Thread: Tell Me How to Pronounce Harry Potter Spells

ecky-oh
expel-ie-ah-mus

Watch the movies. ;O

I always thought it would be assio, but apparently it means something in either greek or latin, so there must be a right way to pronounce it.

I heard that the movies actually pronounce several of the words 'wrong', according to JKR.

For accio, I've heard:

Ah-See-oh
Ach-ee-oh
Axe-see-oh
Ack-ee-oh

...ALL from different 'official' pronunciation lists!

It's definitely ecky-oh. I think JK Rowling has made that quite clear, and that is how you'd pronounce it in Latin, which is where the spells all derive from.

Originally Posted by thegnome54

I heard that the movies actually pronounce several of the words 'wrong', according to JKR.

For accio, I've heard:

Ah-See-oh
Ach-ee-oh
Axe-see-oh
Ack-ee-oh

...ALL from different 'official' pronunciation lists!

I say "ah-see-oh" but I don't think that's how J.K. Rowling meant it. I think it's supposed to be "ack-ee-oh".... but I'm just so used to pronouncing it "ah-see-oh" in my head, that I'll probably never say it different.

Expelliarmus = "Ex-spell-ee-arm-us"

I think all the other ones are pretty much as you read them. I think "avada kedavra" is fun to say

Originally Posted by TweaK

It's definitely ecky-oh.

How does the 'a' make an 'e' sound? Or am I reading your explanation wrong?



"I think "avada kedavra" is fun to say "


Every time you say Avada Kedavra, Voldemort kills a kitten!

Originally Posted by thegnome54

Every time you say Avada Kedavra, Voldemort kills a kitten!

Lies! I am an accomplished Legilimens and I can see you are lying... :p

There's this page about all the spells in Harry Potter, but it provides 3 different options for accio, so nothing conclusive

Who cares? As long as it's one of the "official" pronunciations and it's however you say it. The budgie won't care.

Ps. I think it's Ack-Ee-Oh. I'm doing latin for GCSE and I have never heard the teacher say anything like Eh for an A.

I meant it as in "ack". I just suck at phonetics, but that's how I meant it.

Ahh. All is forgiven in that case TweaK. Would you like some consiliatory tea?

Yes, I would like that.

Thanks for the help, everyone!

Here's a video of me accio-ing my bird
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=H79iObdRw2k

(I cheated, though I was waving a banana off screen... oh well, any time he responds to the words and gets rewarded brings me closer to my final banana-less goal!)

For some reason it just seems really badass that you summon your bird by saying accio. Hahaha. That's awesome. I might do that for my dog.


accio Rocko!

Originally Posted by thegnome54

Here's a video of me accio-ing my bird
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=H79iObdRw2k

(I cheated, though I was waving a banana off screen... oh well, any time he responds to the words and gets rewarded brings me closer to my final banana-less goal!)

haha that's awesome gnome! :bravo:

Yep, nice nice. You got the pronunciation right too.

Originally Posted by thegnome54

I was looking for a good word to make him step up (onto my finger) instead of 'step up' (he does it automatically, so any command will work if I say it enough). Any ideas for that?

I'm going to assume that Wingardium Leviosar is too much of a mouthful.

and that is how you'd pronounce it in Latin, which is where the spells all derive from.

most of the spells come from latin, but Avada Kedavra comes from Aramaic

I always pronounced it as och-ee-oh - the 'Ac' sounding like octopus.

Very cool to teach your bird that!

Originally Posted by Rayen

I'm going to assume that Wingardium Leviosar is too much of a mouthful.

Where did the "r" come from on the end of Leviosa? Wingardium Leviosa!

In the audio books it's "a" as in cat, "see", "o" as in home.

But in the movies it's "acky", "o" as in home.

I like it better in the audiobooks. It almost sounds like there's a silent "h" in front of accio...like hacio (if you were to pronounce it in spanish lol)

I think I made that alot more confusing than it should have been. =P