Voldemort — and ten other words we have been mispronouncing

Turns out He Who Must Not Be Named is not being named correctly at all. Here are 10 other words you’ve probably been mispronouncing.

The Cat in the Hat: easier to say than Dr Seuss.

It turns out He Who Must Not Be Named was not actually named (correctly) at all — at least not by the majority of the millions who have read the Harry Potter books.

JK Rowling took to Twitter to reveal that Harry’s nemesis Voldemort is, in fact, pronounced without the silent T at the end.

... but I'm pretty sure I'm the only person who pronounces it that way. https://t.co/HxhJ5XY5HP

— J.K. Rowling (@jk_rowling) September 9, 2015

And, of course, it makes perfect sense: the French word for death is mort, which is also pronounced without the T at the end.

Turns out it is probably not the only word you may have pronouncing wrongly all these years.

GIF

You know those little loopy video clips on Twitter that take up half your day? Forget the hard G. It is pronounced Jif, as in the cleaning product. How do we know this? Steve Wilhite, who created the Graphics Interchange Format over 25 years ago says so, that’s how.

ESPRESSO

Coffee lovers won’t care who how it is pronounced, they just want their caffeine shot in the morning, but stay faithful to the S and avoid the temptation to say eXpresso.

ADIDAS/NIKE

They have forever been embroiled in a marketing battle so lets keep them entwined here too. Chairman Philip Knight last year revealed it was Ni-key, rather than Nike. With Adidas, emphasise the first syllable rather than the second — AH-dee-das rather than ah-DEE-das.

The Cat in the Hat: easier to say than Dr Seuss.

DR SEUSS

Cat and Hat are easy words to pronounce. Here is another rhyme for you: It’s not Dr Seuss as in juice (or moose or loose), rather Dr Soice as in rejoice.

HERMES

We may not be able to afford their luxury products, but we can at least pronounce it correctly. It’s er-mez. Pesky Europeans.

CACHE

It’s a word most of us came to loathe because it is forever associated with the dreaded call to the IT helpdesk at work. Pat CASH, not cach-ay.

Don’t mispronounce Charlize Theron’s name. It might make her mad.

CHARLIZE THERON

Full of pitfalls, this one. It’s Shar-leese for a start. But more surprisingly you ignore the O in the surname and instead say Ther-In.

PORSCHE

Porsha rather than Porsh — not that most of us will ever use that word unless it is in the sentence ‘some day I’d like to be rich enough so I can buy a Porsha’.

MATT GROENING

Simpson creator Matt Grayning, as in rhymes with complaining. No, we had no clue either.

DAVID BOWIE

Hot topic among Ziggy Stardust fans for years, this, how do you pronounce the White Duke’s surname. By naming his son Zowie, it suggests Bow as in Cow, but apparently not, as this brilliantly compiled YouTube video appears to prove.

But, then again … who knows?