# How is the name of the Bombardier company pronounced? **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [March 31, 2009, 12:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-is-the-name-of-the-bombardier-company-pronounced/491414 "2009-03-31T12:39:12Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Martini\_Enfield](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/martini_enfield/32/11123_2.png) [@Martini\_Enfield](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Martini_Enfield)\ **Post date:** [March 31, 2009, 12:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-is-the-name-of-the-bombardier-company-pronounced/491414/1 "2009-03-31T12:39:12Z")
Is it “Bom-bar-deer” (like the guy in WWII bombers whose job it was to, well, release the bombs over the target) or is it something closer to “Bom-bardee-yay”, what with it being a French name? I wonder because I often see their name pop up in relation to things involving aircraft, trains, and tracked vehicles and it occurred to me I’ve always pronounced it “Bom-bar-deer” (too many Biggles books as a kid, I guess!) and that it may not actually be correct. Any of our Canadian friends know for sure one way or the other? ---
**Author:** ![Rain\_Soaked](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/e19adc/32.png) [@Rain\_Soaked](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Rain_Soaked)\ **Post date:** [March 31, 2009, 12:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-is-the-name-of-the-bombardier-company-pronounced/491414/2 "2009-03-31T12:45:35Z")
bom-BAR-dee-yay ---
**Author:** ![friedo](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/8edcca/32.png) [@friedo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/friedo)\ **Post date:** [March 31, 2009, 12:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-is-the-name-of-the-bombardier-company-pronounced/491414/3 "2009-03-31T12:49:24Z")
Bom-BAR-dee-ay is right. I know because I met a Bombardier employee who worked on testing the [R-142](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/R142) on the IRT. ---
**Author:** ![KneadToKnow](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kneadtoknow/32/3999_2.png) [@KneadToKnow](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/KneadToKnow)\ **Post date:** [March 31, 2009, 1:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-is-the-name-of-the-bombardier-company-pronounced/491414/4 "2009-03-31T13:15:57Z")
Ta-ra-bom-bar-dee-yay, Did you get yours today? I got mine yesterday, That’s why I walk this way. ---
**Author:** ![Martini\_Enfield](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/martini_enfield/32/11123_2.png) [@Martini\_Enfield](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Martini_Enfield)\ **Post date:** [March 31, 2009, 2:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-is-the-name-of-the-bombardier-company-pronounced/491414/5 "2009-03-31T14:00:35Z")
Excellent- thanks everyone! Now I shall know to differentiate that aerospace and engineering company from WWII bomb-aimers when I need to refer to them in conversation… 🙂 ---
**Author:** ![Northern\_Piper](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/northern_piper/32/5304_2.png) [@Northern\_Piper](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Northern_Piper)\ **Post date:** [March 31, 2009, 2:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-is-the-name-of-the-bombardier-company-pronounced/491414/6 "2009-03-31T14:08:22Z")
and the “r” in “bar” is as soft as possible. ---
**Author:** ![Martini\_Enfield](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/martini_enfield/32/11123_2.png) [@Martini\_Enfield](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Martini_Enfield)\ **Post date:** [March 31, 2009, 2:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-is-the-name-of-the-bombardier-company-pronounced/491414/7 "2009-03-31T14:22:51Z")
I’d probably pronounce it as something closer to “Bombahdeeyay”; I spent several years learning French so I don’t get too tripped up by that sort of thing. 😉 ---
**Author:** ![Polycarp](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/82dd89/32.png) [@Polycarp](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Polycarp)\ **Post date:** [March 31, 2009, 2:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-is-the-name-of-the-bombardier-company-pronounced/491414/8 "2009-03-31T14:25:04Z")
While I won’t presume to disagree with those who know what they’re talking about through acquaintance with the company and its employees, let me inject the note that Bombardier was (is?) a major manufacturer of snowmobiles, and those machines were universally known to everyone connected to the winter-sports industry where I came from as “Bomb-bar-deers.” Dialectal use? Probably – like calling the French cities Orleans (rhymes with ‘beans’) and Rheims (homonymous with bundles of 500 sheets of paper), instead of the proper French pronunciation. ---
