How do you pronounce faq



  • You know, FAQs, frequently asked questions - I've always pronounced it "facs" but everybody at work pronounces it "f" "a" "qs" and when I say something like, "that should be one of the facs in the help system" sombody ALWAYS responds, "you mean f a qs?"

    AAARGGGH!

    It's like people who say "s" "q" "l" instead of sequal.



  • Don't be absurd.  FAQ is an acronym only, so it's "F A Qs".  SQL is only pronounced 'sequel' because it used to be 'SEQUEL' until the inventor renamed the next iteration.



  • Right, and I suppose you think GIFs are pronounced "Jif" like the peanut butter, and go "AAarrgh!" when people pronounce it "gif"



  • bullshit!  What do you call Post Office Protocol?  "excuse me sir, I'm here to set up your P.... O... P... account."

    I bet you really sound smart when you tell your friends that you used A.... J....  A.... X.... on your last project.

    They look at you funny and say, "uh, you mean ajax?"  And you say, "No! It's A... J... A... X!"



  • @Albatross said:

    Right, and I suppose you think GIFs are pronounced "Jif" like the peanut butter, and go "AAarrgh!" when people pronounce it "gif"


    I (and everybody else in the world) pronounce it gif, like gift without the t.  Nobody pronounces it Jiff.

    But if you ask someone to send you a G... I... F... file they are going to think you're a moron.



  • "Gift" without the "T" was what I meant.  And I know quite a few people who pronounce it "Jif", like the peanut butter.



  • Gif ... as in Gift, not the peanut butter.
    Jay-peg, like Silent Bob's "hetero life partner" and a pirate's leg.
    Sequel, like the second movie that's never as good.
    Pop, like what you do to a balloon.
    Ann-see.
    Fack, just like a forward air controller.
    dot-com
    dot-net

    ...

    But:
    Em-Cee-Esss-Eeee:  Must Consult Someone Else
    see-pee-pee:  the 8.3 extension for a c++ source file
    aitch-tee-emmm-elll:  that "markup language"
    enn-tee:  No longer "New Technology"
    see-eee:  Compact Edition

    In short, if it's relatively easily pronounceable, then go ahead and add the vowels and pronounce it.  If trying to make it a word would cause physical pain, then spell it out.

    I sure as hell don't use ay-jay-ay-ix to clean my sinks, and I've never given my wife arrgh-you-bee-why? earrings.

    Pearl .... oh, never mind.



  • I believe it's supposed to be pronounced like the peanut butter name...



  • <quote>Jim Melton, editor of the ISO SQL-92 standard, covered this in his book
    _Understanding the New SQL_ (Morgan Kaufmann):

    "1.2 What is SQL?
    SQL (correctly pronounced "ess cue ell," instead of the somewhat common
    "sequel"), is a data sublanguage ..."

    He also explains 'Structured Query Language' is archaic:
    "Many books and article "define" SQL by parenthetically claiming the letters
    stand for Structured Query Language. While this was true for the original
    prototypes, it is not true of the standard..."</quote>

    http://databases.about.com/od/sql/a/sqlfundamentals.htm
    http://www.service-architecture.com/database/articles/sql-92.html

    "SQL" appears to stand for "SQL Query Language"



  • @Joost_ said:

    "SQL" appears to stand for "SQL Query Language"





    SQL stands for "Structured Query Language".



    (this forum software is a WTF. I almost fell for the "post" button thing.)



  • I call them facks, my boss calls them F.A.Q's. It doesn't seem to cause too many problems.

    It's not people who use different terms than I do that bother me, it's people who feel the need to correct me even when they knew exactly what I was talking about anyway.



  • @passblayer said:

    I believe it's supposed to be pronounced like the peanut butter name...

    Well, I call shenanigans on that, because it's

    Graphics Interchange Format

    not

    Giraffics Interchange Format.  The 'G' needs to be hard, because the word it represents starts with a hard 'G' sound.

