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NES or N-E-S?

Trace said:
NATO doesn't sound ridiculous though.
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Haha, I agree. Just saying though that acronym or not doesn't really justify spelling it out vs saying it as a word.

On a side note, does anyone know someone that would pronounce the Nintendo as an "Intendo"?
 
I have always pronounced them as N-E-S and Super Nintendo.

It has always annoyed me when Youtube personalities pronounce them as Ness and Sness. But I guess it's a bit more common than I realized.
 
Ehn-eh-Ez

americans use the acronym. major bomba.

then again, that's how our media and tv commercials called it N-E-S. So obviously we follow suite.
 
I'm from the US, and in the past I used to call it N-E-S. But after hearing people say Nes and Snes on the Internet/youtube, I just assumed I was wrong and started sounding it out.
 
Vecks said:
I'm from the US, and in the past I used to call it N-E-S. But after hearing people say Nes and Snes on the Internet/youtube, I just assumed I was wrong and started sounding it out.
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So you used to sound it out, then started to sound it out? Regardless, whatever is "common" doesn't necessarily mean it's correct.

Just look at how many people say "could care less" or don't know the difference between your and you're.
 
People outside the english-speaking world would indeed be less likely to spell it N-E-S, at least not with english pronunciation. And in my language for example (czech) saying it like that in everyday speech is a tiny bit tongue-twisting. So I pronounce it "ness".
I'm actually surprised that people would say "Sega" like "sea-ga". Maybe they never played Sonic games on their megadrives, where the name is screamed correctly before the game even starts.
 
Canada here. I would always say Ness when I was a kid, and later used both Super Ness and Sness. All extremely vulgar and I'm very sorry about it.
 
"Ness"

Norway here. It's a normalisation, if I can use that word, of "Nez", to make it fit better in common Norwegian dialogue.

Another reason is that if you say "N.E.S." in Norwegian, it's pronounced "En Eh S" which sounds very similar to "Ness", but weirder and more difficult to pronounce.

I'm not saying every Norwegian says it like this, but it's the most common in my part of the country. There's an alternative which may be more technically correct, but it's pronounced the same way as our word for "headland".


That said. It's more commonly known simply as "the old Nintendo".

SNES is "Super Nintendo". Rarely pronounced based on the short, but if it is then "Sness".
 
Grew up in WV.

N-E-S. Though we usually just said Nintendo.

S-N-E-S. Though we usually just said Super Nintendo.

Seh-ga. Though we usually just said Genesis (no one had a Master System), Saturn or Dreamcast.
 
I always called it Nintendo. And I called the SNES Super Nintendo. I don't think it was until I got on the internet that I called it by their initials. Gaming magazines would refer to the systems by their initials, so when I read it in my head I would spell out the initials.

I pronounce Sega like Say-gah by the way. Sea-gah makes me twitch, and Seh-gah is just weird.
 
The non acronym names sound silly, may as well just call it bob, steve, and joe.

N. E. S.
S. N. E. S. or super nintendo.
S-egg-uh

Also, I just realized that every video I've ever watched about these systems (youtube, ect), I've never heard them say ness, sness, or seegah. I can't say I've ever heard that, ever actually.
 
thechristoph said:
I pronounce Sega like Say-gah by the way. Sea-gah makes me twitch, and Seh-gah is just weird.
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SEGA

Even before ever hearing that, it never looked like "Sea-gah" to me. Although pronouncing it like Mega is understandable.

Unless you would pronounce the Mega Drive like May-gah Drive.
 
Kolma said:
Not sure where people are getting that Z from when saying Nes...

But ones that I have heard that REALLY irk me are S.Nes and even S snes (yes as if it had 2 S's)
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They are typing how they pronounce it. The z emphasises the hard s sound rather than a soft one.

Also S.Nes is technically more correct than Snes because it's officially known as the Super Nes.
 
N-E-S and Super Nintendo. Can't stand when people say SNES as one word (Suhness). It's an initialism, not an acronym!

Edit- I live in California
 
Sanctuary said:
So you used to sound it out, then started to sound it out? Regardless, whatever is "common" doesn't necessarily mean it's correct.

