this post was submitted on 26 Sep 2024
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[–] [email protected] 151 points 1 month 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 1 month 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 1 month ago

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

[–] [email protected] 20 points 1 month ago

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

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

Whatever you do, don't follow this advice.

[–] [email protected] 15 points 1 month ago

I always forget this, thanks

[–] [email protected] 8 points 1 month ago (1 children)
[–] [email protected] 10 points 1 month ago

Are ya ready kids!

[–] [email protected] 7 points 1 month ago (7 children)
[–] [email protected] 9 points 1 month 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 1 month ago (3 children)
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[–] [email protected] 13 points 1 month ago* (last edited 1 month 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 1 month ago

Post Graduate Squirrel

[–] [email protected] 7 points 1 month ago (2 children)

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

[–] [email protected] 3 points 1 month ago
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[–] [email protected] 7 points 1 month ago (1 children)
[–] [email protected] 6 points 1 month ago (1 children)

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

[–] [email protected] 10 points 1 month ago* (last edited 1 month 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 1 month 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 1 month 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 1 month 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 1 month 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 1 month 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 1 month ago

|ay| checkmate atheists.

[–] [email protected] 4 points 1 month ago

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

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