    Of course, I'm the person that pronounces the 'char' variable type as 'care,' because it's short for

    'character'  (care-ak-tor).  We don't pronounce the the long form as "char-ak-tor," which would be ridiculous.

     



  • I have always pronounced it as F.A.Qs., but I know a few people that pronounce em as "FAX" (pl)

    Same with SQL, I prounce the letters.



  • When I lived in Russia (1988-2003), I always prenounced FAQ as "f*ck you." Now that I moved to the U.S., I have to be polite and say "eff-ei-kyou" or "frequently asked questions." =)



  • @fragmer said:

    When I lived in Russia (1988-2003), I always prenounced FAQ as "f*ck you." Now that I moved to the U.S., I have to be polite and say "eff-ei-kyou" or "frequently asked questions." =)


    we do the same here in slovakia (think hostel :-@), since slovak language is pretty straightforward when it comes to pronounciation. it has a simple rule: "write what you hear" or "read what you see". that means each character has its own fixed pronounciation assigned and is never voiced any other way (in contrast to english).

    due to such lingual roots and lack of solid feel for english i'msometimes lost hearing native english speakers pronounce theabbreviations. either they voice them as the words of their own, orspell them, or even combine the two, rarely do they do it anythingclose to what i would.

    then i visited my favourite discussion site, wathing native speakersfighting about the correct pronounciation i got enlightened by the realwtf.



  • But do you pronounce NTFS as En-Tee-Ef-Es, or as 'NutFuzz'?



  • @SpoonMeiser said:

    But do you pronounce NTFS as En-Tee-Ef-Es, or as 'NutFuzz'?


    haha!

    Well, I USED TO pronounce it N.T.F.S, that's for sure. :D



  • Depends on the audience.  With other developers, it's "FAX" (though "F*CK YOU"  (fack, of course...  what were YOU thinking?)  works too...  but that's a different story...) but with less-technical people it's usually "frequent questions".

    I thought it funny that one manager wanted us to publish a FAQ as part of the help file - before the app was even released!  "Umm...  since no customers are using it yet, what ARE the frequently-asked questions?"



  • My take on it:



    FAQ as "eff ae cue"

    GIF as in gift, not as jiff

    char as in character, not chargrill

    PNG as "pəng" (that's a schwa)

    BMP as "bəmp"

    SQL as "ess cue el"

    EULA as "yoola"

    www as "wibble"



    etcetc



    Generally, I stick to only pronouncing acronyms with suitably placed vowels, but I do sometimes stick a neutral vowel into an all-consnant TLA ("tee el ae" =P ) to pronounce it. If I did pronounce FAQ and SQL, I'd probably say "fack" and "sqəl" respectively.



  • @kierenj said:

    Don't be absurd.  FAQ is an acronym only, so it's "F A Qs".  SQL is only pronounced 'sequel' because it used to be 'SEQUEL' until the inventor renamed the next iteration.


    From answers.com:

    Sometimes scholars distinguish between initialisms, which are simply a series of letters pronounced one after the other, like USA (1795 as "United States of America," 1848 as "U.S. Army"), GOP (Grand Old Party, 1883), IQ (1916), and GI (1917), and hard-core acronyms, which are initials pronounced as a separate word, like WAC (a member of the Women's Army Corps, 1943), Snafu (1944), and radar (radio detection and ranging, 1941). In general use, however, these are all called acronyms.

    So are you a Scholar or a General User, huh, huh?



  • @mrprogguy said:

     We don't pronounce the the long form as "char-ak-tor," which would be ridiculous.

    Thanks! I now have the name for my next D&D character... I mean, CHARacter.



  • I prefer "faah-q"



  • Virtually everyone I know says sequel, I find it eaiser to pronounce than s-q-l, but it's not a big a difference.

    I alternate between GIF (as in GILF) and JIF (as in JILF) without really thinking.  Both are used so heavily that you had better be OK with both or you'll end up going nutz and killing everyone in your office with a rusty paper clip.

