Primark

[HeratthePC]

What is the official pronunciation of Primark? In Northern Ireland everyone pronounces it pree-mark, but now I live in England everyone pronounces it pry-mark.

[jno]

prymark, I think (I'm not in Northern Ireland). The shopperati know it as Primarch� because it is tr�s chic at the moment.

[noodle36]

hi i work in primark and its pronounced primark with an

i not a y

[jno]

so how is that exactly noodle - prim to rhyme with rim and then ark, or pree-mark?

[gw1]

I'm from Norn Iron. It's pree-mark. That's like asking if "Paris" is par-is or par-ee!!! When in Rome ...

[littlemissx]

i call it pree-mark.... i thought in ireland though they didnt have primark, it was pennys????

[HeratthePC]

Thanks, everyone. littlemissx, it's called primark in northern ireland and penneys in the republic. noodle36, thanks for your advice - but when you say 'i not y', do you mean that it's pronounced with an 'eee' sound or an 'eye' sound?

[Piper-AK]

Accents are great aren't they? In Scotland A and E sound almost the same, so I had a fine old time trying to get directed to the coach stop 3E once....

[lynneuk74]

I lived in Ireland for a while (the Republic). I was amazed by the difference in such pronunciations. Never came across the Primark one as, as stated earlier, they had Penneys.

However, when buying a new car, was absolutely amazed. I was considering buying a Peugeot but was offered a pew-jo. Couldn't face driving a pew-jo so bought a Renault instead!!!!!

[HeratthePC]

oh yes, i'm a Norn Iron lassie and throughout my childhood our family cars were pew-jos. It was only in the last few weeks, when my English boyfriend questioned my pronunciation, that I realised it was odd, and not at all fitting with the original French. Still - they'll always be pew-jos to me.

[gw1]

It's like the word - film - in Norn Iron it has two syllables - fil-im - we have our own langwich here, so we do!

[urn]

I remember Primark adverts - back in the 1980s (possibly only on Northern Ireland TV?). "Pree-mark... with a whole lot of gifts for Christmas, and lots for the family, la-la-la..." and so it went on.

That said, I did see a programme on "Pry-mark" the other week on BBC2... and sure enough, the chief executive (from the Republic of Ireland) was calling it "Pry-mark"... but say that in Belfast City Centre and people would look at you...!

[urn]

If you're from Northern Ireland, you might remember Christmas wasn't Christmas without the Primark adverts on the TV. I can't remember when the ads stopped, but they certainly ran during the late 80s and had a song which had words like: "Pree-mark... with a whole lot of gifts for Christmas... and lots for the family, la-la-la..." and so on! So, in the 1980s then, it was known by the company itself as Pree-mark... unless they had a separate version for the English stores!

[coolyermer]

oh how i do hope that ad will show up on youtube one day. I believe it is all down to the power of advertising, it has created our nation of preemark . i too remember that ad and i sing it everytime i'm being corrected, and the pennys one too because they played it on RTE for the ones in the South, changing that one word of course, which maybe why we focus on it so much.
Go McCann Erickson, i bet they did that ad, they were responsible for those scary 'trouble' ads, does anyone else remember them ??, cats in the cradle, don't follow in your father's footsteps.

[Hippymissy97]

I think that everyone says pree-mark because they think that it's posh to say pr-eye-mark! but that makes no sense you don't say pree-mary! do you? so why say pree-mark! to get primark from primary is to change the last lettter so why say it any different??? i say pr-eye-mark cause that's the proper way to say it! And i'm no where near posh!!! lol!