this post was submitted on 26 Sep 2024
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[–] [email protected] 151 points 2 months ago (64 children)

AI is an initialism since you don't pronounce AI. NASA would be an acronym because you pronounce the word.

[–] [email protected] 99 points 2 months ago (1 children)

this is one of those facts i have to struggle to keep to myself to avoid coming off as an insufferable nerd

[–] [email protected] 34 points 2 months ago

Now this is the kind of pedantry I'm here for

[–] [email protected] 20 points 2 months ago

Wait you do not pronounce AI like a Sopranos character that just found an eye ball on the sidewalk?

[–] [email protected] 17 points 2 months ago (1 children)
[–] [email protected] 5 points 2 months ago

Whatever you do, don't follow this advice.

[–] [email protected] 15 points 2 months ago

I always forget this, thanks

[–] [email protected] 8 points 2 months ago (1 children)
[–] Sabre363 10 points 2 months ago

Are ya ready kids!

[–] [email protected] 7 points 2 months ago (7 children)
[–] [email protected] 9 points 2 months ago (5 children)

Correct:

  • "Sequel"
  • Structured Query Language

Incorrect:

  • "Squall"
  • "Es-queue-el"

The one that people really screw up? PostgreSQL.

[–] [email protected] 14 points 2 months ago (3 children)
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[–] [email protected] 13 points 2 months ago* (last edited 2 months ago) (1 children)

It's interesting that Wikipedia says it's pronounced " S-Q-L" but was historically pronounced "sequel."

Also interesting, MySQL says on their site:

The official way to pronounce “MySQL” is “My Ess Que Ell” (not “my sequel”), but we do not mind if you pronounce it as “my sequel” or in some other localized way.

Lastly, for those curious, PostgreSQL says on their site:

PostgreSQL is pronounced Post-Gres-Q-L.

[–] [email protected] 6 points 2 months ago

Post Graduate Squirrel

[–] [email protected] 7 points 2 months ago (2 children)

My people often pronounce nginx as "n-ginsk" not "engine x".

[–] sugar_in_your_tea 3 points 2 months ago
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[–] [email protected] 7 points 2 months ago (1 children)
[–] [email protected] 6 points 2 months ago (1 children)

You're one of those? Its sequel and GIF has a hard g.

[–] Fuck_u_spez_ 10 points 2 months ago* (last edited 2 months ago) (3 children)

Soft G folk are just objectively wrong. Not only is Jif a peanut butter, it's a damn file extension: https://fileinfo.com/extension/jif

I don't care how inconsequential it is, I will die on this hill.

[–] [email protected] 3 points 2 months ago

Jif is an oven cleaner here. Because I hate everyone, I started pronouncing it Gif. Makes a lot of people very very angry

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[–] [email protected] 4 points 2 months ago

This may be a bit prescriptivist. Most people use the word acronym for all of them.

[–] [email protected] 4 points 2 months ago (2 children)

Is initialism a type of acronym? Or do they have an umbrella term? Surely, they are the same thing, but if initialism has easily string-able sounds it's an acronym (ex. CPU vs. RAM). And some are even both depending on person saying it, like LED.

[–] [email protected] 8 points 2 months ago (2 children)

Other way around.

An acronym is a type of initialism, which is itself a type of abbreviation.

So acronyms are initialisms where you pronounce the letters like a word (e.g., RAM), initialisms are abbreviations made by taking the initial letters of multiple words and concatenating them regardless of how it's spoken (e.g. FBI for Federal Bureau of Investigation), and an abbreviation is any shortening of a word or phrase into something shorter (e.g., "abbrev." for abbreviation or "US" for United States).

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[–] [email protected] 3 points 2 months ago (2 children)

Is pronouncing LED like an acronym common? I've never heard it, and it would take me a while to work out what they're on about if they're talking about "lead"

[–] [email protected] 3 points 2 months ago

It doesn't happen very often, but I've heard it used that way. It's usually obvious from context, like I think I heard with "OLED vs. LED". And as @[email protected] mentioned, it's used a lot in languages other than English, in my experience in many slavic ones, for example.

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[–] [email protected] 4 points 2 months ago

|ay| checkmate atheists.

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