Just look at how many people say "could care less" or don't know the difference between your and you're.
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Ah, I guess I meant pronounce it.

And you're right that common doesn't necessarily mean correct. However, I don't consider there to be something correct in N-E-S vs NES. So it just seems more right to me to go with the more common way so that people don't get confused. I just prefer things to be standardized in that sense.
 
Vecks said:
However, I don't consider there to be something correct in N-E-S vs NES. So it just seems more right to me to go with the more common way so that people don't get confused. I just prefer things to be standardized in that sense.
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It will just be a preference or opinion until someone from Nintendo comes out and corrects us all, saying that you should pronounce it, and pronounce it as "Neece".
That being said, saying it as a word other than Nintendo is funky as hell.
 
Zareka said:
The hell, where does the Z come in? That says "Ness".

I'm British, Scottish if we're being precise.
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Kolma said:
Not sure where people are getting that Z from when saying Nes...

Anyways I say it N-E-S and Super Nintendo.
I don't mine people that say Nes (Nez is just weird) And I'm slightly ok with Snes

But ones that I have heard that REALLY irk me are S.Nes and even S snes (yes as if it had 2 S's)

And thankfully I've never heard anyone call it the Super Nes or Super N E S.

Also 27 and U.S.
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Pretty sure it's just a leftover from earlier Germanic. In modern German 's', 'ss', and 'ß' are usually pronounced differently, with 's' being more like a 'z' sound.
We do it more in English than many realise, particularly after a vowel:
Words like "places" and "glasses" aren't pronounced "placess" and "glassess", but like "placez" and "glassez". "As", is pronounced like "az", not "ass", etc.

I'm from the UK:
"Nez"
"Snez"
"Say-ga"
"Ma'-rio" - The first syllable short like the "ta" in "tap", not like in "tarp".
 
NES = N-E-S
SNES = S-N-E-S

But we used to call them "the Nintendo" and the "Super Nintendo" back in the day.

I also say SEH-GAH, not SAY-GAH.
 
Growing up in New England, everyone just called it Nintendo. When Super Nintendo came out, everyone said "Super Nintendo" and "Nintendo" or "Regular Nintendo"

I usually still call it Nintendo or N-E-S. I've heard a few people use "Ness" or "Sness", but I've never heard anyone say "Nez" with a z sound.

Also it's Sega, rhymes with mega. That's how it's pronounced when you boot up a Sonic game.
 
Growing up in Denmark I always just knew it as the Nintendo and the Super Nintendo. At first when I saw NES and SNES written on the Internet I had no idea what people were talking about.

Pronouncing it now on English websites it's N-E-S and S-N-E-S to me. I've never called it nes or snes.
 
hidden01.jpg
 
N-E-S
S-N-E-S

That is what we said as kids so it would shatter the foundation of my entire life to go back now. I can't stand the sound of "ness" and "sness".
 
Used to just say "ness" and "sness", and I don't know when it changed, but it's now "N-E-S" and "Super N-E-S". S-N-E-S sounds strange to me, but honestly, in the grand scheme of things, who cares?
 
I say N-E-S ... En Ee Ess, but as a kid called it just "Nintendo." I also say S-N-E-S Ess En Ee Ess, or just Super Nintendo.

Wonder if this breaks down generationally as well. I grew up when the console was still lead console, born in 1984. I had never heard anybody say Ness or Sness until watching videos on YouTube decades later and heard it for the first time.

Sanctuary said:
SEGA

Even before ever hearing that, it never looked like "Sea-gah" to me. Although pronouncing it like Mega is understandable.

Unless you would pronounce the Mega Drive like May-gah Drive.
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I always (and still) said "Say Gah," like how the classic intro would say it. HOWEVER... There can be some confusion introduced because in the early 90s, Sega themselves ran commercials that pronounced it very quickly... more like "Sehgah."

So, you can see in the early commercials they very clearly call it "say gah," but when they introduced the "WELCOME TO THE NEXT LEVEL" advertisements, they used the stylized, quick "sehgah" style. You can hear it here: https://youtu.be/PIBmBy9APaU?t=3m17s

I still always called it "say gah," but I remember friends calling it "sehga" as a kid and these ads could have contributed to that.
 
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