**Author:** ![Hypnagogic\_Jerk](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/hypnagogic_jerk/32/4252_2.png) [@Hypnagogic\_Jerk](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Hypnagogic_Jerk)\ **Post date:** [March 31, 2009, 3:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-is-the-name-of-the-bombardier-company-pronounced/491414/9 "2009-03-31T15:12:20Z")
> [@Northern\_Piper](#): > > and the “r” in “bar” is as soft as possible. I don’t know; I do pronounce it. It’s not as hard as the ‘r’ in the English word “bar”, but it doesn’t sound like ‘h’ as in **Martini Enfield** ’s last post either. Also, in French, the ‘m’ isn’t actually pronounced; it only serves to nasalize the preceding vowel. Unlike in English, where people usually pronounce it. ---
**Author:** ![Xema](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/x/9de053/32.png) [@Xema](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Xema)\ **Post date:** [March 31, 2009, 3:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-is-the-name-of-the-bombardier-company-pronounced/491414/10 "2009-03-31T15:12:30Z")
There’s little question that Joseph-Armand Bombardier, who founded the company, used the French pronunciation. An interesting piece of trivia about his best-known invention: It was supposed to be known as the “Ski Dog” but a batch of literature produced for its introduction included a misprint that had this as Ski Doo. There wasn’t time to change the brochures, so the device acquired what was surely a better name. ---
**Author:** ![suranyi](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/e36b37/32.png) [@suranyi](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/suranyi)\ **Post date:** [March 31, 2009, 3:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-is-the-name-of-the-bombardier-company-pronounced/491414/11 "2009-03-31T15:42:08Z")
> [@Xema](#): > > There’s little question that Joseph-Armand Bombardier, who founded the company, used the French pronunciation. > > An interesting piece of trivia about his best-known invention: It was supposed to be known as the “Ski Dog” but a batch of literature produced for its introduction included a misprint that had this as Ski Doo. There wasn’t time to change the brochures, so the device acquired what was surely a better name. I also remember how they got into rail transportation: They submitted a bid to build the second generation of Metro cars for Montreal, for the extensions being built for the 1976 Olympics. Everyone throught they were crazy – “the skidoo people want to build Metro cars?” But they got the contract, and the rest is history. Ed ---
**Author:** ![Bad\_Astronaut](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/e19adc/32.png) [@Bad\_Astronaut](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bad_Astronaut)\ **Post date:** [March 31, 2009, 8:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-is-the-name-of-the-bombardier-company-pronounced/491414/12 "2009-03-31T20:04:25Z")
They advertise on TV regularly. As an anglophone I would say it sounds more like bom-bard-yay when they say it (no ‘ee’ sound). > [@Polycarp](#): > > While I won’t presume to disagree with those who know what they’re talking about through acquaintance with the company and its employees, let me inject the note that Bombardier was (is?) a major manufacturer of snowmobiles, and those machines were universally known to everyone connected to the winter-sports industry where I came from as “Bomb-bar-deers.” Dialectal use? Probably – like calling the French cities Orleans (rhymes with ‘beans’) and Rheims (homonymous with bundles of 500 sheets of paper), instead of the proper French pronunciation. I remember hearing bom-ba-deer or bom-bar-deer referring to snowmobiles as a kid as well. It wasn’t until relatively recently that I even made the connection that it was the same company that makes planes and trains. I think it was sort of a redneck thing (ie. “I ain’t pronouncin’ no Frog names”) . ---
**Author:** ![Richard\_Pearse](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/richard_pearse/32/13144_2.png) [@Richard\_Pearse](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Richard_Pearse)\ **Post date:** [March 31, 2009, 11:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-is-the-name-of-the-bombardier-company-pronounced/491414/13 "2009-03-31T23:54:03Z")
Our company operates Bombardier aircraft, everyone seems to say bom-BAR-deer. Stress on the second syllable but the end of the word is the same as the dude who drops bombs. Not saying it’s right, that’s just how I hear it being said. ---
**Author:** ![Martini\_Enfield](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/martini_enfield/32/11123_2.png) [@Martini\_Enfield](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Martini_Enfield)\ **Post date:** [April 1, 2009, 1:28am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-is-the-name-of-the-bombardier-company-pronounced/491414/14 "2009-04-01T01:28:08Z")
[quote=“1920s Style “Death Ray”, post:13, topic:491414”] Our company operates Bombardier aircraft, everyone seems to say bom-BAR-deer. Stress on the second syllable but the end of the word is the same as the dude who drops bombs. Not saying it’s right, that’s just how I hear it being said. [/QUOTE] I recall hearing the cabin crew on a QantasLink flight recently refer to the plane as a “Bombardeer Dash-8”. At the time I found myself thinking “I thought Dash-8s were made by De Havilland?”, but later on I discovered that Bombardier had brought out De Havilland, which explained that. ---
