‘It’s leviOsa, not levioSA’: Harry Potter’s most mispronounced words

Part of what makes world of Harry Potter so immersive and distinct is the language that JK Rowling developed to embellish the stories and lives of the characters we know and love. 

The iconic author created an entire dictionary of words that are unique to the wizarding world, made up entirely by Rowling's imagination with a little help from Latin and folklore. 

… 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

As you might have realised if you read the books first before watching the movies, some of the words and phrases read quite differently to how they are spoken.  

A prime example is Voldemort, which is pronounced with a hard 't', even in the films. 

However, Rowling revealed that she intended the 't' to be silent, and for Voldemort to be with the soft, French pronunciation of 'mor,' without the 't' sound.

Along with He Who Must Not Be Named, there are quite a few other words outlined by Pottermore, which are mispronounced on the regular.

Hermione is one, as it seems that much like Victor Krum, we readers were baffled by the name which is derived from Greek mythology. 

As we're all aware by now, her name is pronounced  ‘Her-my-oh-nee,' rather than 'Her-me-own.' 

In keeping with the mispronounced names theme, centaur Firenze also had us confused – apparently it's pronounced 'Fee-renzy,' and is an Italian name.  

When it comes to wizarding finance, the money increments discussed in the books are galleons, sickles and knuts, and it's the humble copper knuts which seem to have us tongue tied. 

We assumed that knuts was pronounced with a silent 'k', but alas, we were wrong – it's actually pronounced ka-nuts.' Baffling. 

Next up we have a few spells and potion ingredients, the names of which were more befuddling than the magic they evoked. 

If you fancied conjuring the Dark Mark, Morsmordre was the incantation for you.  While we always enjoyed the delicious word 'smore' being wedged in the middle, it doesn't get used in pronunciation – it's actually a bit of a tongue twister and is pronounced 'mores-more-druh.'

Whether Snape is grilling you about Potions trivia or Ron needs to be saved from unintentional poisoning, the bezoar is the unexpected star of the Harry Potter series.

Luckily, this goat-derived ingredient is pronounced much like it it reads, 'bee-zore.' 

 Lastly, we have Amortentia, the most powerful love potion known to man (either Muggle or wizard).

We're sure Romilda Vane knows this one off the top of her head, but this powerful little potion is pronounced 'Amore-ten-tia' rather than 'Amore-ten-sheeah.'

Now we're in the mood for a Harry Potter marathon…