
As British film critic Mark Kermode often says, we should never make fun of people for mispronouncing words because — more often than not — it means they learned it through reading. This holds true whether they were found in a book or a video game, and many of us as kids gleaned new vocabulary from instruction manuals or the TV screen itself.
Voice acting these days tends to do away with confusion, but back in the day you generally had to read names off the packaging or in text boxes; reading and saying are two very different things, though, especially in the English language. It’s the fault of video games that this writer’s childhood pronunciation of ‘chaos’ more closely resembled the word ‘trousers’ for years thanks to collecting emeralds as a blue hedgehog and reading the word on the Special Stage screen.
Below we’ve collected together a bunch of video game vocabulary that commonly splits opinion for one reason or another. Some come from confusion over foreign names, others from regional variations, accents, abbreviations and more. Under each one you’ll find a poll – feel free to cast your vote and we’ll see what the Nintendo Life community consensus is on the pronunciation of these words. They've all become common parlance in the realm of video games, but we can’t quite agree on them.

An important note before we begin:
Most differences are simply regional. 'Mario', for instance, can be said with an elongated ahh in the first syllable, like Peach does, but could equally be pronounced murry-oh or marry-oh – they’re all just variants according to the accent of the speaker.
Ultimately, it’s important to remember that usage dictates acceptability and there’s no inherently ‘correct’ way to say most of the examples below. Language is a malleable, uncontrollable thing not governed by rules in textbooks – dictionaries document, they don't dictate. Even the intentions of the person who coined a particular word or phrase are immaterial once language has gobbled it up – just ask the man who invented the .gif!
Even things that sound nonsensical and ungrammatical to some people (British ears will likely bristle on hearing ‘I could care less!’ to demonstrate a total lack of interest, for example) become legitimate alternatives over time, no matter how hard you might fight it. Any living language is constantly in flux, and those who insist on clinging unyieldingly to grammatical rules or ‘correct’ pronunciation will only stress themselves out!
Okay, let's have some fun!
NES / SNES

This seems to depend on which side of the Atlantic you reside, with North Americans tending towards sness and UK gamers preferring snezz. Alternatively, some people say every single letter separately - you’re wasting valuable time, people! Think of all the extra hot takes you could squeeze into you gaming conversation by knocking off three syllables.
How do you say 'NES'? (1,343 votes)
- "ness"
- "nezz"
- "enn-eee-ess"
- Other0.7%
Please login to vote in this poll.
Pokémon

The accent over the ‘e’ tends to trip people up with the ‘Pocket Monster’ portmanteau. In some languages it indicates a specific pronunciation of the vowel sound, whereas in others it denotes word stress. We tend to be Poker-mon people, but Poke-y-mon and Pockee-mon seem fairly popular depending on your region, with some people stressing the second syllable. The risqué-sounding po-Kay-mon is probably the closest to the Japanese pronunciation and sounds like an hors d'oeuvre if you say it slowly. “Be a fine chap and pass me a Pokémon, would you?”
How do you say 'Pokémon'? (1,308 votes)
- "Poker-mon"
- "Poke-y-mon"
- "Pockee-mon"
- "po-Kay-mon"
- Other
Please login to vote in this poll.
Gaiden

This one stems from many a kid’s unfamiliarity with Japanese back in the day. Probably most famous thanks to Ninja Gaiden, although Zelda fans scouring mags for information on Majora’s Mask probably read about Zelda Gaiden, too, it translates as ‘supplementary’ or ‘side story’ which explains its use for numerous video game sequels and spin-offs. The Japanese pronunciation is more like guy-Den when spoken at speed, but most westerners have been saying Gay-den for years, much to the chagrin of the orange jumpsuit man in The Wizard.
How do you say 'Gaiden'? (1,300 votes)
- "guy-Den"
- "Gay-den"
- Other0.8%
Please login to vote in this poll.
Ryu

Whether you’re referring to the Street Fighter, Ninja Gaiden star Mr. Hayabusa or the forklift driving kid from Shenmue (actually, he's Ryo, but it's close!), chances are if you're reading this you started off saying his name wrong. Rye-oo seemed natural at the time and it can be tough to shake something you internalise in your formative years, even if you know it’s closer to ree-Oo. Check out Clyde Mandelin's Legend of Localization post for an in-depth look at the correct Japanese pronunciation.
Poor old Ryu. Ken doesn’t have to put up with this crap! Mind you, some of us had trouble with Guile and Dhalsim, too.
