5 exercises on pronouncing common Linux command names aloud.
0 / 5 completed
1 / 5
How is "chmod" pronounced?
chmod is most commonly said "CH-mod" /ˈtʃmɒd/ — the "ch" as in "church" /tʃ/, followed by "mod" /mɒd/, stress on the front. Some pedants spell it out "see-aitch-mod" since it abbreviates "change mode." So "run chmod on the script", "chmod the file to 755." Do not say "shmod" with a /ʃ/ sound. The /tʃ/ form dominates spoken usage.
2 / 5
How is "chown" pronounced?
chown is said "CH-own" /ˈtʃoʊn/ — the "ch" /tʃ/ (as in "church") plus "own" /oʊn/, rhyming with "shown" and "grown," one syllable. It abbreviates "change owner." So "chown the directory to root", "you need sudo to chown system files." Do not say "shawn" or spell it out. The opening sound is /tʃ/, not /ʃ/.
3 / 5
How is "sudo" pronounced?
sudo is most often pronounced "SOO-doh" /ˈsuːdoʊ/ — "soo" (like the name "Sue") plus "doh," stress on the first, rhyming loosely with "judo." It stands for "superuser do" (or "substitute user do"). So "run it with sudo", "sudo apt update." A minority say "SUH-doo" /ˈsʌduː/, but "SOO-doh" is the widespread form.
4 / 5
How is "grep" pronounced?
grep is said "grep" /ɡrɛp/ — one syllable, hard /ɡ/ (as in "go"), rhyming with "prep" and "step." It comes from the ed command "g/re/p" (global / regular expression / print). So "grep the logs for errors", "pipe it into grep." It is also used as a verb: "I grepped for the function name." Never spell it out or use a soft g.
5 / 5
How is "awk" pronounced?
awk is pronounced "awk" /ɔːk/ — one syllable, with the /ɔː/ vowel as in "talk," "hawk," and "awkward." It is named after its creators (Aho, Weinberger, Kernighan), but it is spoken as a word, not spelled out. So "process it with awk", "an awk one-liner." Do not say "A-W-K" letter by letter or "ack." It rhymes with "walk."