Mispronounced Names in the Pokemon World That Annoy You

[Horizon]

I have an aunt who consistently says "Poh-kee-man." Makes my ears feel like they might start bleeding every time!

 

[Pikapurple]

My teacher pronounces charizard like the word chorizo

 

[Luminosity]

I am not truly annoyed by any Pokemon mispronunciations. I used to want to correct people when they said Pokeymon, but I gave it up as a lost cause.

They should have a pronunciation guide in the Pokedex or something. Although I could see that getting tricky fast with the many different accents for each language there are.

@Pikapurple
Charizard the flying Chorizo!
I swear I didn't make this, I honestly found it by googling it XD

Spoiler

 

[fundamental]

oh where to begin lol? there's been so many that i've mispronounced (and probably still do lol) back in the day let's i used to call rattata ratatat, kyorgre as kyo-gre, sceptile as skeptile, scizor as skizor, manaphy as manphy honchkrow as honch-krow or is it honk-krow? i've said both and still don't know lol... oh the list could go on and on lol...

 

[Oswin]

@gryffindor1991 I say D-eeein-o, and Zwyy-lous, like 1 and 2 in German.

 

[Zeb]

The most irritating one I've heard was Suicune as ['su:ʃaɪn] (soo-shine). I have no idea where they got that pronunciation from...

My friends and I used to call it "Sunction". No idea why. We were only nine years old though so we were probably just not able to read it properly.

I used to pronounce Grovyle as Graw-vile.....XD

I called it Groy-vil for years.


I used to call Wail-mer Wali-mer. And I did it for years before I realised I was reading it wrong. :/

 

[Te-em]

Some people say Pee-ka-chuu instead of Pi-ka-chuu, which is annoying. I've also heard Dark-rai (rai like in Raichuu) instead of Dar(k)-kurai or Dar(k)-krai as they say in the movie. It first made me wonder if they were talking about a thunder Pokemon (rai) when I did'nt know which one it was.

About Suicune, I've only heard its Japanese name Suikun, but I guess the English one is pronounced Sui-kyuun, but I'm not sure since I don't know what words it's based on.

I've never heard anyone mispronounce Pokemon. Everyone says Pockemon, like in pocket and monster.

 

[Shadow Victini]

I mispronounce Pokémon. I pronounce it Poke-ee-mon. Although I really shouldn't, I actually have the same é with an accent in my real life name. When that é is used, the e is pronounced like a.

 

[Zeb]

Some people say Pee-ka-chuu instead of Pi-ka-chuu, which is annoying.

Isn't it pronounced Pee-ka-chu in the anime? I could swear it is.

 

[L-05308]

Some kids I know would pronounce Kyogre as Kyo-gree and Groudon as Groo-don. I don't really understand how they got the latter wrong since its name is derived from ground.

Exactly it annoys me when they ignore the words that make up the name

 

[Te-em]

Some people say Pee-ka-chuu instead of Pi-ka-chuu, which is annoying.

Isn't it pronounced Pee-ka-chu in the anime? I could swear it is.

Well, at least the Pokemon itself says Pi-ka-chuu.

Here is a video of Pikachuu's voice actress Pikachus voice actor (english subtitles) - YouTube

 

[āruscio]

As a side note, I want to know how to say Deino and Zweilous are said! I have no idea how to say them.

Well, if you want to stay completely honest to the original German Deino is pronounced exactly like 'dino' but Zweilous is close to 'tsvai-lus', the ts being the end of words like cats or pots. And as much as I try to correct myself on this, in my head I still say 'zwai-o-lus' and not 'tsvai-lus'... but the latter is correct.

 

[L-05308]

One that annoyed me was Wishmer as opposed to Whismer, that is an example of lazziness

 

[podin]

What I find a tad irksome is that some people insist on pronouncing Gliscor as gliss-cor instead of glies-cor.
Though God knows which one should be considered as correct.

When it comes to Pikachu though, the case is a bit more complicated, because the Japanese do not distinguish between the long and short "i", as far as I know. And actually the quality of the Japanese "i" is more similiar to the English long "ee", from what I could observe. The spelling suggests to keep it short, that's why most fans stick to it.

 

[Te-em]

When it comes to Pikachu though, the case is a bit more complicated, because the Japanese do not distinguish between the long and short "i", as far as I know. And actually the quality of the Japanese "i" is more similiar to the English long "ee", from what I could observe. The spelling suggests to keep it short, that's why most fans stick to it.

It's like a short "ee", but "ii" should equal English "ee". In Japanese you usually repeat the vowel or add a ー　character to make it longer. It's difficult to show Japanese pronounciation in English where most vowels are long. But the word "pick" have the same "pi" as in "Pikachuu", but notice that there isn't a pause between "pi" and "ka", thus not "picka".

 

[raychuu]

Mispronunciations don't really annoy me, as I probably abuse them myself. As a non-native English speaker, I just find it incredibly hard to follow the odd pronunciation clauses, and I end up mixing everything up. Although, I'll be honest and say the most obvious ones (Pokémon, Pikachu) being mispronounced make me raise an eyebrow...though I barely ever even hear the names (I don't watch the Animé and Pokémon has kinda be forgotten around these parts), so it's OK.

 

[Pyrossword]

I think Gyarados should be pronounced saying GYARA and not GARY.

 

[Sith Droideka]

ARK-eus for Arceus. (Or is that the official way?) Hoo-ooh for Ho-oh.

 

[podin]

It's like a short "ee", but "ii" should equal English "ee". In Japanese you usually repeat the vowel or add a ー　character to make it longer. It's difficult to show Japanese pronounciation in English where most vowels are long. But the word "pick" have the same "pi" as in "Pikachuu", but notice that there isn't a pause between "pi" and "ka", thus not "picka".

What I was trying to put across is that in Japansese there aren't two "i" vowels like in English. We tend to realise the first syllable as in "pick" but if someone pronounces it like "peak", I wouldn't consider it that much of a mistake. And again, according to my own judgement, the Japanese pronunciation is actually more similar to "peakachuu".

Doesn't really matter.

 

[Pyradox]

Arceus. I don't know if I'm right, but I've always said it as Ar-see-us.

It's also kind of annoying when people pronounce Deino as 'dee-noh' and Zweilous as 'swee-liss'.
I've heard a few people missing out the 'u' in Kyurem and calling it 'Kyrem' or 'Ky-a-rem'. Sounds pretty good on its own, though the fact that it's probably meant to be 'Kyoo-rem' irritates me a little.