Weird ways you pronunciate Pokemon's names

[ScraftyIsTheBest]

This is honestly adorable and I wish it was actually pronounced that way.

I call Nihilego "nee-lego" because I have 0 clue how to pronounce it

I pronounce it "nye-ill-ee-go" or "nye-hill-ee-ego", especially after you pick the name apart and realize where each part of Nihilego's name came from. The first part is "Nihil", which is latin for nothing, and the second part is "ego", which is by itself an easy word to pronounce.

As a side note, this essentially means that Nihilego's name basically translates to "I am Nothing".

 

[Pikachu315111]

i used to pronounce suicune like "soo-kine". seems like a pretty common one to mispronunciate!

Makes it sound like Zucchini to me.

Yes, I know Arceus will never forgive me

 

[qtrx]

Close, it's Athena's shield or breastplate, depending on who you ask. Both the Greek and Latin pronunciations use a hard g, I have no idea where Xenoblade came up with the "eejis" pronunciation.

Probably because that is the correct pronunciation for aegis as an English word (both British and American).

 

[Mario60866iPod13]

I have always pronounced Giratina with a soft G, but people always correct me and say it's a hard G.

But one I've noticed more recently is that the official pronunciation for Hippopotas is ABSOLUTELY TERRIBLE!!! I always pronounced it "Hip-POP-o-tas", but it's officially pronunced "Hippo-Po-TOSS". WHAT?!?! DUDE! That doesn't even sound right! Even some other unofficial pronunciations I've heard are better!

Another one I can think of is Suicune. I always pronounced it "swee-SHOON" but other people pronounce it with a k sound.

 

[CyberBearIV]

I always pronounce Rattata Ra-ta-tat-ta.

 

[AJHope]

I have always pronounced "Mewtwo" as "Me-Ew!-Two", the 2nd syllable as in the distaste expression.

 

[A Welcome Guest]

I pronounce it "nye-ill-ee-go" or "nye-hill-ee-ego", especially after you pick the name apart and realize where each part of Nihilego's name came from. The first part is "Nihil", which is latin for nothing, and the second part is "ego", which is by itself an easy word to pronounce.

As a side note, this essentially means that Nihilego's name basically translates to "I am Nothing".

That's interesting, to this day, I still pronounce that Pokemon's name as nee-hee-lego

 

[Suspicious Derivative]

I think I pronounce most Pokémon names wrong. I don't really have a "guide" for how to pronounce them unlike when I watched the anime as a kid, and English is not my first language. So I'm often unsure about how to pronounce words that are not used in common speech, like Pokémon names.

On top of my head, there's the Deino line, which has also been mentioned by others. I pronounce them so that the German words Ein, Zwei and Drei are audible. I don't think that is correct from an English perspective, but I prefer it that way.

Unsure if this is incorrect, but I say Arceus with a soft C. This is because it was pronounced that way in House:

 

[ScraftyIsTheBest]

On top of my head, there's the Deino line, which has also been mentioned by others. I pronounce them so that the German words Ein, Zwei and Drei are audible. I don't think that is correct from an English perspective, but I prefer it that way.

I don't know how specifically you pronounce them, but officially they are indeed pronounced in a way that Ein, Zwei, and Drei are audible even if those are German, in part most likely because those specific words were intentionally integrated into their names relative to the number of heads they possess (even if two of Hydreigon's heads are fake). Going off the anime, the official pronunciations for them are such that Deino is pronounced dino (thus the "ein" in German is audible), Zweilous is zwai-luhs, and Hydreigon is hy-dry-guhn. So the fact that they have the German words Ein, Zwei, and Drei in them is very much acknowledged in their official pronunciations and it seems that is indeed the proper way they were intended to be pronounced, even from an English perspective.

Unsure if this is incorrect, but I say Arceus with a soft C. This is because it was pronounced that way in House:

Arceus is a really weird case, because even though the official English pronunciation uses a hard C, the Japanese name アルセウス is transliterated to Aruseusu, and you can see based on the transliteration that it would imply it is "Arceus" with a soft C.

In fact, before the Arceus movie came out which is the first time the hard C Arceus pronunciation was officially used, many of my friends back in elementary school (back when Gen 4 was still going on) always pronounced Arceus with a soft C: I myself used the soft C Arceus pronunciation. It really feels like the more intuitive (and imo more natural) pronunciation for Arceus in that sense. So the hard C official Arceus pronunciation definitely came off a bit odd to me (and to many others too) when it was officially used in the movie and now with PLA trailers. Considering the Japanese name is technically the same as the English one I'm not sure what led the localization staff to use the hard C instead.

 

[QuentinQuonce]

On top of my head, there's the Deino line, which has also been mentioned by others. I pronounce them so that the German words Ein, Zwei and Drei are audible. I don't think that is correct from an English perspective, but I prefer it that way.

As a native English speaker, Die-noh and Zw-eye-luss always sounded natural and fine (as Scrafty pointed out, pronouncing Deino as "dino" as in dinosaur preserves the German touch to the name while giving it a pleasant double meaning). The only one which sounds weird to me is Hydreigon. Hy-dry-jun just doesn't sit naturally in my mouth and I always end up instinctively over-pronouncing it, giving it a rather exaggerated and slightly comical German inflection. It's not ideal. But pronouncing it Hy-dree-jun just feels so wrong too.

Arceus is a really weird case, because even though the official English pronunciation uses a hard C, the Japanese name アルセウス is transliterated to Aruseusu, and you can see based on the transliteration that it would imply it is "Arceus" with a soft C.

