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NES or N-E-S?

It's an acronym. The only correct way to pronounce it is N-E-S.

I'm willing to accept that people are ignorant and terrible and pronounce it "Ness", but "Nez"? Seriously?

(if you call it a Ness or a Sness I'm not your friend)
 
As kids we called it N-E-S or Nintendo. It wasn't until many years after the Internet became widespread that I had ever heard someone call it "ness".
 
We don't really use the NES in Finland, most just say Nintendo or Super Nintendo. But if you do say, it would be NES, not N-E-S. To me N-E-S is something only Americans say.
 

XaosWolf

Member
If its got a vowel in it then we'd majoratively make it an Acronym: NES and SNES

Seems a lot of people just use it as an Initialism even with the vowel: N.E.S and S.N.E.S (Or a mixed Super N.E.S)

If it doesn't clash with an existing word, (Laser vs LED) then the more logical linguistic choice would be the Acronym.

Bearing in mind this is based on English being the primary language
 

Hoo-doo

Banned
Netherlands here.
The NES is called 'Nintendo', the SNES is the 'Super Nintendo'.

Pronunciation problems: eradicated.
 

BGBW

Maturity, bitches.
More important question, why do people call the man Maaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaario, when the man himself pronounces it as Mario?

Also see Yoshi vs Yoooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooshi.
 

Peltz

Member
I've never used "NES". It's always N-E-S or Original Nintendo.

However, if someone asks me what I'm doing, and I'm playing any Nintendo system or handheld, I'll call that "playing Nintendo" because it sounds cool and it's what all the cool kids said back in the day.

"Let's play Nintendo."
 

Dr. Buni

Member
I always pronounced Nez and Snez.
We don't really use the NES in Finland, most just say Nintendo or Super Nintendo. But if you do say, it would be NES, not N-E-S. To me N-E-S is something only Americans say.
Back in the day, we called them Nintendo and Super Nintendo, yeah.
 

correojon

Member
Spanish here, always called it "NES" (NEZ) or "la Nintendo". I´ve never heard anyone say "En E Es" or "Ene E Ese" in spanish.

SNES was always Super Nintendo.
 

Hoo-doo

Banned
More important question, why do people call the man Maaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaario, when the man himself pronounces it as Mario?

Also see Yoshi vs Yoooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooshi.

Better than the east-coasters who call it 'Merio'.
 

Metfanant

Member
USA here, most of the time we would just call it "Nintendo" or N-E-S...never Ness...that's just...wrong...

The SNES btw, was always just "Super Nintendo" in my circle...nothing .
 
All you guys saying it with a hard Z sound. I have never heard it like that. Always called it an N.E.S. Or Nes like Ness the character.
 

vongruetz

Banned
N-E-S.

Though 30 years ago I'm pretty sure we all just called it "Nintendo." You asked your friend if he wanted to play Nintendo. Asked what Nintendo game he got. Never once said Ness or N-E-S.

It's like the whole AT-AT Walker vs A-T-A-T Walker debate. 30 years ago everyone said AT-AT. Now it's all "A-T-A-T" everywhere. Where does this even come from??
 
Yeah, if you must pronounce the acronym the pronunciation would be "nez."

I tend not to, I prefer to simply say Nintendo or Super Nintendo. Including "entertainment system" as part of the name feels a bit silly, like calling it the "PlayStation 4 Video Game Console" or something.

But yeah. -ess is commonly pronounced -ess and -es is commonly pronounced -ez. Words like "lines" or "clones" for example.


On that note, I could use an explanation as to why so many people pronounce "golem" like "gollum." You would think the "go" would be pronounced as in "gorge" or "gold."
 
I'm from Chile and i'm pretty sure everyone in Latin America except Brasil said "el Nintendo" (the Nintendo). No one said N-E-S and the rest of people who call the console "NES" was only the hardcore crew who really loves videogames and read magazines. In my country the SNES was known just as "Super Nintendo" or "the Super".

Fun fact: In Argentina everyone known the NES as "el Family" (the Family) because the bootleg "famiclones" were pretty much popular than the original NES model.
 
It's like the whole AT-AT Walker vs A-T-A-T Walker debate. 30 years ago everyone said AT-AT. Now it's all "A-T-A-T" everywhere. Where does this even come from??

I always said "A-T-A-T" because Star Wars tends to pronounce its acronyms/ID numbers. See "R-2-D-2," "C-3-P-O." Also, "at-at" is bizarre to say aloud and doesn't really roll off the tongue.
 
UK here, I and everyone I've ever known has called it the 'Nez', same with the 'Snez'.

Spelling it out letter by letter always just sounds weird to me.
 

jeemer

Member
Nez. I'm from the UK.

Although, growing up, the NES and SNES were always the Nintendo and Super Nintendo. I don't remember when the acronyms took over.

This is the same for me. I seem to remember everyone starting to call the Super NES the SNES around the time Gamesmaster started?

Also...

DCharlie ‏@DCharlieJP;546465464654 said:
@abellwillring @Cheesemeister3k @OneEightZero @Kyoufu2011 bear in mind a lot of Brits would pronounce Sega "Sea-ga" ... ;)

I dunno if that was meant to be a joke, but that's nonsense!
 

vongruetz

Banned
I always said "A-T-A-T" because Star Wars tends to pronounce its acronyms/ID numbers. See "R-2-D-2," "C-3-P-O." Also, "at-at" is bizarre to say aloud and doesn't really roll off the tongue.

And yet nobody every calls it a T-I-E fighter. It's just bizarre because in the military, if you can shorten an acronym into something that sounds good, you do it.
 
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