How do you say 'Ryu'? (1,284 votes)
- "Rye-oo"
- "ree-Oo"
- Other
Please login to vote in this poll.
Yoshi

Yoshi’s your bro, see? That is unless you rhyme the green dinosaur’s name with ‘bossy’. Personally, we like to keep things formal and use his full title of 'T. Yoshisaur Munchakoopas Esq.' to avoid embarrassment. As you can tell, people love getting stuck with us at parties.
How do you say 'Yoshi'? (1,308 votes)
- "Yo-shee"
- "Yosh-ee"
- Other0.4%
Please login to vote in this poll.
(Mario) Bros.

Unless you’re trying to be difficult, there are three options here: bross, as in the brother-band responsible for the 1988 hit single When Will I Be Famous; broze, as in one dude-bro, two dude-bros; or simply the word ‘brothers’. The really interesting thing is if you say it differently when you substitute ‘Mario’ for ‘Smash’…
How do you say (Mario) 'Bros.'? (1,313 votes)
- "bross"
- "broze"
- "brothers"
- Other0.6%
Please login to vote in this poll.
Melee

For such a simple word, there’s an awful lot of possible variations with this one. You might say it Mee-lay, or possibly muh-Lay. Alternatively, May-lay is popular. That should be the end of it, although you might hear mee-lee (rhymes with ‘wheelie’) or melly (rhymes with ‘smelly’). We know we said there were no ‘wrong’ answers at the top of the page. We lied. Please don’t say Smash Bros. Melly.
How do you say 'Melee'? (1,286 votes)
- "Mee-lay"
- "muh-Lay"
- "May-lay"
- "mee-lee"
- "melly"
- Other
Please login to vote in this poll.
TATE

Hold up, how is this 'Nintendo-related'? Well, with Switch becoming something of a shmup fan's paradise, we couldn't very well leave this old chestnut out, could we? Shooter fans will be tired of clarifying this one (along with 'Darius', we're sure). Sometimes capitalised, 'tate' is essentially Japanese for ‘vertical’ and arguably pronounced tah-tay, but most English speakers would assume it rhymes with ‘hate’. This is one of those examples where even though we know the 'proper' pronunciation, saying it correctly would get us a ribbing from our mates down the pub. "Oh, shall we visit the Tah-tay gallery later?!". Perhaps we need a better class of acquaintance.
How do you say 'Tate'? (1,085 votes)
- "tah-tay"
- "tayte"
- Other
Please login to vote in this poll.
And one more thing... Reggie Fils-Aimé!

No need for a poll with this one, really - it's definitely 'Phil's Aim'. Seriously, though, we assume people butchering his surname was what led him to plain old 'Reggie'.
How do you say 'Reggie Fils-Aimé'? (1,229 votes)
- "fees-em-May"
- "feeza-Mee"
- "Phil's Aim"
- Reggie
- Reginald
- The Regginator
- Other
Please login to vote in this poll.
There are many others, of course - fans of Ys spend more time telling non-fans how to say it than they do playing the game. Feel free to let us know the words that have caused you problems in the past (including 'hors d'oeuvre' , if you like). The beautiful thing about the written word is you don't have to say it!
Comments 166
Some of these are nuts. Who on this great green earth doesn't pronounce it "Reggie"?
I don't care what you say about any of the others...
... it's ****ing Yosh-ee, OK!
Pikachu:
●Peek-achu
●Pek-archee
●Pick-a-chew
●Peek-at-you
●hwrhatnjatbtwnjgc
"And one more thing... Reggie Fils-Aimé!"
Me: "My Body is Ready"
Jokes aside, his name is easy to pronounce if you listen closely.
So how do you guys pronounce some Pokemon like Suicune?
Reggie FYs-em-May.
https://dictionary.cambridge.org/pronunciation/english/bros
By sheer coincidence, ‘Gay-Den’ is also what I call my bedroom.
@gcunit haha i'm so with you on that, and so is Yoshi, seeing as that's how he pronounces it too lol
@Sandro89 Swee-coon. Used to say ‘Soo-seen’ because I assumed Eusine was supposed to rhyme with it.
@Sandro89
It's swee-koon.
the katakana spelling proves it
スイクン
I think I screwed up and accidentally selected “broze” instead of “brothers.” And I have to think almost everyone else did too, because I’ve only heard like two people say it any other way than “brothers,” and I’ve never once heard it in real life, so I refuse to believe these results.
I was suprised at how often I was with the herd.
