How to not look a chump (pronounciations!)

Oh man! Ad-blocking software has been detected! :'(

This website is run by the community, for the community... and it needs advertisements in order to keep running. Blocking our ads means your killing our stats!
Please disable your ad-block, or become a premium member to hide all advertisements and this notice.

Right then, recently I heard someone pronounce Linux 'l-in-ucks' but I always called it 'l-eye-nucks.' Not working with other people in the trade, I've learnt everything I have purely from reading and I'm assuming there are some other guys out there the same. Obviously when it comes to job interviews you want to get the damn words right!

So here are a few others (please feel free to contribute words that you're not sure of or have pronunced incorrectly in the past: )

Adobe - 'a-dobe' or 'a-doh-bee'?

Denatured (as in denatured alcohol) - 'den-at-youred' or 'de-natured'?

Struggling to think of others here.... suggestions? (Obviously taking into account differences between countries.)

 

SQL I've heard as both, and 'Squill'

Denatured is definately de-natured - trust me on that one.

Linux is always the former option for me. Regardless of what others choose to call it. Technically though, since its supposed to be based on the creators name (linus - l-eye-nus) the latter is correct I think. But I dont care.

Since these are largely made up (or in some cases acronyms) then there isnt really a 'proper' pronounciation for them. SQL should technically be pronounced S-Q-L, since its an acronym.

 

For Linux do a search on the 'net. There is a (fairly well known) recording of Linus saying how he pronounces the name. This is often bundled with distros.


Harry.

 

SQL is an interesting one. Whenever I'm discussing SQL itself I always pronounce it 'S-Q-L', but oddly enough, when discussing Microsoft's SQL Server RDBMS I pronounce it 'Sequel'. This also goes for MySQL as well. It's most odd - I've never understood why I do this, but I've also worked with other people who have the same quirk.

 

Reminds me of a job ad I saw last year, the recruiter had actually spelt SQL as sequel in the job ad, I thought what a buerk.

 

I'm the same with SQL, I spell it out unless I'm talking about the server itself. Its a weird habit but I think its purely down to what flows better in conversation.

My favourites for pronounciations are Logitech and LaCie.

 

Here is how Linus Torvalds pronounces it - closer to the first way you wrote it.

A-doh-bee, like the building material.

Additionally, this can be confirmed by calling their US Customer Service number at 800-833-6687. ;)

From a chemistry graduate: dee-natured.

Zeb is right. From the Microsoft Manual of Style for Technical Publications:

When referring to Structured Query Language, SQL is pronounced "es-cue-el" and takes the article "an" - for example, "an SQL database." As part of the name Microsoft SQL Server, SQL is pronounced "sequel."

 

I pronounce the first "Lodge-ee-Tech" the second I saw an interview with one of the company reps for LaCie on geekbrief.tv (good website btw) a while back and he pronounced it "lacy"

 

What about router, is it rau-ter or roo-ter?

 

I think thats probably more regional, like some people say route as root, and some as rau-te

 

I've never heard it pronounced 'rauter' in the UK. In my experience that's a US only pronunciation

 

I go roo-ter, but then I've always considered a rau-ter to be a wood working tool!

 

root for me here, but 'Denver' is right, it tends to be regional - mostly in that the yanks seem to say rauter more often that brits.

 

Agreed, sir!

Qs

 

Logitech is usually pronounced "log-ee-tech", at least here in Switzerland where the company is based.

 

That's because a "rooter" is a plumbing tool that cleans out blocked sewer pipes. Alternatively, a "rooter" is exploit code that cracks root access.

 

Google says different

http://www.google.co.uk/search?hl=en&defl=en&q=define:rooter&sa=X&oi=glossary_definition&ct=title

 

We call them drain rods. There is indeed a roto-rooter or drain-rooter which is an american invention. The 'root' here relates to tree roots so is correctly pronounced 'root'.

Unless its a device to cut grooves in wood and then its a rrrrrrr-OUT-er....

Routers 'route' traffic, thats why we call em 'route-ers' I guess, no idea why yanks call em 'rrrrr-out-ers'...

We call them rookits I think. Some people use 'rooter', root here refers to 'root' user access, I think the superuser account name root also comes from the tree origin.

Best way not to look a chump ? Stand next to George Bush !

 

But... "route" is pronounced rrrrr-out.

A "root" is a part of a tree or plant.

Heh!