**Author:** ![billfish678](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/7bcc69/32.png) [@billfish678](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/billfish678)\ **Post date:** [April 1, 2009, 2:13am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-is-the-name-of-the-bombardier-company-pronounced/491414/15 "2009-04-01T02:13:25Z")
My two cents… bomb a deer is what i’ve heard, though its probably wrong. ---
**Author:** ![Gus\_Handsome](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/e68b1a/32.png) [@Gus\_Handsome](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Gus_Handsome)\ **Post date:** [April 1, 2009, 4:31am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-is-the-name-of-the-bombardier-company-pronounced/491414/16 "2009-04-01T04:31:43Z")
They have a testing facility down the road from my house. Most of us ‘townies’ call them Bomb-bar-dyay, but a few people call them bomb-ber-deer. I speculate the first one is correct, and the 2nd group just does it for the same reason that Don Cherry calls Patrick Roy (Roy) and not the french way it’s supposed to be said “Patrick Wah” ---
**Author:** ![seosamh](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/ce7236/32.png) [@seosamh](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/seosamh)\ **Post date:** [April 1, 2009, 11:50am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-is-the-name-of-the-bombardier-company-pronounced/491414/17 "2009-04-01T11:50:04Z")
I work with the rail industry in Great Britain and hear the word “Bombardier” all the time (at the moment it is mostly in relation to the scandalously late delivery of a batch of trains for the Thameslink Programme). Everyone uses the French-style pronunciation. Confusingly, there is a beer over here with the same name, brewed by Wells of Bedford. You always know when a railwayman orders a pint of it because he inevitably forgets himself and says Bombar-dee-ay instead of Bom-ba-deer. ---
**Author:** ![mnemosyne](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/c4cdca/32.png) [@mnemosyne](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/mnemosyne)\ **Post date:** [April 1, 2009, 5:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-is-the-name-of-the-bombardier-company-pronounced/491414/18 "2009-04-01T17:43:39Z")
Having worked at Bombardier Aerospace and having family members who know Laurent and Pierre Beaudoin, I can attest that, internally at least, the name is pronounced as J.A. Bombardier’s family pronounces it. There are two slightly different pronounciations for English and French, but the latter is generally more correct. Bon-bahr-dy’eh (with a nearly silent n and the Canadien eh sound at the end) is close to how it is prononuced in French, while Bom-bahr-dy’eh (with the m sound) is the English version. “Bombardeer” may be a name for the snowmobiles (I am not familiar with the Recreational products), but the company doesn’t use it to refer to itself. And yes, Bombardier bought De Havilland Canada, at Toronto, and rebranded/modified the Dash-8 into the various Q-series aircraft (Q-200, Q-400, etc). They also bought Learjet, but kept that name as-is for marketing reasons. IIRC, the Challenger 300, which is actually not a descendant of the Challenger 600 from the original Canadair, began its design and development as a Learjet project. ---
**Author:** ![ElvisL1ves](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/5daacb/32.png) [@ElvisL1ves](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ElvisL1ves)\ **Post date:** [April 1, 2009, 7:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-is-the-name-of-the-bombardier-company-pronounced/491414/19 "2009-04-01T19:21:38Z")
> [@Martini\_Enfield](#): > > I recall hearing the cabin crew on a QantasLink flight recently refer to the plane as a “Bombardeer Dash-8”. At the time I found myself thinking “I thought Dash-8s were made by De Havilland?”, but later on I discovered that Bombardier had brought out De Havilland, which explained that. Once in a while, you’ll see a reference to a “Boeing DC-3”. ☹ ---
**Author:** ![wolfstu](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/d6d6ee/32.png) [@wolfstu](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/wolfstu)\ **Post date:** [April 1, 2009, 8:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-is-the-name-of-the-bombardier-company-pronounced/491414/20 "2009-04-01T20:02:10Z")
[This video](http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=os8LRGmP2io) describes an installation of Bombardier trams in Vancouver. The reporter pronounces the name in the conventional English style just after the 1-minute mark. [This video](http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wVr9yT5bqL8) has the French pronunciation at 30 seconds. [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-is-the-name-of-the-bombardier-company-pronounced/491414.md?page=2)