My mom
NES: Playstation
Pokemon: yellow rat
Ok, Super Mario Broz is annoying as heck. Most people actually refer to the series as this? Wha?!!🤦♂️
Interesting differences in pronunciation here. By the way, the main character in Shenmue is Ryo, not Ryu.
@Rockmirth
My stepmom always referred to Nintendo as
‘Intendo’. So I guess they would be the big ‘In’?
Also, is it...
You-Bee-Soft or
Ooo-Bee-Soft
How do so many people pronounce Melee wrong when the announcer yells it fairly clearly at the end of the intro.
English pronunciation is so dang weird -_-
Bros != "Bros." (Note the dot, showing contraction) "Bros." is a completely different word.
It's like me saying Durr Mario instead of Dr. Mario
@RainbowGazelle Of course! I added a note - Thanks
I'm still laughing at that twitter guy Souper Mario Broth or whatever.
It was hard for me to answer as, being a non-native English speaker, I’d pronounce all of these words differently if I were to mention them in English rather than Italian.
@SuperGhirahim64 what would you call it?
"Poke-ah-mon"
Just me?
I must admit, there is a difference between the pronunciations in my head and what I would actually say. I would probably remember to say Ree-oo, but in my head it will always first be Rye-oo. It was the early Nineties, OK! I didn’t know better!
Hm, 81%of people are wrong about Tate, don't even @ me.
Also, Bros will always be pronounced bross to me. And if you want to know why, well, I can’t answer, I can’t answer that.
I must be the only one who calls him reginald
I say "ryoo" but slow motion it sounds like "reeyoooo"
I agree language is malleable and changes over time, for example if we heard people talking in England 500 years ago it would sound quite foreign (to me, as an English speaker today).
Despite this, I can’t stop being annoyed when I hear the word ‘addicting’ being used as an adjective in place of ‘addictive’, which is correct. I never heard this until YouTube. It makes me want to play Mario Broze in anger, because that’s definitely how everybody says that....
Really? People say Gaiden and Melee more than one way?
...English is weird
@msvt Most Americans say as you do, and that would be the first option, "Poker-mon". You know British English speakers don't pronounce that R.
@EarthboundBenjy Although it is indeed Swee-coon, sometimes they don't follow katakana if it sounds inappropriate. Arceus should have been Arse-(a)y-us アルセウス but because of the butt joke, the official English pronunciation is Ar-kay-us iirc.
@Sandro89 Swee-Coon. I pronounced it as Sowee-coon when I was a kid though
I thought this would have included the BOB-omb/bob-OMB dispute. Clearly the only proper way to say it is the first one.
@GravyThief Oh god 'addicting' does my absolute head in too !
@Rockmirth
For my parents all handhelds are Gameboy and all consoles are PlayStation, no matter how many times I explain it to them (lol)
@EarthboundBenjy
スイクン = su-i-ku-n
But of course pronouncing it doesn't sound like writing it.
English sure is weird. My first language is Spanish were you pronounce things exactly as it's written, so it's really strange to have this sort of problems.
Best poll ever! This site gets its old greatness back!!
1. Pegasus
2. Poksy
3. Skorpion
4. YOOSIIII <3*
5. Marian
6. Wpierdol
7. Pionowy
8. My Body Is Ready
*That's how my GF pronounces it.
Tah-tay. Straight up. I don’t care if you read books, or whatever.
@Jayenkai I’m only saying Durr Mario from now on
Wait, so there have been multiple blogs and gaming sites recorded saying "Feeza-mee" that were actually saying it wrong, taught me to say it wrong, when my first instinct was correct?!
Knuckles: OH NO
Here in the UK I have not once heard anyone call the NES the EN-EE-ESS. It's 'NEZZ' and 'SNEZZ'.
Whilst we're here there is now way the word Solder is pronounced 'Sawderr'. And the international standard is DDMMYY. Sort your film posters out, Hollywood.
NB: Reggie was always I introduced with a silent s, thus 'Fill-A-Mee' on E3.
And how is Ryu pronounced Ryo? They call him Ryuu in the Street Fighter II anime as well as the live action movie. Ryo Hazuki in Shenmue has it spelt with an O!
I’m weird and call the NES “en ee es” but the SNES “sness”. I also say N64 exactly as it’s spelled: “enn Sixty-Four”.
Also, regarding SEGA, do y’all say “seh guh” or “say guh”? I use the latter.
Edit: I also pronounce Reggie’s last name as “fees ah may”.
