SHINee, 2NE1 And 11 Other K-Pop Group Names You Might've Been Saying Wrong
Are K-pop group names too funky or spelled too weirdly for you to pronounce? We're here to help.
By Samantha Khor — 25 Apr 2015, 08:00 AM
2. Instead of saying the letters one-by-one, EXO is actually pronounced "axe-oh".
3. Read out every single letter in 2NE1. Now say it really fast until it sounds like "twenny one".
2NE1 is actually a sort of abbreviation for "New Evolution of the 21st Century".
4. In Korean, TVXQ is pronounced as "dong bang shin ki" (hence why they are also known as DBSK)
TVXQ (sometimes stylised as TVfXQ) is an initialism for the group's name in Mandarin, Tong Vfang Xien Qi (東方神起) which roughly translates to "Rising Gods of the East". They are also known as Tohoshinki in Japanese.
5. The "T" and "ara" in T-ara are uttered separately, as in "tee-ah-rah"
6. GOT7 is not an abbreviation for 'Game of Thrones Season 7'. It's pronounced as it is - "got seven".
8. Don't be confused by the lack of vowels in MBLAQ, it's simply pronounced as "am-black"
MBLAQ is an acronym for "Music Boys Live in Absolute Quality".
9. Unlike the 'f(x)' in Add Maths, saying this group's name only requires you to read out the letters "F" and "X"
10. ZE:A, also known as Children of Empire, is pronounced as "zay-ah" or as the Koreans say it, "jay-ah"
ZE:A is coined based on the pronunciation of their Korean name "[Z]Jegook-ui Aideul" (제국의 아이들).
12. NU'EST is not pronounced as "newest". It's actually "new east".
NU'EST is an abbreviation for New Establish Style Tempo.
13. The "Bangtan" in Bangtan Boys a.k.a BTS is pronounced as "bahng-tahn"
BTS is an abbreviation of their Korean name "Bangtan Sonyeondan" (Bulletproof Boy Scouts).