A catchphrase is a word or phrase that a villager repeats during a conversation, which they usually say towards the end. Every villager has an initial catchphrase which they will ask the player to change, or by going to the Town Hall and reporting them (not in Animal Crossing or Wild World). Villagers may also adopt catchphrases from other villagers. For example, Elmer, who has the catchphrase "tenderfoot", may adopt Goldie's catchphrase, "woof" without the player being notified. Examples of animals with double catchphrases are Lily, Ribbot, Amelia, Benedict, Violet, and Kody (though not at the same time, just in different games).
Sometimes a villager may come up to the player and ask them to change their catchphrase. Some catchphrases relate to a villager's personality type, species, name or appearance.
It is believed that many non-villagers, such as Blathers, have catchphrases, though many usually use a number of different phrases and words, rather than the single catchphrase.
Changing Catchphrases
===In Animal Crossing===
To change the catchphrase of a villager in the GameCube version, a villager must ask the player to change it. They can also begin to use another villager's catchphrase upon talking to them. If the player changes their catchphrase, it can not be over ten letters and cannot be a swear word.
In Wild World
In Wild World, a villager must either adopt another villager's catchphrase or ask the player for a new one. When a villager wants to get a new one, they will look at them and show they want attention by an exclamation mark appearing briefly over their head, followed by the villager walking up to the player and/or following them. However, not all occasions where the villagers wants the player's attention may be because of their catchphrase.
In City Folk
Similar to Wild World, the player can change a villager's catchphrase by waiting for them to ask the player for their suggestion on a new catchphrase. However, the player can also go to the Town Hall and asking Pelly or Phyllis to change a villager's catchphrase by selection the option that asks if it is "rude." The catchphrases it will be changed to could be "yup yup", "yessiree", "you know", and "right".
In New Leaf
Same as in City Folk and Wild World, except to force a character's catchphrase to change the player must speak to Isabelle at the Town Hall and report the character's language as offensive. Sometimes two villagers are singing together, indicating that one has adopted the other's catchphrase.
Complaining about a catchphrase to Isabelle
Preventions Against Changing a Catchphrase
A catchphrase can be changed to anything provided it:
- Doesn't exceed the character limit. This will be alerted by an alert sound.
- Doesn't contain profane words. If entered, a speech bubble will pop up saying "You can't enter that!" However, the player is able to substitute letters in the word(s) with special characters that look nearly identical to those letters.