@gcunit Even Yo-shee says you’re wrong
I know I say ‘Soo-Ko-Den’ incorrectly, but what do I care? It’s only pronounced in my head as none of my friends or family are ever going to have a conversation about it with me.
Dang language is weird. I love regional differences and quirks, they all have their own awesome kind of flavor to them. It’s very fun learning about how other people speak and use slang.
@dartmonkey
Most importantly though:
MARIO!
I know that at least one video host on here is pronouncing it Merry-Oh.
If it's a persons name there's usually a correct way to say it, if your accent allows it of course.
@RadioHedgeFund I say EN-EE-ESS and ESS-EN-EE-ESS but I wasn’t around for the adverts and such. My mum says that whenever she heard adverts on the TV and the like over here it was always NEZZ and SNEZZ and she finds Mario Kart difficult so is... not the gaming type. Might explain why the public say it that way.
In Sweden we say "ness" and "sness". Some words we pronounce with a Swedish accent, like "pocke-mon".
"I could care less" is just savaging the English language even in America, where it is unfortunately now common usage. You are, ironically, saying the exact opposite of what you mean. It makes me grit my teeth.
@nessisonett I wish I could both like and dislike that joke at the same time because that’s the best bad joke I’ve seen in a bit. I love a good bad joke.
This is both funny and interesting to see the results, good job NL! ^^
Some of these I would have said differently in my childhood but where there is an official pronunciation I try to use that. Ryu from Street Fighter used to be Rye Yoo I say it more like Rio. I think my Yoshi switches based on occasion. I’ve always said SNES and NES like SNEZ and NEZ. Use Bros instead of the full Brothers unless I’m being super formal with it.
@Dev893 I usually refer to, and hear the SNES referred to as simply "Super Nintendo"
@JasmineDragon Just relax with a cup of expresso in the morning, my dude, no need to get so heated
I definitely pronounced Reggie's last name as "feeza-Mee." Probably should have Googled it a long time ago to get that clarified.
Speaking on Pokémon (Poke-y-mon), another one is Rattata. I've heard it said so many ways, even including different pronunciations at various times in the anime.
I spelled every Nintendo and Xbox machines correctly, except : 😅
1. NES = ness, not spelled by letters
2. SNES = sness, same case as NES
3. PlayStation 1 = PS Satu
4. PlayStation 2 = PS Dua
5. PlayStation 3 = PS Tiga
6. PlayStation 4 = PS Empat
For Reggie it's definitly the first option because it's french
@LzWinky In what game does Yoshi say Yo-shee?
"Yo-shee" will forever be my personal berserk button, especially because you can clearly hear how he pronounces it himself for a pretty long time now.
I never understood the mispronunciation of "gaiden" because there's no sound in Japanese that's said "ghey".
Gai - side
den - legend or story
It's actually fees-O-may
All of the most popular poll results currently fit how I pronounce them. XD
I admittedly read/pronounced Fils-Aimé as "Phil's Aim" until I heard it properly pronounced somewhere.
Sorry but Marry-o is wrong. They say his name in numerous games. Other characters in the games say it correctly. I get 'Mario' can have an accent in England, but this guys name is Mar-ee-oh Mario.
Am I the only person to pronounce SNES as Super Ness?
I remember back when Super Smash Bros Melee was revealed/released I didn't know the word "Melee" or how to pronounce it and remember thinking of it as "muh-lee". lol.
I pronounce NES as "enn eee ess", but then I'm super weird and call the SNES "super enn eee ess".
@nessisonett have to say, maybe one of the best comments I've seen on this site
Growing up Ristar was always Wrist-star instead of Rye-Star
I say 'tah-tay," but I learned Japanese first, so I never had an opportunity to interpret it any other way. It just means vertical, so not terribly interesting. It's cool to think of others not knowing that but still going with the flow. Like the word Nintendo itself!
Here's one that a lot of people get mixed up: ocarina. Most people pronounce it "oh-cah-ree-na" but it's actually "ah-cah-ree-na."
Although, I used to think that Samus Aran's name was pronounced "Sah-mus Ah-rahn," when it's actually "Saa-mus Err-in," as I learned in Metroid Prime 3: Corruption.
The problem with so many of these is that the "correct" pronunciations are indisputibly established by, well, the games themselves. When Charles Martinet says "It's-a me, Mario!" he is saying "Mario" exactly the way Nintendo wants him to. Same with Yoshi saying his own name in dozens of games. "Ryu" is said out loud by the announcer in many games. I guess you can say those names however you want, but if you're not following the canonically-correct pronunciation made unambiguously clear by the character's own creators, you're wrong.
