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[Herne]

Mah-rio or maw-rio

Silly Americans, there is no W in Mario, so where are you getting it from?! His name has been pronounced as Mah-ree-oh by himself and by other characters in the games... when his smiling face pops up onto the screen for the first time in Super Mario 64, he doesn't say -

"It's-a-me, Maw-ree-oh!"

 

[Regiruler]

Eats-a-meee-Ma-ree-ooooooo

Seriously though, if I hear someone say "Ark-e-us" I will punch them in the face.
It's "arse-e-us"

 

[MormaPope]

But it doesn't matter what it sounds like, or if it sounds natural to you. What matters is how it's actually pronounced, as it is not a made up word.

Still team Forza over Fort-Za, the pronunciation can go to hell.

 

[MilkBeard]

Still team Forza over Fort-Za, the pronunciation can go to hell.

Naw, once you know, it's hard to go back to straight 'z.' "tsa' just rolls off the tongue for me. We also have other words like 'Pizza' and 'paparazzi' that do the same thing so it's not like it's that foreign of a sound.

Personally, I have always found it respectful to pronounce foreign words correctly if I can, but that's just me.

 

[PaulloDEC]

Wait, that's not how it's pronounced?

Pizza has a t sound?

I'm so confused right now.

Pizza sounds like "Peet Zah" over here (Australia). The "T" sound gets kinda mushy (i.e. it isn't a really hard sound) but it's definitely not "Pee Zah" or "Pih Zah".

 

[DedValve]

Gib

although heathens would say it the incorrect way jib. These people are to be ridiculed then ignored.

EDIT: Holy shit I never thought about Pizza actually being pronounced Pitza. Thats....pizzzza sounds so awful and unappealing :/

 

[MormaPope]

Pizza sounds like "Peet Zah" over here (Australia). The "T" sound gets kinda mushy (i.e. it isn't a really hard sound) but it's definitely not "Pee Zah" or "Pih Zah".

Same in the United States.

 

[R-User!]

Some that I no longer pronounce this way:

Coco-bo (Chocobo) - Now say Cho-co-bo
Loo-mines (Lumines) - Now say Loo-mi-ness
See-Sil (Cecil, FF2) - Now say Sess-ill

Don't make Wayne Brady have to Cho-cuh-bo!!

 

[Benzychenz]

Pizza sounds like "Peet Zah" over here (Australia). The "T" sound gets kinda mushy (i.e. it isn't a really hard sound) but it's definitely not "Pee Zah" or "Pih Zah".

I am from Australia

And yeah I guess it does, though like you said it's not a hard Z, I've always just thought of it being like that because the double Z is annoying to pronounce and we're lazy rather than it being an actual T sound.

 

[Sobriquet]

Ooh-be-soft or you-be -soft

Snez or es-en-ee-es or Super Nintendo

Mah-rio or maw-rio

Four-za or Fort-za

Eye-co or eek-o

Blast core or blast corpse



Fight!

Correct pronunciations in bold.

 

[kiriin]

Ys (eece or isu) not why's or whyz and there no apostrophe.

 

[Cizeta-Moroder]

Insisting it's maw-rio is so hypocritical. Still so far from the truth.

 

[Hypron]

POKE-EH-MON
POKE-UH-MON

It's written pokémon for a reason.

You guys should come to Australia.
Everyone pronounces SEGA as 'see-ga' here

it kills me

Wut. How's that even possible. Have these people never turned a SEGA console on before? A bit like those "mawrio" people. Mario says his name every time you boot one of his games or choose him as a playable character ffs.

 

[matrix-cat]

American accents can get weird with their 'ah' sounds, but, seriously, how do you get 'Laura' out of 'Lara'? It's two syllables and they're the same sound. LAH-rah.

 

[Chris R]

Mar-key
Mar-qwis

Fuck you FFXII

 

[GraveHorizon]

ay-van-Gell-ee-on

 

[Hobbestetrician]

That's what I say, anyone else who believes differently can be asked...So what do you call a long neck animal in Africa?

How do you say this word? 'Gift'

 

[UnluckyKate]

people who pronounce MGS Raiden like MK Raiden

people who say Ninja Gayden

Rail den (minus L)
Ninja Guy den

Its how i say these

 

[Slamtastic]

Rail den (minus L)
Ninja Guy den

Its how i say these

Metal Gear Rising Revengeance stars Rye-Den, Mortal Kombat features Ray-Den

 

[Persona7]

I was super confused when someone was trying to tell me about Lumines. "low-mines" is how they pronounced it.

Same with Lupin the third, someone pronounced it as "lou-pin"

 

[Mr Git]

I am from Australia

And yeah I guess it does, though like you said it's not a hard Z, I've always just thought of it being like that because the double Z is annoying to pronounce and we're lazy rather than it being an actual T sound.

It's called an epenthetic sound, (similar to when people pronounce a 'p' in hamster) it does happen to make pronunciation easier usually when consonant clusters occur in different parts of the mouth. It's not really lazy though, languages constantly cut corners and change to make everything easier.

 

[Phediuk]

Laura Croft people bug the shit out of me.

Also, when Americans call the ZX Spectrum the "Zee-ex Spectrum". Learn your shit guys.

 

[ItIsOkBro]

It's merry-o

 

[sonicmj1]

Not strictly game related, but Evangelion is pronounced "Eve-Anne-Gell-Ee-In." Not "A-Van-Gel-Ee-In." The original word goes back to Ancient Greece and there're exact instruction on how to properly pronounce this word. People will try to claim that Hideaki Anno didn't use that word an just made the word up independently, but he referenced the Greek meaning of bringing good luck.

Maybe if it were a Greek show that'd be one thing, but it's Japanese, and the katakana says, "Eh-van-geh-li-on".

