp](#): > > well, actually, _toy-OTA_. Me too. ---
**Author:** ![Machine\_Elf](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/82dd89/32.png) [@Machine\_Elf](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Machine_Elf)\ **Post date:** [August 20, 2009, 5:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-do-you-pronounce-toyota/507012/26 "2009-08-20T17:13:38Z")
> [@Tabby\_Cat](#): > > Huh. It’s Japanese, right? > > To - Yo - Ta. Bingo. the syllables used to construct the word in the Japanese language are to, yo, and ta (or da, if the story about changing the name is correct). So if a Japanese person is telling another Japanese speaker how to spell Toyota, he’ll say it exactly as you’ve described. Interesting to note that Mazda deliberately anglicized their name before they even began selling their cars here in America. The Japanese name is Matsuda, although the pronunciation is very similar to Mazda, since the ‘tsu’ is a very unstressed syllable. ---
**Author:** ![Charger](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/df788c/32.png) [@Charger](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Charger)\ **Post date:** [August 20, 2009, 5:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-do-you-pronounce-toyota/507012/27 "2009-08-20T17:40:22Z")
> [@Green\_Bean](#): > > Anybody remember those old “Oh, what a feeling to try! TOYota!” ads? With the people jumping up in the air? I grew up in the 80s, and I learned to pronounce it from the ads. Here’s a trip back in time: [![](https://i.ytimg.com/vi/fHCVFrf5FKg/hqdefault.jpg "Toyota MR2 commercial") ](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fHCVFrf5FKg) ---
**Author:** ![Shot\_From\_Guns](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/ccd318/32.png) [@Shot\_From\_Guns](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Shot_From_Guns)\ **Post date:** [August 20, 2009, 5:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-do-you-pronounce-toyota/507012/28 "2009-08-20T17:48:12Z")
In my head, I always hear it as one of the old ads jingles, which went something like, “I love what you do for me / TOY-o(t/d)a,” where the (t/d) is either a soft, d-ish t or a hard, t-ish d. ---
**Author:** ![elfkin477](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/a9a28c/32.png) [@elfkin477](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/elfkin477)\ **Post date:** [August 21, 2009, 3:42am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-do-you-pronounce-toyota/507012/29 "2009-08-21T03:42:02Z")
\*\*I \*\*say toy-oda and a lot of other people say that or toy-ota (we’re a little loose with our d and t sounds up here), but some of the people in local car commericals say tie-oh-da. Just them, though. It’s weird. ---
**Author:** ![Mahaloth](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mahaloth/32/1079_2.png) [@Mahaloth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mahaloth)\ **Post date:** [August 21, 2009, 4:34am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-do-you-pronounce-toyota/507012/30 "2009-08-21T04:34:20Z")
Toy Oh Ta I say the “t” in “ta” at the end. ---
**Author:** ![BigT](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bigt/32/12044_2.png) [@BigT](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BigT)\ **Post date:** [August 21, 2009, 5:57am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-do-you-pronounce-toyota/507012/31 "2009-08-21T05:57:14Z")
I want to clarify. I figured out why I elide the y into both syllables. It’s just part of the accent. For example, around here, we say “I yam” instead of “I am.” Still, I’m pretty sure the guy in the official American commercials pronounces it my way. And I assume that person would get in trouble if he didn’t pronounce it the right way. I can only say Toe YO tah if I switch to a Japanese accent. And I generally find people who change accents in the middle of sentences quite annoying. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-do-you-pronounce-toyota/507012.md?page=1)