In fact, before the Arceus movie came out which is the first time the hard C Arceus pronunciation was officially used, many of my friends back in elementary school (back when Gen 4 was still going on) always pronounced Arceus with a soft C: I myself used the soft C Arceus pronunciation. It really feels like the more intuitive (and imo more natural) pronunciation for Arceus in that sense. So the hard C official Arceus pronunciation definitely came off a bit odd to me (and to many others too) when it was officially used in the movie and now with PLA trailers. Considering the Japanese name is technically the same as the English one I'm not sure what led the localization staff to use the hard C instead.

From Bulbapedia:

According to the anime dub's then-voice director Tom Wayland, the dub chose to pronounce Arceus with a hard c instead of a soft c due to concerns over the latter pronunciation's potential implications in British English-speaking territories.

I'm not sure where he said this since it's unsourced, but it's plausible to me. Americans don't tend to say "arse" in my experience, but Brits and Aussies do. I know a lot of people called it arse-see-us for a long time (and probably still do). As I mentioned earlier in the thread, I find ar-kay-uss very forced and unnatural and much prefer ar-say-uss.

 

[Pikachu315111]

First time we heard Arceus name was in Battle Revolution and it was pronounced with a soft c:

Though, just as its pronounced in the movie, it has officially been changed to a hard c as heard with the Pokedex 3D Pro:

Not to mention that Silvally's Ability's English name, RKS System, plays on a pronunciation pun of its name with a hard c (as the Japanese with the soft c, and other places just opting for Arceus's species category). This pun is once again used in Sword & Shield for the brand "RKS Laboratories" which is "Arcues Pharma" in Japan (and its logo is Arceus's ring).

 

[Pemderp63]

I pronounce Ledian as “led-ee-ehn” instead of “led-ee-on.” Honestly the official pronunciation sounds weird to me. Also I say Yanmega as “yahn-mega”

As a kid I said Gallade as “gal-aid.” Sometimes I slip up and think it’s still said that way.

 

[pika pal]

I think I have one that no one's put out yet for our favorite God Alpaca, Arceus.

There's been a lot of talk about the hard vs soft-c pronunciation, but I always pronounced it with a "short-e" sound (Arc-eh-uhs), which came out with the latter syllables sounding like "Chaos". It always kind of made sense in my head since Arceus's lore makes it out to be the first Pokemon, which appeared in the pre-universe void (Chaos before existence etc.) and then created and orderly world out of it.

Also for most of Gen 3, before I saw anything with its name spoken in voice acting, I pronounced Rayquaza's name as "Ray-QAH-za"

 

[Coronis]

Unsure if this is incorrect, but I say Arceus with a soft C. This is because it was pronounced that way in House:

Had no idea that was in House, makes me love him even more. Always have and always will pronounce it like that, too ingrained in me and it always seemed clear it was changed to avoid controversy. If they wanted me to go with the hard C they should’ve made it Archeus… but then would people be calling it Ar-chee-us? idk makes more sense to me cos of architecture and archaeology.

 

[QuentinQuonce]

Also for most of Gen 3, before I saw anything with its name spoken in voice acting, I pronounced Rayquaza's name as "Ray-QAH-za"

Always preferred this way. Ray-kway-za just sounds ridiculous to me.

 

[HydrogenHydreigon]

I say Dhelmise as del-MI-say, with the "mise" part sounding like how it's pronounced in Illumise.

 

[Coronis]

Always preferred this way. Ray-kway-za just sounds ridiculous to me.

tbh had no idea it was pronounced like that, benefits of staying away from the anime I guess.

 

[QuentinQuonce]

I say Dhelmise as del-MI-say, with the "mise" part sounding like how it's pronounced in Illumise.

Another one I mispronounce, I always say it "del-meez". Even though I know that it's supposed to sound like "demise".

 

[Coronis]

Another one I’m unsure of, Groudon. Is it meant to be Grow-don or Groo-don? I’ve always pronounced it Groo-don and I don’t plan to change, but curious.

 

[Pikachu315111]

Another one I’m unsure of, Groudon. Is it meant to be Grow-don or Groo-don? I’ve always pronounced it Groo-don and I don’t plan to change, but curious.

I always thought Groudon was pretty straight forward, at least compared to Rayquaza and Kyogre. It's Ground + Don, all they did was pretty much removed the n in ground.

 

[QuentinQuonce]

I always thought Groudon was pretty straight forward, at least compared to Rayquaza and Kyogre. It's Ground + Don, all they did was pretty much removed the n in ground.

I've heard (too many) people call it Groundon and it really grinds my gears, ironically given the number of names I've admitted to mispronouncing. I guess that one's just too blatant an alteration.

 

[Pemderp63]

I forgot to add that I used to pronounce Dhelmise as "duh-helm-ize." Now I say it as "del-mize." It's what I've heard other people say it, so I'm sticking with that.

 

[KymaTheDragon]

Lol I used to pronounce some Pokémon wrong, probably because English isn't my first language. Like I pronounced Arceus as "Ar-keh-us" and Incineroar as "In-ki-neh-roo-ar" and Arcanine as "Ar-seh-nine" Lol why did I switch up the "k" sounds and "s" sounds of "C"

 

[Runo]

Pretty minor, but I've always pronounced Ambipom as "Ampipom". I still ocasionally slip up with its name.
Another one is Exploud, which i pronounced "Expoloud".