Hey everyone,
Welcome to another installment of Harry Potter Theory.
In today’s video, we’re going to be discussing 25 words from the Harry Potter series that
(seemingly) everyone (even myself on some occasions) pronounces wrong.
In our (the fans) defence, however, the world of Harry Potter is FLUSH with all sorts of
peculiar naming conventions, whether it’s referring to a potion which changes one’s
physical appearance (Polyjuice Potion), or a magical creature that’s bred out of cross
breeding Manticores and Fire Crabs (Blast-Ended Skrewt).
This list of course extends to all manners of people, places and things.
The inspiration for this video came from pronunciation related comments stemming from the comment
section of this channel over the last 2 years, where I’ve noticed that some people are
awfully quick to voice what they feel is the ‘correct’ pronunciation, despite the obvious
absence of any sort of attempt to research said pronunciation.
I know I know, you read it in the book like ‘that’ when you were a kid- but guess
what, that doesn’t make it right.
Furthermore, some of the intended pronunciations are completely bizarre, and no right-minded
person would pronounce them that way, which is why I’m almost certain that none of you
have always pronounced ALL of these words correctly.
I also want to add that for each word there will be 3 variants: the CORRECT pronunciation,
the most commonly used mispronounciation, and my PREFERRED pronunciation.
That’s right- some words- despite being wrong, just won’t ever sound okay to me
in their intended manner.
You’re probably thinking- that’s sacrilege!
But once you hear the list you may feel the same way.
Let’s get in to it.
Ok…This one is one of the worst for a number of reasons, which is why I’m just going
to get it out of the way.
NOONE pronounces this one correctly, and that’s because its ‘true’ pronunciation is bizarre.
Are you ready?
CAH-NUTS, yes, it’s a hard K. Most commonly I’ve heard it mispronounced as ‘noots’,
which makes sense, but unfortunately, not everything makes sense in the wizarding world.
I’m probably criticized for this word more than any other on the channel.
Knuts are of course the lowest form of wizarding currency , behind Galleons and Sickles in
value.
Another massively contentious word- this one refers to a witch or wizard who is able to
transform their physical form at will.
The two pronunciations vying for the throne in this particular circumstance are ‘ani-may-jus’
and ‘ani-may-gus’.
Most people lean towards the former, however, we can hear the hard ‘g’ being used in
the films.
Furthermore, the word ‘animal’ used in conjunction with the greek word ‘magus’
create the portmanteau which comprises the word, and ‘magus’ ALSO uses a hard G.
Therefore, in this instance, I lean towards the G over the J.
This is also one of the rare circumstances where neither one sounds particularly bad.
This woman was Voldemort’s Mother!
The most common mispronunciation for this lady’s name is ‘meh-rope’, where in
reality it should be pronounced ‘Mer-OH-Pee’.
One of Harry’s Irish classmates!
To those of you who may have never heard this congruence of Irish syllables spoken aloud,
it’s only natural that you pronounced it the way it’s phonetically written (“SEE-mus”).
However, that pronunciation is a veritable abomination in relation to the TRUE pronunciation,
which is ‘Shay-mus’.
This character needs no introduction, and goes by many names..The Dark Lord, He must
not be named, etc etc.
However, you may be surprised to hear that HIS name is probably mispronounced more than
any other word in Harry Potter (despite Knuts, of course).
‘Vol-De-Mort’, which is spit out of the mouths of book readers and movie fans alike
a million times a day, is actually supposed to be pronounced ‘Vol-De-Mor’, as it’s
technically comprised of THREE french words, ‘vol’, ‘de’, and ‘mort’ which
put together mean ‘flight of death’.
However, this word is a perfect and rare example of a word that I will NEVER pronounce properly.
He will always be ‘Voldemort’ to me.
The home of the Dursleys, this English town is located in the south east in the county
of Surrey.
I’ve heard some people pronounce this town as ‘Little Winging’- like the ‘wing’
of a bird, however, you may be surprised to hear it’s actually pronounced ‘Little
Whinge-ing’, like, someone that won’t stop complaining.
Otherwise known as Liquid Luck, this powerful little potion helps Harry in the Half-Blood
Prince.
The mis-pronunciations associated with this potion aren’t too bad, and usually comes
down to the incorrect ‘Felix Fe-Lis-Seas’ against the CORRECT ‘Felix Feh-liss-iss’.
This brutal witch was Voldemort’s right hand woman, and a feared death eater in the
wizarding world.
Her Maiden name ‘Black’ is easy enough to say, but as it turns out we’ve been saying
her married name all wrong.
While most of us say ‘Bellatrix Le-Strange’, it turns out that it’s actually pronounced
‘Le-Strawnge’.
Even though I’ve studied a fair bit of French, I find this one very unusual to say, and I’ll
probably keep going with ‘Lestrange’...
