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If you go somewhere to eat some Swedish meatballs and end up buying new furniture, or buy some new furniture and end up eating Swedish meatballs, where are you likely to be?

Some people in Singapore would guess IKEA, and say "ai-kay-uh" — well, sucks to be them, because they are officially wrong.

The Swedish multinational conglomerate has come out to set the record straight on how to pronounce IKEA.

It turns out, it's not "ai-kay-uh", nor is it "ai-kee-uh" or "ee-kia"; nope, it's pronounced "ee-kay-uh".

Correct pronunciation

On Monday (Oct. 18), IKEA Singapore shared a series of fun facts about the brand on Instagram, in honour of IKEA Tampines' 15th birthday.

One of the fun facts was about the correct pronunciation of "IKEA":

This isn't the first time IKEA's pronunciation has been discussed.

In 2018 — the year that IKEA celebrated its 75th anniversary — a company spokesperson told Quartz that "IKEA" is an acronym comprising the founder's name (Ingvar Kamprad), the name of Kamprad's family farm (Elmtaryd), and the location of the farm (the village of Agunnaryd, in Småland, Sweden).

The spokesperson stated that when IKEA was founded by Kamprad in 1943, he had — of course — pronounced it with a typical Swedish accent: Ee-kay-uh.

However, the spokesperson also told Quartz:

"It’s only natural that people pronounce 'IKEA' and the Swedish names of its products with a local accent. That’s absolutely ok!"

Other fun facts from IKEA Singapore

Some of the other fun facts shared by IKEA Singapore in honour of IKEA Tampines' 15th birthday include the fact that there have been 1.3 million chicken wings consumed from IKEA Tampines this year, and the fact that 20 per cent of IKEA Tampines' energy needs are solar powered.

Top photos via IKEA and Instagram / ikeasingapore. 

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