# Off-Topic Discussion > The Lounge > Ask/Tell Me About >  >  Tell Me How to Pronounce Harry Potter Spells

## thegnome54

Alright, I'm trying to train my bird to fly to me when I say 'accio Bhanu' (his name) and poop when I say 'expelliarmus!' (drop your weapon(s)!).

The trouble is, no one seems to agree on how to properly pronounce 'accio'.  Can any of you HP fans help me out?

I assume I'm saying expelliarmus right, but you might as well tell me that, as well.

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?

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## TweaK

ecky-oh
expel-ie-ah-mus

Watch the movies. ;O

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## Lord Toaster

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.

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## 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!  ::shock::  :Confused:

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## TweaK

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.

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## Burns

> 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  ::shock::

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## thegnome54

> 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 "

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

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## Burns

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



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

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## Lord Toaster

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

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## Goldney

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.

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## TweaK

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

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## Goldney

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

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## TweaK

Yes, I would like that.

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## thegnome54

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  ::D:  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!)

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## Rainman

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!_

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## Burns

> 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:

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## TweaK

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

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## Rayen

> 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.

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## Pyrofan1

> 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

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## tasiasolon

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

Very cool to teach your bird that!

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## Burns

> 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!_

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## nina

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

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