I grew up saying NES as N-E-S and that's how everyone I knew said it. I didn't hear the European way until many years later. Without even thinking about it, saying ness or nezz came pretty naturally. Now, I use them interchangeably. My favorite of them is probably ness.
I'm totally Yoshi as in dosh and think a hard O sound sounds ridiculous.
Gaiden I'm still a gay den as English typically the first vowel in a combination is the hard sound and I still haven't adapted. I did with Ryu from rye oo to ree oo.
Melee I'm more like meal-ee while accepting mee-lay.
Tate I pronounce as "vertical".
Noobs on ign shows pronounce each letter of NES and SNES. Personally, I would say Nintendo. When the SNES arrived it was Super Nintendo and old Nintendo. Now it's NES and SNES as a word.
With a noticeable Mexican accent
@Majora101 Hyrule is a tricky one. In japanese is HAIRARU, that will be more like "High-rahl". So to avoid any problems, officialy, Hyrule is pronounced phonetically in every language. "EE-ROO-LAY" in spanish and italian. "EE-ROOL" in french and so, and so.
I usually pronounce NES by saying the letters but I’m okay with Ness. But for Super Nintendo it’s either S N E S or the whole name. Can’t stand Sness or Snezz
And I know now it’s wrong but it’s hard to kick Ry-u and Gay-den
Yoshi literally says his own name from time to time
Well I wasn’t in the top percentage for any of these. I dread to think my score for Pokémon names.
Also, I’m never calling Jaime ‘Jamie’, what’s that all about, eh?
And, and, Green Lantern Corps. Coruscant. Kashyyyk. Prince Xizor. I think I need a lie down...
@mikegamer Remember, we're talking English speakers and most wouldn't know there's no gay sound in Japanese. Typically the first vowel in a combination we say hard if in doubt.
@Fandabidozi I have a few cousins named Jaime in Arizona, and they often go with “Joe”. Guess they don’t like how people pronounce their name in English.
In the meantime, all your base are belong to us.
I used to pronounce nes enn-eee-ess but recently I’ve been saying ness a lot. If I’m talking to my casual gamer friends though I tend to still use the former.
@StableInvadeel
I started ASOIAF with the first book so when the telly series started I was like 🤯
I have a friend from Jakarta called Yoshi so I’m definitely saying that right: Yosh-ee.
I'm in the weird group that says Yosh-ee rather than Yo-shee.
@PcTV Probably because the announcer says it wrong. It's always sounded to me like he says Me-lee instead of May-lay.
@KryptoniteKrunch
I say it as Ooo-bee-soft
I say mee-lee because the title screen yells it to you.
I say Po-que-món because the first exposure I had to it was the anime dubbed in Latino Spanish, and that's how they pronounced it every single time.
What's funny to me is that when they would sell the episodes on VHS I only ever found them in English. As a result both dubs are pretty nostalgic to me.
I thought the first one was 'SNES' so I put Super Nes. Lol.
I pronounce it Ness.
I actually don't remember anyone calling the Super Nintendo "sness" or "snezz." It was the "Super Nintendo" and then a few months after it released, simply "Nintendo." I swear I never heard anyone try to pronounce SNES as a single syllable word until the rise of You-Tube. Maybe it was just a Pennsylvania thing.
I pronounce "bros" the same way Tomodachi Life Look-alikes do:
"Super Smash Bras."
Since most of these are translated from Japanese, I don't understand how people mess them up. It's Ma-ri-o not Mare-i-o, btw. He literally says his own name. 🤷♂️
EDIT: Ma-ri-o, Gai-den, Yo-shi, Po-ke-mon, and Ta-te. NES ,is just the three letters. Reggie told us how to say his last name, which I adhere to out of respect. Finally, if you can't pronounce melee, then that's just sad.
@HalBailman shrug I suppose
You missed a big one: Wario.
*Wah-rio
*War-io
Choose your answer carefully.
I love Alex. His videos are possibly the best part of Nintendo Life. And he thinks I'm a lovely person. But I want to poke my ears out every time I hear him say Yosh-ee.
@HalBailman To be picky, a tate shooter and vertical shooter are not necessarily the same thing. Technically "tate" and "yoko" refer to the monitor's orientation, not the direction your ship travels. So there are quite a few yoko-vertical shooters.