    I hate both ef-ay-cue and f-a-q.  I hate the whole FAQ abbreviation in general.  There is NO elegant way pronounce it.  The pointy-haired business-majors who use the term excessively and try to sound clever about it just end up sounding like pretentious douchebags.  Use either one, it'll sound stupid and clumsily stumble out of your mouth either way. 

    But if someone actually corrects you about it, they really need an axe between the eyes.

     

    Is it "ax" or "axe"?



  • @mrprogguy said:

    @passblayer said:

    I believe it's supposed to be pronounced like the peanut butter name...

    Well, I call shenanigans on that, because it's

    Graphics Interchange Format

    not

    Giraffics Interchange Format.  The 'G' needs to be hard, because the word it represents starts with a hard 'G' sound.



    Umm - most linguists I know would consider the gee in 'graphics' to be the soft one and the gee in 'gyraffe' to bet the hard one.

    Frankly, I think pronouncing acronyms as words is just jargon, meant to isolate those who are not members of the guild.

    Furthermore there is an overwhelming WTF here - the amount of time wasted discussing the pronounciation of non-words.

    BTW - how DO you pronounce 'WTF'?


  • Welcome to Pedants Anonymous

    @mooney said:

    Virtually everyone I know says sequel,





    Note that Microsoft's official pronunciation of the product name "SQL Server" is indeed "see-quell-ser-ver"

    PostgreSQL's official one is "post-grez-que-ell"

    MySQL: "my-ess-que-ell"



    My preference is to say "In Microsoft see-quell-ser-ver, one writes queries in ess-que-ell".




  • @bugmenot said:


    BTW - how DO you pronounce 'WTF'?

    I think anyone who says out loud in anything other than it's complete form is a little odd. Although I suppose "what the..." and "...the fuck?" (you don't always notice it, but if you listen closely a lot of people drop the first word) are sort of abbreviations.

    In my head though, when I read WTF it sounds kind of like "wha-te-fuh".



  • @mrprogguy said:

    @passblayer said:

    I believe it's supposed to be pronounced like the peanut butter name...

    Well, I call shenanigans on that, because it's

    Graphics Interchange Format

    not

    Giraffics Interchange Format.  The 'G' needs to be hard, because the word it represents starts with a hard 'G' sound.



    You are aware that it's the inventor of GIF that says it's supposed to be pronounced JIFF? 

    That said, I say it like GIFT without the T.  But just because everyone does it doesn't make it correct.


  • @Albatross said:

    Right, and I suppose you think GIFs are
    pronounced "Jif" like the peanut butter, and go "AAarrgh!" when people
    pronounce it "gif"




      I go "Aaargh" when people mix up peanut butter and scouring cream!






  • @bugmenot said:

    BTW - how DO you pronounce 'WTF'?

    wuteff

    dubya-tee-eff

    WTF?

     



  • @emurphy said:

    @kierenj said:
    Don't be absurd.  FAQ is an acronym only, so it's "F A Qs".  SQL is only pronounced 'sequel' because it used to be 'SEQUEL' until the inventor renamed the next iteration.


    From answers.com:

    Sometimes scholars distinguish between initialisms, which are simply a series of letters pronounced one after the other, like USA (1795 as "United States of America," 1848 as "U.S. Army"), GOP (Grand Old Party, 1883), IQ (1916), and GI (1917), and hard-core acronyms, which are initials pronounced as a separate word, like WAC (a member of the Women's Army Corps, 1943), Snafu (1944), and radar (radio detection and ranging, 1941). In general use, however, these are all called acronyms.

    So are you a Scholar or a General User, huh, huh?

    Heh. I don't think there's anything "scholarly" or "hard-core" about it. An acronym by definition is a pronouceable word, plain and simple. Any other usage is somewhere between informal and wrong (inclusive). Something like "USA" is an abbreviation.

    http://www.yourdictionary.com/ahd/a/a0065600.html

    http://www.yourdictionary.com/ahd/a/a0009700.html

    --RA (pronounced "rah")


Log in to reply