Mispronounced Names in the Pokemon World That Annoy You

[Lysson]

I don't really know what the proper pronunciation for Arceus is, as in Britain we call Arceus 'arc-ee-us' instead of 'arse-ee-us' but in Arceus and the jewel of life it was pronounced 'Arse-ee-us' and I could not help but jeer 'The god of butts is descending from the heavens!' whenever Arceus appears.
But it does make me cringe a little whenever I hear what I presume is the correct American way of saying its name... *giggles*

 

[BlackButterfree]

To this day, I still hear "nye-do-ran" instead of "nee-do-ran". And to this day, I'm kind of self-conscious about being wrong (but I can't be. They have to sound similar to "needle" since their entire design is poison based)

 

[Shokyoku]

I used to think Suicune was a play on the word "Suicide" so I pronounced it Soo-ee-soon. I'm really sorry for being dumb when I was younger.

Also, the one that gets me the most is Kyogre. I pronounce is Ky-ogre but a lot of people pronounce it Kai-ogre.. I'm not sure which one is right anymore.

 

[zombiedude347]

I feel that Pokémon can be correctly pronounced two ways. the first is based off of the japanese pronuciacion /pokemon/ with the o representing a long "o" sound and the e representing the long "a" sound. The second is based of the original english words "pocket monsters" /pɒkɪt mɒnstɚz/ which would tun into /pɒkɪmɒn/ with the ɒ representing the o in "pot" and the ɪ representing the i in "pit".

 

[Osprey]

Also, the one that gets me the most is Kyogre. I pronounce is Ky-ogre but a lot of people pronounce it Kai-ogre.. I'm not sure which one is right anymore.

I've always said it like "Kai-ogre". I think that's how they say it over in Japan, and it makes more sense... doesn't "kai" mean "sea" in Japanese?

Anyways, I get irritated whenever someone mispronounces any Pokemon name, and the main offenders usually have no idea what they're even talking about. Ever since I learned that an accent-E meant it made an "eh" noise, I've gotten annoyed by people saying "Po-KEE-mon" instead of "Po-kuh-mon". Come to think of it, it should be said like "Paw-keh-mon", like pocket monsters, the franchise's real name.. the more you know, the stranger the world becomes.

 

[xXMelanie_HimeXx]

Raikou
Suicune
Kyogre
Arceus

There are more than this for sure xD

 

[Shokyoku]

Also, the one that gets me the most is Kyogre. I pronounce is Ky-ogre but a lot of people pronounce it Kai-ogre.. I'm not sure which one is right anymore.

I've always said it like "Kai-ogre". I think that's how they say it over in Japan, and it makes more sense... doesn't "kai" mean "sea" in Japanese?

Ah, I see. I get it now XD

Raikou
Suicune
Kyogre
Arceus

There are more than this for sure xD

I used to pronounce Arceus as Arse-E-us.. Oh my goodness.

 

[Wispy Willow]

Personally, it f***s me off that the "correct" pronounciation of Arceus is Ark-key-us (or whatever it is) because I don't see a K in the word Arceus, do you?

 

[Team Gaara]

Personally, it f***s me off that the "correct" pronounciation of Arceus is Ark-key-us (or whatever it is) because I don't see a K in the word Arceus, do you?

ARE-see-us was how it was said first and it's what most people go by, so I firmly stand by that as the correct version. That's also how it was said in Battle Revolution. I personally have never heard ARE-key-us outside of the movie and Pokedex 3D Pro.

 

[Darth Darkrai]

Arceus at times, I admit it's Annoying, and Villion, for some Reason, Anime has Ignored the "L's" so I go with there Logic and say NO L's

 

[Sakuraa]

Arceus at times, I admit it's Annoying, and Villion, for some Reason, Anime has Ignored the "L's" so I go with there Logic and say NO L's

The French pronunciation of double L's make the "y" sound, so that pronunciation is correct.

 

[Wispy Willow]

Personally, it f***s me off that the "correct" pronounciation of Arceus is Ark-key-us (or whatever it is) because I don't see a K in the word Arceus, do you?

ARE-see-us was how it was said first and it's what most people go by, so I firmly stand by that as the correct version. That's also how it was said in Battle Revolution. I personally have never heard ARE-key-us outside of the movie and Pokedex 3D Pro.

Huh, I didn't know that... I guess I just assumed that ARE-see-us was considered incorect because I first heard it's name actually being said in the movie. And either way, ARE-key-us still f***s me off.

 

[Beth Pavell]

At this point I'm not sure it can really be said that pokémon names can be mispronounced. Bear with me here. Names like Arceus and Vivillon are drawn from other languages, which is why ar-key-us and viv-y-on can be said to be correct ... however, given that BOTH of those names are English names (That is, names for the English versions. Legendary names are even greyer ground since they don't change between language versions) and there is NO in-universe indication of what language's pronunciation to use, it really boils down to best guess

Come to think of it, Vivillon is inconsistent as well. Kalos is based on France so we use the French pronunciation, fine, but then why don't we use the same for the other Kalos species? Why isn't Clauncher pronounced something like Clon-share?

 

[Team Gaara]

Come to think of it, Vivillon is inconsistent as well. Kalos is based on France so we use the French pronunciation, fine, but then why don't we use the same for the other Kalos species? Why isn't Clauncher pronounced something like Clon-share?

Because it's where the name comes from, not just how it's spelled. Vivillon comes from "vivid" and "papillon", so it's pronounced the same way "papillon" is said, with the "y" for the double "l"s. Clauncher comes from "launcher", so it's pronounced like the word "launcher".

 

[Beth Pavell]

In English, where a word comes from doesn't necessarily have any bearing on how it's pronounced (The same is even more true of French, so it's not like this is an idiosyncrasy of English). It's extremely common for foreign words to be pronounced as English words, even if the spelling is exactly the same. I'm not saying that viv-y-on is wrong, or even that it's wrong to be annoyed at hearing a different pronunciation. What I am saying is that pokémon names have no pronunciation guide (At least until they show up in the anime, and even then you can find inconsistencies) and inconsistent internal logic. It doesn't help that, flipping through the National Dex, Vivillon seems to be one of the few pokémon whose English name isn't pronounced as in English

 

[caramelmilk]

It's actually the other way around for me. For some reason I pronounce Pidgeot as "pidgit" when it's apparently supposed to be "pidge-ee-yot." Whatever, I'm not changing my pronunciation!

 

[Lady Mimilop]

Oh, I mispronounced a lot of names! Per example, I pronounce hoothoot and ho-oh almost equal. Hoothoot is "Hoo-OH" and Ho-oh is "Hoo-ON".
Also I pronounce meowth as "meow-US" and Persian as "Purr-ss-AH"
I'm not a native english speaker, so I mistake a lot of names.

 

[ArcaKnight]

I always get Kyogre mixed up, though I'm learning to fix it It still slips to ka-roge and that is pronounced with a G not a j.

 

[majormanafemale]

Arceus just like Celtic these two words have ce that is supposed to say K sound and most people in North America don't get this. Keep in mind not all words play by English rules. Words in Celtic and Latin origin much prefer the hard c sound like a k.

 

[Muur]

Most being wrong I suppose, though Skeptile is infuriating.