@TheDanslator Sorry to repeat a post, but to picky, a tate shooter and vertical shooter are not necessarily the same thing. Technically "tate" and "yoko" refer to the monitor's orientation, not the direction your ship travels. So there are quite a few yoko-vertical shooters.
@TheFox Same in California, where I grew up. People just said “Nintendo” to mean “whatever the latest machine is.” Same with Sega. Hell I didn’t even know there was a Sega Master System until at least a decade after its release because everyone just referenced the Genesis.
@embison Why don’t they just say vertical or horizontal? This is literally the first generation of systems where I’ve even heard the words Tate or yoko. Are the terms that common, or even proper?
I’ll tell u THIS , Nintendo Life, I like polls. Even if my opinion is a shoe-in. Even if it’s not. Keep it up. I’ll happily agree and disagree with everyone, all the time.
For the Japanese names, I do a sort compromise between Japanese and English, where I use what's basically the proper Japanese pronunciations, but with emphasis on the first syllable rather than the second. Just sounds more natural to my English-speaking sensibilities.
"PO-kay-mon" instead of "po-KAY-mon", for example.
Reggie is all of them. There are no words to describe his power level. His body is always ready.
Rayquaza, anyone?
A lot of them I used to say the "wrong" ways but changed how I say them as I learned (especially because I learn Japanese)
however...
YOSH EEEE!
I would assume Tate is produced Tate, as in the name... Like Tate & Lyle.
Also Snezz.
@Krull
Well, you've definitely put the cat among the pigeons with that comment.
@embison I'm referring to the screen and turn it to a vertical orientation.
@Kang81 Hahaha, I thought my Grandma was the only one who ever mistakenly pronounced it like this. She knew this was the perfect punishment for me and my siblings as kids when we did something wrong, "No Intendo" she would say in a singsong voice with glasses at the tip of her nose and index finger wagging back in forth in a no gesture.
If you assume that the British pronunciation is always correct then a poll does not work, because Britain is a small island compared to the US, for example. 😁
@GravyThief are we talking about beatemups/Wood Hawker here? I like his videos but that "addicting" crap gets me so angry every time 😂
Being from Norfolk, my accent butchers a lot of these pronunciations.. ah well. ^^;
EA:
It all depends from which country you are from. I had JP version of Marvel vc Capcom. At selecting character screen when you choose Chun-Li in JP it says as it is Chun-LI.. while Europe/Pal version says... chon-li... it was a bit confusing to me because you want to pronounce as it as and not change it from which country you are. That's how we learn. So take it as salt/pepper lol
@Daftbomb Ewww.Aaaa. dischallenge everything... that's how I call them
Learning to pronouce リュウ correctly would be valuable to anyone.
the true question: Hydro City or Hydrossity?
SPOILERS:
it's Hydrossity. the place is a temple, not a city.
@Noid
The sound test in Sonic Generations spells it as Hydro City, two separate words.
@EarthboundBenjy but was Generations by the 3K dev team? I dunno, but judging by those physics probably not.
@KryptoniteKrunch in the early days it was U-B-I soft!
For the last one I was going with "fees-em-May", but I just COULDN'T miss the opportunity to vote the Reggienator
That, or the other option would be Fils a Mech
@RadioHedgeFund international standard date format is actually yyyy-mm-dd. Makes it much easier to sort things by time stamp!
@embison Yes, I know that. My comment was about pronunciation, not genre.
As a professional academic linguist specialising in phonetics (pronunciation) and language variation, and also as a life-long Nintendo fan, I find this kind of stuff fascinating and could talk about it till the cows come home. This article's commitment to linguistic diversity and descriptivism is very impressive and is almost never seen in any popular media - clearly someone on the team has studied linguistics! If Nintendo Life ever want to get the view of an 'expert' to explain some of these phenomena, I'd happily oblige.
Pretty sure how Nintendo pronounces Mario was the correct way.
No Meh-Rio
I pronounce Melee as "May-Lee" but that's not even an option. Guess I'm weird...
@PcTV fairly clearly? To me it sounds like he's saying "meuyleeeeeeeeeuuuuiiiigh"
If I had gotten all my pronunciation from that guy, I would have figured "game" was pronounced GEEM.
I'm surprised how everyone says pokemon. I know how it's supposed to be pronounced, but I just default to poker-mon because it's less awkward.
If course, when you're singing the theme song, it sounds no good to go Poke-ER-MON, but you get it.
I chose en-E-es, but If there was an option for SNES, I say super nintendo. I dunno why, I've never liked sounding out the acronym.
Who the hell calls it a Ness? That's the kid in Earthbound.
