Pronunciation of acronyms

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Magda

#318606 Tue, 23 Jan 07 01:06 AM

Hello,
How do you pronounce the acronyms below, as one word or with each letter separately?

UCLA = the University of California, Los Angeles
MIT = the Massachusetts Institute of Technology
DBU = the Display Business Unit (of IBM)
JTB = the Japan Travel Bureau

Thank you.

Magda

Joined on Sat, Sep 9 2006

Full Member (445)

Pronunciation, Universities

CalifJim

#318658 Tue, 23 Jan 07 04:43 AM

Say each letter separately for each of them.
(Don't forget that such a series has the stress on the last letter.)

CJ

CalifJim

Joined on Mon, Aug 2 2004

California

Veteran Member (16,557)

"There are no facts, only interpretations" - Nietzsche

Pronunciation

Clive

#318687 Tue, 23 Jan 07 06:01 AM

Hi,

Your examples are not acronyms. They are abbreviations.

An acronym is when the capital letters are pronounced as a word.

eg FBI is an abbreviation. We say each letter separately. eff bee eye

eg NATO is an acronym. We say naytow, not enn eh tee owe

Best wishes, Clive

Clive

Joined on Thu, Oct 28 2004

Canada

Veteran Member (20,469)

El tango argentino es un pensamiento triste que se puede bailar (The tango argentino is a sad thought which can be danced) Enrique Santos Discépolo

Abbreviations, Capital letters, Pronunciation

The17pointscale

#318694 Tue, 23 Jan 07 06:32 AM

As I was looking at these abbreviations, I wondered how someone might know that UCLA isn't pronounced uck lah (I suppose that it would be an unfortunate moniker). Are there any universities that are abbreviated as acronymns? I can't think of any. Maybe the University of Pennsylvania is UPENN? I graduated from SPU and an occasional visitor mockingly referred to it as spew, but it was officially known as ess pea you.

-Andrew

The17pointscale

Joined on Thu, Jan 26 2006

Seattle

Junior Member (84)

Abbreviations, Pronunciation, Universities

Grammar Geek

#318840 Tue, 23 Jan 07 02:20 PM

Penn is just called Penn.

SUNY (State Univeristy of New York) is said "Soo-nee."

I've also heard CUNY (City University of New York) is said "koo-nee" (rhymes with Rosemary or George Clooney).

In fact, SUNY Albany was SUNYA, and was sometimes called "soon-yia" (like the name "Tanya") although more often "soo-nee A."

Univerisy of Texas at El Paso is called "you-tep" (UTEP).

I'm sure there are others.

Grammar Geek

Joined on Tue, Jan 10 2006

Pennsylvania, USA

Veteran Member (15,288)

Barbara, who answers in American English.

Pronunciation, Universities

Lil' Ruby Rose

#318844 Tue, 23 Jan 07 02:24 PM

In the UK, some of the newer universities have gone down the acronym route - hence UWE (University of the West of England) is You-wee, and UWIC (University of Wales in Cardiff) is You-wick.

Lil' Ruby Rose

Joined on Wed, Dec 20 2006

West of England

Regular Member (850)

Enlightenment is always preceded by confusion.

Pronunciation, Universities

Magda

#318876 Tue, 23 Jan 07 03:27 PM

Clive wrote:
Hi,

Your examples are not acronyms. They are abbreviations.

An acronym is when the capital letters are pronounced as a word.

eg FBI is an abbreviation. We say each letter separately. eff bee eye

eg NATO is an acronym. We say naytow, not enn eh tee owe

Best wishes, Clive

Hi Clive,
I've been taught that there are two kinds of acronyms: pronuncable as one word, e.g. NATO, OPEC, and these ones which have each letter pronounced separetely: the EU, the UN, etc.
So, according to what I've been taught, they are all acronyms.

Best regadrs,
Magda

Magda

Abbreviations, Capital letters, Pronunciation

Magda

#318885 Tue, 23 Jan 07 03:49 PM

Thank you all for your posts.

Could you give me some examples of company's acronyms like:

MIT = the Massachusetts Institute of Technology
DBU = the Display Business Unit (of IBM)
JTB = the Japan Travel Bureau

Have a good Tuesday Smile [:)]

Magda

Pronunciation

Philip

#318890 Tue, 23 Jan 07 04:05 PM

The17pointscale wrote:
As I was looking at these abbreviations, I wondered how someone might know that UCLA isn't pronounced uck lah (I suppose that it would be an unfortunate moniker). Are there any universities that are abbreviated as acronymns? I can't think of any. Maybe the University of Pennsylvania is UPENN? I graduated from SPU and an occasional visitor mockingly referred to it as spew, but it was officially known as ess pea you.

-Andrew

Living in Seattle, you most likely know that the University of Washington (UW) is known as U-Dub.

(I live just 5 minutes away from "spew".)