These are the reanimated corpses of deceased witches and wizards present in ‘the cave’.
I was sure I was saying this one correctly…But I stand corrected.
Where I would previously say ‘In-Fair-ee’, it turns out the correct pronunciation is
‘In-Fear-EE’.
I’d be lying if I told you I have EVER felt confident about pronouncing this former Auror
and Minister for Magic’s name.
Even with some internet research, I’m still not sure if it’s ‘Rufus Scrim-jor’ or
‘Rufus Scrim-gor’.
I’m leaning towards the former, but perhaps one of you in the comments can help.
This centaur lived in the Forbidden Forest, and even taught Divination at Hogwarts.
Furthermore, an ‘e’ at the end of a word we don’t know always throws a spanner in
to the mix.
It turns out that the commonly pronounced ‘Fi-ren-zee’ is actually pronounced ‘Fi-Ren-Zay’.
This spell, which serves a simple purpose- bring an object to the caster, is under all
kinds of scrutiny online.
But while there are several renditions floating around from ‘Atch-ee-oh’ to ‘A-see-oh’,
it turns out that ‘ACK-ee-oh’ is the true victor.
You MAY have heard of this character.
Close friend of Harry’s, Ron’s lover, the brightest witch of her year.
It turns out that HER name has been brutalized on many occasions.
I’ll let Pottermore handle this one:
“Her-me-own.
Hermy-won.
Herm-own-ninny.
Even some of Hermione’s most devout fans didn’t have the slightest clue how to say
her name.
Needless to say, when the first film hit cinemas in 2001, there were more than a few people
waiting with bated breath to hear her to-the-point introduction: ‘Her-my-oh-nee.’
At last, it all made sense.”
This is known as the potion of LOVE, and causes a powerful infatuation from the drinker.
The common debate for this one is ‘Ah-more-tent-chia’ vs the CORRECT ‘Ah-more-tent-ia’, which
is confirmed on Pottermore.
I always went by the former.
This stone-like object comes from the stomach of a goat and will save you from most poisons.
It turns out fans have overcomplicated this one, pronouncing it ‘Bee-Zo-Are’ instead
of the correct and much simpler ‘Bee-ZORE’.
This spell, used by Voldemort’s Death Eaters, fills the sky with a large projection of the
ominous Dark Mark.
I can barely imagine the countless possibilities for how this pronunciation could be butchered,
but let me bring some clarity to the situation: it’s ‘Mores-more-druh’.
This is confirmed on Pottermore.
This is one I say with utmost confidence, despite not knowing for the life of me whether
I’m correct.
And, as it turns out, after doing just a very minute amount of digging, I was completely
off.
Where I previously said ‘Wiz-en-ga-mut’, it turns out the correct pronunciation is
‘We-zen-gaa-mought’, which just doesn’t quite sit right with me.
This French wizarding school visits Hogwarts for the Triwizard tournament, competing against
Hogwarts and Durmstrang.
As it is a FRENCH school it only makes sense that it has a FRENCH pronunciation: ‘Bow-baton’
not BOX BATTUNS.
This pure blood wizard was a friend of Dumbledore’s as well as a member of the Order of the Phoenix.
I think the big question here is- do you pronounce his last name like the ‘doge’ meme?
As it turns out, his name should be pronounced ‘El-Fy-Uss Doh-zh’ and not ‘El-Fy-Uss
DOAG’.
This is where Harry lived with the Dursleys, and where his Hogwarts acceptance letter was
sent.
Much to the confusion of some, this should be pronounced as ‘PRI-VET’ not ‘PRY-VUT’.
The Phoenix is undoubtedly one of the most spectacular creatures in the wizarding world,
and in the Harry Potter series we become particularly familiar with one.
As it turns out, the name of Dumbledore’s Phoenix companion should be pronounced as
‘FAWKS’, not ‘Faw-Keys’.
This questionable wizard can be identified by his less than impressive reputation of
serving the shortest ever term as minister for magic.
I’ve also never known how to say his first OR last name.
As it turns out, it’s meant to be ‘PIE-US THICK-NESS’, but that still feels wrong
somehow.
This spell is one of the unforgivable curses, and is used to torture people.
Notorious Death Eater Bellatrix ‘Lestrawnge’ is a known proponent of the spell.
This spell should be pronounced ‘Croo-See-Ah-Tus’ and not ‘Croo-shee-ah-tus’, although I’m
sure there are some that will vehemently vy for the former.
This famous witch and magical historian was the great-aunt of dark wizard Gellert Grindelwald.
This may surprise some, but her name should be pronounced as ‘Ba-Til-Da’ and not ‘Ba-thil-da’.
…This one is of COURSE a joke..but do try to remember that it’s leviOsa not leviosA
And that’s it for this video!
Which ones were NEWS to you?
Comment down below.
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Until next time
Remember
Imperfect understanding is often more dangerous than ignorance