Support NeoGAF

[DOWN]

The t is silent.

t Who Shall Not Be Named

Someone on Twitter brought up the trivia and Rowling confirmed

EDIT: to those asking or claiming it is a dumb name, it's just French, not something she totally made up

 

[deltatheta]

Yeah, she's said this before. Weird that they got it wrong in the movies when she was pretty involved.

 

[schlongdog]

Eh, Voldemort sounds more sinister anyway

 

[neogaffer1]

vol-de-more

meh.

 

[Broken Joystick]

It's Leviso, not Leviosar

I thought this was common knowledge

 

[Bowler]

Nootella.jif

 

[BobTheFork]

Eh, Voldemort sounds more sinister anyway

Yeah, it sounds more like death than with the silent T

 

[WadiumArcadium]

I think it sounds better with the t personally.

 

[Ishida]

The name sounds goofy as hell anyways. Terrible name for a villain.

 

[Kurita]

That's how we've been pronouncing it in France since the beginning.

 

[Linkyn]

It's a pretty ridiculous name either way. Tom Riddle should have taken some extra time to come up with a stage name that better reflects his impact.

 

[JeTmAn81]

That's how it was pronounced in the Jim Dale audiobook version of the first couple of books. I thought it was pretty funny at the time. Voldemort does seem like the type of guy to adopt a faux French styling.

 

[Deleted member 1159]

People should have a much harder time with that than Dumbledore being gay.

 

[stufte]

Yeah, she's said this before. Weird that they got it wrong in the movies when she was pretty involved.

Yah like it or not, the movies solidified the pronunciation. ESPECIALLY since she was so intimately involved in the production.

This is JK Rowlings GIF/JIF and once again the creator will be wrong.

 

[DragonSworne]

I knew it!

I've always read his name with a silent T. It was until the movies those movies which made me think I was wrong.

 

[Marty Chinn]

Why spell it with a 't' then?

 

[Zalman]

 

[Quick]

I was pronouncing it with a silent T because that's how the scholastic Harry Potter website told me to pronounce it early on. It had a glossary with audio.

The movies just got me used to saying it with the T now.

 

[goldenpp72]

Nootella.jif

 

[AtomicShroom]

Indeed. His name is a composition of French words (vol de mort, "flight of death") and in "mort", the t is silent.

 

[Gigglepoo]

Good trivia but I'm too stuck in my ways to change how I pronounce it.

Yeah, she's said this before. Weird that they got it wrong in the movies when she was pretty involved.

They got a lot of stuff wrong in the movies.

Why spell it with a 't' then?

It's derived from French.

 

[Pappasman]

Rick and Voldemorty

You're welcome Roiland.

 

[Veritigo_X]

I used to laugh at people who said Baltimore as "Baldimore" since it sounded like Voldemort without the t. Now it's even funnier.

 

[Snaku]

Jim Dale was right.

 

[Jb]

I like how his name is kind of a spoiler for what his ultimate goal is ("thief of death"), like Darth Vader is clearly Dark Vater -> Dark Father.

 

[Team Alucard]

There's a Ralph Fiennes joke perfect for this thread but I'm not clever enough to think of one.

 

[George Oscar Bluth II]

Well, that's new to me.

Still not gonna silence the T, though.

 

[Alx]

Sounds obvious for French speakers. There are many French-sounding names in the book actually, especially among the bad guys. Voldemort, Malfoy, Pettigrew, ...

 

[Marty Chinn]

It's derived from French.

Ah, didn't realize it was French. Do they at all somehow make that a point in the books?

 

[LiK]

why didn't she tell the fans and people who made the movies long ago? people will pronounce it wrong forever.

 

[Brakke]

Yeah it's "Voldemor" in some of the audio books but I think it changed over once the movies did "mort"? I forget the timeline there.

I always preferred Voldemor because "mort" is a little too on-the-nose with death but everyone in the world pronounces the 't' so I never bring it up.

 

[itwasTuesday]

voldeless

 

[bobawesome]

Too late for me to change.

Gif is still jif, Nutella is pronounced nut-ella, and Voldemort has no silent letters.

 

[Brakke]

Why spell it with a 't' then?

do you know anybody named "Om Riddle" tho?

 

[Dicer]

Lame...

Imma keep saying

 

[Bloodrage]

I'm gonna go do some cringeworthy bragging to my HP fans now. "It's not VoldemorT, the t is silent, actually." I will blow minds and my HP status will be supreme.

 

[Carl]

Yeah she said this years ago. I saw the first film before i read any of the books so i've always said the T

 

[Grisby]

Voldemor sounds like some sort of pop band.

 

[KingBroly]

I swear she's said Voldermort with the T before.

 

[JayTapp]

I guess as a french speaking person it was kinda obvious to me.

And don't get me started how people say "Leblanc" in English.

the c is silent and it's NOT leblANK!

but i'm pretty sure English doesn't have the french sound "an" like in "banc"(bench) "blanc" (white) "l'an" (the year).

 

[Lagamorph]

Too late for me to change.

Gif is still jif, Nutella is pronounced nut-ella, and Voldemort has no silent letters.

So close and yet so far.
Got everything but Gif right.

 

[akira28]

the t has more of an h sound. it's not exactly 'silent'. even the way the french say mort doesn't have a fully silent t.

Voldemort is the first evil wizard with something to say though.

 

[PSqueak]

Well, isn't that how the french would pronounce it since the words are french?

I mean, i intentionally have been pronouncing the t, but since i took some french classes (they sure have a lot of silent letters when you stick them at the end!) i knew it prolly was silent, just was easier to me to pronounced as it would be read in my native tongue.

 

[Gigglepoo]

Ah, didn't realize it was French. Do they at all somehow make that a point in the books?

I don't believe they go into the etymology. But, as a poster above said, it translate to "flight from death" in French. Plus, it's an excellent name. Very sinister.

 

[Alavard]

Why spell it with a 't' then?

Because 'mort' is the french word for death, and it is pronounced with a silent T.

In fact, Vol de Mort would basically mean 'Flight of Death'

Edit - As per the above, 'Flight from death' is also correct, and makes even more sense, given what he's trying to do.

 

[greycolumbus]

I've always said Voldermort with the silent T even when I heard other people say it with the hard T. Not sure why.

 

[MattKeil]

I have a fever, and the only prescription is more volde.

 

[Demy]

The name sounds goofy as hell anyways. Terrible name for a villain.

It's a pretty ridiculous name either way. Tom Riddle should have taken some extra time to come up with a stage name that better reflects his impact.

"Flight of death" sounds goofy? I thought it was pretty rad especially in book form.

 

[Matt_]

just like the creator of the gif, she is wrong and I dont care what she says

 

[Monocle]

Aww shit.

Why didn't she correct the film people while the first one was still in production?