Spellcasting in Harry Potter requires excellent pronunciation for the spells to work, which is noted in the first Harry Potter book. Professor Flitwick himself tells the students to be extra careful when pronouncing the spell, and he mentions the example of a wizard who got badly injured from wrongly pronouncing the spell he wanted to cast. From Alohomora and Expelliarmus to The Patronus Charm – and, of course, Wingardium Leviosa, the team at Preply have revealed the most mispronounced Harry Potter spells along with the correct pronunciations to celebrate Harry Potter’s birthday on 31st July.
- Accio – (Ack-e-oh)
Used as the spell for summoning objects, Accio can be a tricky one for wizards to pronounce. The double C is pronounced as an ‘ack’ sound rather than ‘a-c’. The spell was first taught to Hogwarts students in fourth year, shown in The Goblet of Fire.
- Oculus Raparo – (Ock-u-lus Rep-air-o)
Oculus Raparo is the spell that repairs glasses, a spell which is particularly useful for the spectacle-wearing Harry Potter. ‘Oculus’ is pronounced basically how it looks, but ‘Raparo’ is pronounced as if you were saying the word ‘repair’.
- Petrificus Totalus – (Pet-rific-us Toe-tahl-us)
Known as a dangerous spell that freezes and petrifies a target’s body, Petrificus Totalus is a spell not to be used lightly. You can see the effects of this spell on Hermoine Granger in The Chamber of Secrets, but if it comes to using this spell in a life-or-death situation, pronounce it like pet-rific-us toe-tahl-us.
- Wingardium Leviosa – (Win-gar-dium Lev-ioh-sa)
The spell that allows a magic user to levitate objects, Wingardium Leviosa is a tricky one to pronounce properly. Remember what Hermione said in The Philosopher’s Stone: “It’s Wing-gar-dium Levi-oh-sar, make the ‘gar’ nice and long.”
- Riddikulus – (Rid-ik-u-lus)
Riddikulus is the spell used to defeat a Boggart, and the charm allows the scary creature to assume a comedic form, disarming it, as seen in The Prisoner of Azkaban. Many can confuse the pronunciation of this spell by pronouncing the letter U as you would in the word ‘ridicule’, but instead it’s pronounced very much like the word ‘ridiculous’ without the heavy U pronunciation.
- Expecto Patronum – (Ex-pek-toe Pat-roh-num)
The Patronus spell is a powerful projection of hope and happiness that drives away Dementors, and at 13 years old in The Prisoner of Azkaban, Harry Potter was the youngest ever wizard to use this spell. Some people might pronounce the second part of the spell as ‘Pat-ron-um’, but the correct pronunciation is ‘Pat-roh-num’.