Fils-Aime should technically be pronounced as the first option, but I think Reggie himself uses the second pronunciation, so I do, too.
Yoshi has always confused me slightly, entirely due to Melee (Which I'll come back to). On the character select screen the narrator pronouces it "Yo-shee", which is fair enough. However, when you play as Yoshi and taunt, the dinosaur pronounces their name "Yosh-ee". So I've always pronounced it Yosh-ee as well, as I assume Yoshi know how to say their own name.
But more importantly - Why was Smash Melee on that on the poll? 100% of people either pronounce it "Super, Smash Brothers, MAAAY-LAAAAY!!", with the appropriate pauses and emphasis, or they've never actually played it.
Um, what the heck is the difference between yo-shee and yosh-ee? To my eye they look the same and it's just the writing waffling over where the syllable division (which doesn't affect pronunciation) goes?
@SuperGhirahim64
How would you say pikachu, if not "pick-a-chew"?
@JasmineDragon
I've always seen 'I could care less' being said in a sarcastic manner.
I pronounce them all as "throatwobbler mangrove" as that is the correct way to say most things.
@Giygas_95 But that's the correct pronunctiation...
@FantasiaWHT Using the standard alphabet to represent specific pronunciation is often very challenging but the difference between the two variants for Yoshi is in the 'o' vowel. Some people pronounce it so that the 'o' sounds like the vowel in 'go' or 'yo' ('yo-shee') and others say it so that the 'o' sounds like the vowel in 'gosh' or 'mosh' ('yosh-ee').
@PcTV Most things I've looked up including dictionaries seem to indicate it's pronounced May-lay. Upon listening to a sample from Merriam Webster though, it did sound like Me-lee, so I dunno.
DISCLAIMER:
I started this poll off with a rather dumb error on my part: I selected "broz" for Mario Bros, but of course I meant to choose "brothers", so my apologies for that error in judgment.
Looking at the rest of the list, I did had to laugh at some of the possible choices, because several of them are too stupid to even consider. But then I went into the comments section, and suffice to say that my jaw slowly inched closer to the ground with each successive comment...
No offense meant whatsoever, but some things simply CANNOT be mispronounced, unless your either deaf, stubborn or stupid. Coming from a different region or country is no excuse either.
First off, a lot of these names are pronounced in the games themselves, so if you pronounce them in any other way, then that's really just you, not how it's actually supposed to be said.
Reggie's name takes some more explaining: like another commenter already quite correctly mentioned, Reggie's surname is French. For those curious or interested: the name means friendly son or beloved son. Aimé can be translated as love (interest) or beloved.
but also as friend, companion or comrade.(edit: corrected as pointed out by a very friendly, and absolutely not sneaky fellow member, who's still rather new to this site and doesn't really know yet how we NLifers normally treat each other on here)
So, knowing all that, the ONLY correct pronunciation, is the one mentioned above.
Soundbites for the two words that form the name, can be found below.
Fils
Aimé
Other than the last 4 I was in the minority. Both Yoshi and Pokèmon, I used to pronounce Yo! She and Poker-mon, respectively but have changed it as I heard them being pronounced by the creators or characters. I never cared much for Ninja Gaiden so I still talk about it like it's a haven for homosexuals. XD
I think Reggie Fisa Mer was great for Nintendo, it's just a shame he farted so much.
How do you pronounce "Lucario?"
Lu-car-e-o
Lu-Cario (Eygpt)
or (if you're a Smash bros fan)
Who?
@BAN I almost chose Broz, but I always say brothers.
@ThanosReXXX
1) Your comments are always way too long, you should sum up your thoughts more.
2) "aimé" does not mean "friend" or "comrade", that would be "ami" or "camarade".
"aimé" is strictly "beloved" or "loved".
"my beloved Reggie" would translate to "mon Reggie aimé" and "I loved my son Reggie" would be "j'ai aimé mon fils Reggie".
3) Évite de te la péter quand tu ne sais pas, tu passes pour une chèvre.
4) Gros bisous.
How about GRADIUS?
1. Gray-dee-us
2. Grah-dee-us
or
3. Grah-DEE-us (emphasis on the DEE)
@YourGoodFriendly Me. It's definitely pronounced Phil's Aim
btw where's Grid Autosport. I need a real racing game ASAP
Dear Nintendo:
If you're going to use a character name spelled like "Byleth," make it a character that can't be renamed so we can hear it said aloud at some point.
@gcunit It's Japanese, its Yo-shee OK!
