5 exercises on pronouncing data and encoding acronyms aloud.
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How is "ASCII" pronounced?
ASCII is said "ASS-kee" /ˈæski/ — two syllables, "ass" (short /æ/) plus "kee" /ki/, stress on the first. It stands for "American Standard Code for Information Interchange." So "encode it in ASS-kee", "an ASS-kee table." It is never spelled out letter by letter. The double "i" at the end is a single /i/ ("kee"), not "ee-eye."
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How is "UTF" (as in UTF-8) pronounced?
UTF is spelled out: "U-T-F" /juː tiː ɛf/ — "you, tee, eff" — then the number, e.g. "UTF-8" is "you-tee-eff-eight." It stands for "Unicode Transformation Format." So "save it as you-tee-eff-eight", "the file is U-T-F-sixteen." It is never blended into a word. The leading "U" is said "you" /juː/, the standard letter name.
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How is "BLOB" (binary large object) pronounced?
BLOB is said "blob" /blɒb/ — one syllable, exactly like the English word "blob" (a shapeless lump), rhyming with "job" and "mob." It stands for "Binary Large OBject." So "store the image as a blob", "a blob column in the database." Despite being an acronym, it is pronounced as the everyday word. Do not spell it out.
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How is "CRUD" (create, read, update, delete) pronounced?
CRUD is pronounced "crud" /krʌd/ — one syllable, the /ʌ/ vowel as in "mud," rhyming with "bud" and "spud." It stands for the four basic operations: Create, Read, Update, Delete. So "a CRUD app", "build the CRUD endpoints." It is said as a word, not spelled out, even though it coincides with the slang word "crud" (grime).
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How is "GUID" (globally unique identifier) pronounced?
GUID is commonly said "GOO-id" /ˈɡuːɪd/ — "goo" (long /uː/) plus "id" /ɪd/, two syllables, stress on the first. A one-syllable variant "gwid" /ɡwɪd/ is also heard. It stands for "Globally Unique Identifier" (Microsoft's term for a UUID). So "generate a GOO-id", "the record's GOO-id." Do not say it like "guide." The hard /ɡ/ is constant.