How Do You Pronounce 'Godot Engine'?!?

*In my initial impression video of the Godot Engine, I got some gentle feedback on how I pronounce "Godot" and some variations on how some of you pronounce it. So I decided to do some digging on the origin of the name Godot and how to pronounce it.

I admit when I first saw the name, I thought it was go-dot...as in Go and (.), despite it looking like the name from Waiting for Godot. I was actually surprised that my initial confirmation bias was proven correct and that the name comes from the Samuel Beckett play, Waiting for Godot.

This is further confirmed by research, as I found one of the creators of the Godot Engine, Juan Linietsky, has mentioned multiple times that the Beckett play was the inspiration for the name

With Godot Engine 4.0 beta being released and more and more people being interested in the engine...I thought it would be interesting to dive into the pronunciation.

If you would like to learn more about Godot, you can check out the links below or let me know in the comments if you would like to see some Godot tutorials.

✅ I Built A Game in Godot 4 While Unreal Loaded

✅ My First Impressions of the Godot Engine

✅ I Ported My Unreal Prototype to Godot 4

✅ How Do You Pronounce Godot?

✅ This Week in Godot (more episodes)

Resources

Chapters:

0:00 Start
0:28 Common Godot Pronunciation Variations
0:59 Origins of the Name "Godot Engine"
2:01 How to Pronounce Godot Per the Play
2:55 Determining the English Pronunciation
3:12 My References...

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#godot #godotengine #gamedev

[stayathomedev]

If you had to name your own engine...what would you call it?? And would you be upset if people mispronounced it?

[CoryPelizzari]

It's amazing how this game engine's name has its own iceberg. Love the engine regardless.

[davidmurphy]

There is actually an official pronunciation guide in the Godot media section for the English language.

Regardless, you're exactly right. I speak several languages and while I'll say "god-oh" in English, I'll say "Go-dot" in Spanish. "Wrong" is probably too strong a word but it would be weird to say the English version in Spanish. In Italian I'll pronounce the "t" at the end twice. There are general rules in all languages, dialects and accents which foreign / new words are shoehorned into.

I think what people noticed was your regional pronunciation of the first "o". The sound is diphthongised moving between the o and a. It's a vowel sound most English speakers can't make but it's common in the US depending on the region but you have a particularly strong version. Don't worry about it, it's how you speak.

There's a field of study in etymology (history of language) which looks a people complaining about the language usage of others. They tend to go into huge specific detail in their angered rants that it's super useful to linguists studying change. My favourite is from around C13: "if this disgusting practice carries on, true French will never be spoken in England again!" :))

[cdarklock]

I currently say it the same way you do, because that's how the creators said it in the livestream I watched about the upcoming v3 release. I took that as "official" and went with it.

Prior to that I said "guh-DOE" because that's how my drama teacher taught me to say it when we did the play in the 80s.

[Barnaclebeard]

You missed a whole dimension of the thing. There are those who claim the name should be pronounced to rhyme with "robot" because of the mascot. I'm not convinced that's right but I think it's funny to pronounce it like Zoidberg saying "rhobutt", so that's what I do.

[williamle-ednk]

Before I ever heard someone pronounce it their way I figured it was gō-dät, like robot, because the logo looks like a robot and Robi the robot from the tutorials.

[enkephalin]

Damn, I thought mine was right. I don't think I'll get used to the right pronunciation now.

[SanthoshMaruthi]

Excellent research on the name and origins.👍 @1:13 Juan pronounces it as "go-dote/go-dot" - i would think that is how he intended the name to sound like.

[SleepDepJoel]

The first video of yours I found was given a like as soon as I heard you pronounce it GOD-oh.

[pieTone]

Since I'm from Romania, I tend to have a weird accent and every time I say "godot" it tends to sound like saying "go - dot". So yeah, that's how I pronounce it personally. It's funny how its name is the most controversal thing about the engine lol.

[liamhamilton]

Honestly the name is the worst thing about the engine

[endoflevelboss]

I heard the name pronounced many times in reference to the Samuel Beckett play "Waiting for Godot". It was pronounced God-oh just like you say. According to the creators of the Godot engine it's name comes from the play too.

[billyfromzera]

I was talking to someone at an event called PGW and he said gadat...

[ettiSurreal]

i just like to say go-dot with the t, it just feels more natural for me.

[alexisandersen]

I did it, I'm a media influencer

[Nostalgia_Realm]

I like how someone suggested "Gouda", a name that is butchered by everyone expect for speakers of the Dutch language 😂 It's closer to "Gow-dah" but with the G sounding like a serious throat illness.

[BastiaanOlij]

Possibly the best breakdown of this highly important *cough* issue. My take on it is that everyone pronouncing it differently is actually cool and representative of how culturally diverse Godot usage is.

[Ash_]

When it comes to 'correctness' the only pronunciation that matters is the creators'. Similar to people with unusually pronounced names, see how telling them their name is pronounced wrong goes for you ;) It also just adds interest and flavor to an otherwise increasingly globalized English pronunciation. So if Juan pronounces it as 'Goddot' then that is the correct one.

[aleksandar]

Go Dot!? Omg, is the creator of the technology calling it how it is spelled? THAT CRAZY!

[MarsFromEarth]

Also Gal Gadot pronounces it the way it should.