@Sandro89 I pronounce in suicune
@RogerFederer I could reply in French, but contrary to you, I don't sneakily insult people in French, to try and get away with it without getting a warning or a ban. Not very sporty of you...
First off, I never said "my beloved Reggie", I just explained to people that his surname meant beloved son, which it does, so there's no arguing that.
I'll agree on the second translation I gave, which was false, but blame Google for that one, because it kept flicking back and forth when I was searching for alternate meanings of the word. I usually like to be thorough, so instead of just searching for one explanation/meaning, I try to find several, and that's where I screwed up. Happens to the best of us.
At least I got the initial part right, so that's all that matters in the end. And besides that, it was just meant to be a fun fact for the people that might be interested in stuff like that, it's not an SAT in French...
Oh, and thanks for the kind wishes/kisses at the end. Glad you still ended on a positive note.
Charles Martinet
Or Charles Martinay
Bowser
Bowsa
Melee has always been meh-lay to me. My ex-wife was (and still is) the big Nintendo fan, so most of the Nintendo specifics I’ve picked up from her. Rightly or wrongly (with the pronunciation), it’s easier to communicate using the same dialect as our daughter spends most of her time with mum and I don’t want to confuse things.
@Sandro89 swee-coon
some of these really took me back to childhood... honestly the announcer says it like MEE-LEE so it's canon idc if people say may-lay
"Ultimately, it’s important to remember that usage dictates acceptability and there’s no inherently ‘correct’ way to say most of the examples below."
This just simply isn't true. Language evolves, yes. Language changes over years, decades, centuries. That's fine. But to simply use it as a blanket to mean that nothing could EVER be mispronounced.. well, we may as well not even teach grammar and proper pronunciation of even have pronunciation guides or anything, because by that standard, everything is and should be a wild west truck fest.
In many cases, how you pronounce something like Gaiden doesn't matter. I wholly admit that. But there is absolutely no debate on what is correct. A small amount of research will lead you to the conclusion that it's guy-den. This isn't about what I prefer or what I want or like or what sounds better. It has to do with the written language in Japan having a set structure to enable exacting pronunciation simply by looking at the text. The same is true for a lot of the words here. Like Ryu. And Pokemon.
Sure, there are a lot of common mispronunciations that so common we start to accept them, but that doesn't mean they're right. Also, these aren't just words being used in every day language. A lot of them are proper nouns. Names. From recently made properties. And the creators definitely have the right to determine how their creations are named. It's preposterous to claim that none of that matters because there's no correct way simply because someone doesn't have the facts.
@gcunit It factually isn't, though.
@EarthboundBenjy Except that katakana says suikun. Sui does not equal swee. It equals soo-ee. When said quickly it does run together and sound similar, but it is not exactly the same.
@KarateLuigi Yo-shee is the correct way to say it. It's a Japanese name with a set pronunciation for a Japanese character in a Japanese game. The spelling in Japanese is all you need to see to know this as fact. Just because you think you're heading something different from the distorted audio of his voice doesn't change the facts.
Tattie (pronounced like Tah-tay) is slang for a potato here, so I wouldn't have thought it would be that. Also, "I could care less." is literally the opposite of what they're trying to say. Why can't they understand that?!
@Deltath I do admit that I find it hard to tell which one is the English and which one's the Japanese pronunciation going by transcription alone so we might be talking about different things here. To elaborate, the pronunciation which feels utterly wrong to me is what you(/I've always) hear from English speakers, that long, emphasised 'oh'. What I use is the Japanese pronunciation; those 'o's do differ between English (way longer, "rounder" - think "oh" instead of "o-") and Japanese (short, not as "round"). It'd be a longer vowel at least if it were "Youshi" which it isn't, it's a short one, pronunciation differs, and it's clearly audible in those voice clips as well.
@MarkieMAN64 Most of them would say I couldn't care less. Though some people use it interchangeably, which doesn't make sense.
@Deltath I have many American friends who use them interchangeably, and genuinely didn't realise it didn't make sense until I or someone else pointed it out. 😂
@MarkieMAN64 I can't for the life of me understand why someone could think that. It reminds me of a scene from the Simpsons with Dr. Nick. "Inflammable means flammable?! What a country!" https://youtu.be/Q8mD2hsxrhQ
@Deltath British comedian David Mitchell made a very funny video about this on his soapbox YouTube channel some time ago. https://youtu.be/om7O0MFkmpw It has a graph and everything. I really wish he still maintained that channel. It was a good laugh.
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