"Pokemon" pronunciation

[Volcaronick]

Some of mine weren't too bad, and some were horrible.

I still don't know how to pronounce Regigigas. But anyway.

Onix= Oinks. I bought that Pokemon manual thing will I was little and I was a late viewer. I can't explain.

Togepi= TogEpi. Not bad. Just put the long E sound on it.

Hippopotas= I just totally butchered. I don't even know what I called it.

Hippowdon- Hippo-don. Not bad. Just forgot the W.

Happiny- Happen E. Vs Hap-pee-nee

Darmanitan= Darmation (like Dalmation)

Garbodor- Gar-Bore-Door (Fail)

Hydreigon- Hydro-gon (Fail)


What are some of yours? I probably have a lot more but I don't remember

[Crimson Penguin]

I thought Rayquaza was Ray-kwah-za, Milotic was Mih-law-tic, and Suicune was Swee-soon. I also pronounced Chimecho two different ways before I heard the correct pronunciation - at first it was Chi-meh-cho and then it became Chime-cho. Then I finally realized what it was supposed to be after I saw James get his Chimecho in the anime...

Finally, when Pansage's English name was revealed, I thought it was pronounced as if it were Japanese. So Pawn-saw-geh. >.<

[ginandthewarbear]

I always pronounced Arcanine, are-kay-nine. Kinda like a dog can be called a canine, so it kinda made sense. My friend had to explain that it was arca-nine. I also was really confused about ponyta. I thought it was pony-ta but then the narrator guy in Pokemon Stadium called it Po-knee-taa, so that was really confusing for me.

[Wartusk]

When I first got into Pokemon, I pronounced the "eon" in the Eeveelutions "ion."

Don't ask me why, I'm not even sure myself.

[Wishing Star]

The only one I can think of is Growlithe (GROWL-ith).
Is it pie-dove or PIH-dove for Pidove? And BEAR-tic or be-AR-tic for Beartic?

The announcers in the Pokémon Stadium-esque games are weird, sometimes. It's obviously POH-nee-ta and GAR-chomp, not poh-NEE-ta and gar-CHOMP.

[Auaria~]

I use to pronounce Feebas as Fee-bass instead of Fee-bas. I also said RE-kou for Raikou,and RE-chu for Raichu :P
Thought of another.
I use to pronounce the Regis as Rega (I was young) Regarock,Regasteel,and Regaice. Don't even get me started on Regigigas.

[sizida]

i thought i saw this kind of thread somewhere some months ago. i wonder where it went.

[your boss]

I pronounced Suicune as Su-why-cune at first, silly meP

[Crimson Penguin]

The only one I can think of is Growlithe (GROWL-ith).
Is it pie-dove or PIH-dove for Pidove? And BEAR-tic or be-AR-tic for Beartic?

I'm pretty sure your pronunciation for Growlithe is correct. IIRC, the Pokerap pronounced it Growl-LIEth, but that's incorrect. (I think...)

And according to the anime, Pidove is Pee-dove (which I hate), and Beartic is Bare-tic, like a bear with ticks.

It would be nice if there was an "official pronunciation guide" for Pokemon so people wouldn't be as confused. But then, knowing how many mistakes there are in the "official" guides to begin with... maybe not.

[octoboy]

I often find I stick to mispronunciations of pokémon names if I've been doing it for long enough. Probably the most extreme example is that I always call clefable "CLE-fuh-bull" as if it's something that can be "cleffed" as opposed to sounding like clef and fable, which I likely picked up on pretty quickly. Similarly, I always think of gengar as sounding like "ginger" instead of like doppelgänger, though technically, the pokémon's name doesn't quite sound like the word either, the second G is hard in the name, but I don't think it is in the word. The most ridiculous example is probably gyarados, whose name I heard before I read, but I still pronounce the Y because the idea of a silent Y was completely incomprehensible to my 11 or so year old self, and that stuck.

That said, sometimes pokémon name pronunciations don't make a lot of sense. Charizard and blastoise were named after a lizard and tortoise, so shouldn't their names sound like those animals instead of apparently rhyming with "hard" and "choice"? Interestingly enough, I happened to originally mishear blastoise's name as blastoid, which stuck for a while.

There are also examples where I stick to a pronunciation because it makes more sense to me. I originally figured arceus was meant to sound like "Zeus" because it was supposed to be a deity pokémon. Apparently it doesn't, but I still always think of it as doing so because I make that connection.

And then there are the cases of the show plain old ret-conning it. Elekid has to be the weirdest example. When I first saw its name I read it as "EH-LUH-kid" with the first part sounding like the beginning of elephant, then I saw the 4kids dub which pronounces it "uh-LEH-kid", which made it sound more like "electric", so I read it as that afterwards. Then the Pokémon USA dub ret-conned it to being pronounced the way I used to, sounding more like "elephant", so now I pronounce it the second way, while the anime pronounces it the first way, the reverse of how it was before.

It would be nice if there was an "official pronunciation guide" for Pokemon so people wouldn't be as confused. But then, knowing how many mistakes there are in the "official" guides to begin with... maybe not.