 

[Joeku]

As always, forum topics on pronunciation prove that plenty of people either don't know how syllables work or don't know how to write words out syllabically.

That or they just care less than I do when I read it.

In any case, SNES is neither "sness" or "ess-en-ee-ess". It's "Super Nintendo".

EDIT:

Maybe if it were a Greek show that'd be one thing, but it's Japanese, and the katakana says, "Eh-van-geh-li-on".

Nonetheless, Kill la Kill is Kill la Kill, not Kiru ra Kiru. Makes non-Japanese words hard to swallow in Japanese sometimes.

And Harry Potter's Hermione was "Her-moyne" for me until Goblet of Fire. No idea why.

 

[Mozz-eyes]

I used to pronounce 'Metroid' as 'meatroid' until a guy working in HMV passive aggressively corrected me multiple times. I was pissed off, but it's not been meatroid since.

Also thought that psychic pokemon were 'physic pokemon'. Mewtwo was 'Me-too'.

A little OT, as a kid I was big into warhammer 40k. God knows why, but I used to pronounce 'Tau' as 'tie-oo'. The fuck was I thinking?

I should really read things better.

 

[SkullHydra]

Poe-kay-mon or Poe-kuh-mon depending on how quickly I'm talking. Never Poe-kee-mon.

Glad-ose, not Glad-is or Glay-dos.

 

[Zalman]

Ooh-be-soft or you-be -soft

Snez or es-en-ee-es

Mah-rio or maw-rio

Four-za or Fort-za

Eye-co or eek-o

You-be-soft
Es-en-ee-es
Maw-rio
Four-za
Eek-o

 

[NineOverSeven]

I always pronounced Tidus Tie-dus not Tee-dus, because Tee-dus sounds fucking dumb

Absolutely this. I won't accept Kingdom Hearts as a rebuttal either.

 

[zeopower6]

tea fuh or tih fuh?

 

[Sanctuary]

The former was used in official materials for years in the US, unfortunately. Not saying that it's right, just that Capcom themselves reinforced it.

Yet the games always said it correctly...in the US.
And what "official material" are you talking about anyway? The orignal animated movie, Street Fighter 2 V and the Alpha movie all pronounce it correctly.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_detailpage&v=cWVFasTOw2Y#t=124
https://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_detailpage&v=yTeFELGlbdA#t=89
https://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_detailpage&v=bEh9X5xAy3E#t=31

 

[Raist]

Ooh-be-soft or you-be -soft

Fight!

Neither.

Here's how

Open your mouth.

Say O.

Draw out the O until your lips are where they would be to make a W sound.

Purse your lips as tightly as you can.

Keeping your lips pursed, say E.

Voilà the French U!

 

[Hypron]

I was super confused when someone was trying to tell me about Lumines. "low-mines" is how they pronounced it.

Same with Lupin the third, someone pronounced it as "lou-pin"

How do English speakers pronounce Lupin anyway? If I didn't know the right way of saying it I'd probably go for loo-pin.

 

[Zalman]

swee coon
soo ee soon

Soo-ee-coon

Ree-u
Rhy-u

Ree-u

Ninja Gaiden

I've heard the word Gaiden pronounced four different ways.

Gay-dn
Guy-dn
Gay-den
Guy-den

It's Guy-den

 

[Toxi]

Also, when Americans call the ZX Spectrum the "Zee-ex Spectrum". Learn your shit guys.

And somewhere out there, a British person is calling World War Z "World War Zed".

Worst letter of the alphabet.

 

[keuja]

Wingardium LeviOsa or LevioSA?

 

[Jack Scofield]

Forza has a 'T' sound, just like "pizza." People don't say "peas-uh."

 

[jfoul]

I was doing it all wrong until I saw this as a kid.

 

[Slamtastic]

And somewhere out there, a British person is calling World War Zee "World War Zed".

Worst letter of the alphabet.

Doragon Boru Zetto

 

[DarkKyo]

When I was in Middle School a kid I was friends with thought the Deku Tree was pronounced "Duke Tree". That was pretty controversial for me at the time.

 

[SkullHydra]

Wingardium LeviOsa or LevioSA?

It's Le-vi-OH-sa, not Le-vio-SAH!

Spoiler

;]

 

[Slamtastic]

When I was in Middle School a kid I was friends with thought the Deku Tree was pronounced "Duke Tree". That was pretty controversial for me at the time.

Are you sure they weren't dyslexic?

 

[Hypron]

When I was in Middle School a kid I was friends with thought the Deku Tree was pronounced "Duke Tree". That was pretty controversial for me at the time.

Duke Tree sounds pretty badass though.

 

[Hazmat]

From Final Fantasy VII:

I don't know why people pronounce Barret's name as "BEAR-ett."

I say "Ba-RETT."

It's like "barrel."

 

[keuja]

Fai Fay or Fee Fah? (FIFA)

 

[Persona7]

oh yeah deku confuses a lot of people because they hear the different pronunciations

day-koo

and dee-koo

 

[SkullHydra]

Fai Fay or Fee Fah? (FIFA)

That first one can't be a real thing...

 

[SirNinja]

Pronounced his name "See-sill" until the DS version of FF4, where it was spoken aloud. "Sess-il" still sounds a little weird to me, but I've come to accept it.

Fai Fay or Fee Fah? (FIFA)

Please, please tell me no one actually says it "Fai Fey".

 

[Owlowiscious]

this thread upsets me.

 

[Joeku]

Forza has a 'T' sound, just like "pizza." People don't say "peas-uh."

Forgive my lack of knowledge of Italian if I'm wrong, but doesn't the amount of z's suggest otherwise?

(ie. shouldn't pizza actually BE "peas-ah"?)