I actually have an official guide like that, and from looking at it, I'd say you're right. It pronounces rattata as "ruh-TA-tah".

[Wishing Star]

I actually have an official guide like that, and from looking at it, I'd say you're right. It pronounces rattata as "ruh-TA-tah".

You have to remember that "official" doesn't mean that there's only one correct pronunciation. :P

[Jordie]

My stepsister got me into pokemon, so I always asked her how to pronounce names (A lot of she mispronounced adn then I did too)

Combusken=Com-buh-shun-ken
Kyogre=Kee-oh-gree
Verdanturf Town=Van-der-iff Town

[Endolise]

I still don't know how to pronounce Regigigas. But anyway.

I believe it's Reh-Jee-Gih-Guss. That's how I say it, anyway.

Hippopotas= I just totally butchered. I don't even know what I called it.

I've always called him "Hih-POE-puh-tahs."

Hippowdon- Hippo-don. Not bad. Just forgot the W.

I used to call him "Hippo-Down" until I realized I was misplacing the W.

Happiny- Happen E. Vs Hap-pee-nee

I usually go with "Hap-pee-nee."

I've still mispronounce Rayquaza as "Ray-kwah-zuh" out of habit.

Only just yesterday did I discover that I'd been mispronouncing Chimecho for years. (I always called is "Kim-eh-koh"; kinda like "chemical")

I used to mispronounce Conkeldurr as "Kon-kull-DURR" instead of "Kon-KELL-der."

Alomolomomoloma.

Also a recent discovery, Liepard isn't pronounced "Lee-eh-pard." I felt really dumb for not noticing that.

I still pronounce Sceptile as "Suss-sep-tyle"; similar to "susceptible."

Suicune used to be "Soo-ih-coon" and Raikou used to be "Rye-koo."

Also, I'm not really sure if I say Reshiram/Zekrom the right way or not. I say "Reh-sheer-am" and "Zeck-rom." But my friend says "Zee-krom," so I'm a little confused on the matter.

[Wishing Star]

Also, I'm not really sure if I say Reshiram/Zekrom the right way or not. I say "Reh-sheer-am" and "Zeck-rom." But my friend says "Zee-krom," so I'm a little confused on the matter.

I pronounce it REH-shi-ram (or REH-sher-ram, depending on my mood) and ZEK-rom. I don't think you can possibly mispronounce Zekrom without misinterpreting short and long vowels.

[TheEliteEmpoleon]

I usually call the pokemon how I think they should be called. The ones that I say that are "wrong" are
Pidove-I say Pi-dove
Zweilous-Not sure how to say this
Arceus-I say Are-see-us
Rayquaza-I say Ruh-quay-za

The ones that I used to mispronouce are Chimecho, Gyarados, and maybe a few more.

[Weedy Spyze]

I remember I used to call Raikou "rai-koo" and Suicune "see-shun" as a kid. I have no idea how my eight year old mind came up with that Suicune pronunciation.

Another one was Rayquaza as "ray-qwah-zah." If I'm pronouncing any other names wrong, I'm not aware.

[Sidewinder]

I remember I used to call Raikou "rai-koo" and Suicune "see-shun" as a kid. I have no idea how my eight year old mind came up with that Suicune pronunciation.

Another one was Rayquaza as "ray-qwah-zah." If I'm pronouncing any other names wrong, I'm not aware.

I'm right there with you on Suicune. For some reason, the first time I saw it in text I thought it sounded like Soo-queen, and contiuned to think of it that way until I heard everyone at a convention pronouncing it the correct way. Obviously I adopted my pronunciation accordingly

[doodlecloud]

Another one was Rayquaza as "ray-qwah-zah." If I'm pronouncing any other names wrong, I'm not aware.

If this is wrong then how the hell do you pronounce Rayquaza?

I don't think I have many but:
I still add an extra C to Articuno > Arcticuno
I pronounced Raikou as Rye-koo as I pronounced it the Japanese way and the same way you pronounce Raichu. But I think it's supposed to be Ray-koo because of the rain clouds on it's back?
I actually never had a problem wth Suicune but my boyfriend called it Su-i-sine.

How do you pronounce Kyurem? I say it like this ~ " K-eye-u-rem"

This one had also kinda confused me as I've always pronounced it Kyu-rem but a lot of people I know say it the way you do. I'm pretty sure I'm right though as Kyu-rem makes most sense and, as children, they mispronounce A LOT. I wish I could remember all of their mispronounciations so I could share them haha.



And regarding Zweilous, the z is technically a ts sound and the w a v sound making it tsv-eye-lous but I'm pretty sure when they say it the anime they're just going to go with zv-eye-lous as it's easier and still half there. I'm gonna carry on saying Tsveilous until they do that though.

[Nar_]

I think the worst one for me was pronouncing Suicune "sue-soon"

And Lugia like Luigi, but with an "ah" on the end. @___@

[Arthurion]

At first it is very difficult to pronounce the actual Pokemon characters. They are bit quite frizzy. You may find names that you even can't say properly. You hesitate or paused for a while. I love to see them on T.V. but I am not perfect in pronouncing those names still. Please guide how to name correctly.