5 exercises on how to read common Latin and internet abbreviations in spoken English.
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How do you say "et al." (used in citations and reports) in a professional presentation?
et al. is said "et AL" /ɛt æl/ — "et" /ɛt/ (Latin for "and") + "al" /æl/ (short for "alii," others), with a short /æ/ vowel. So "Smith et al. found that..." So "as shown by Jones et AL." Do not say "et ALL" /ɔːl/ — that is the word "all." The /æl/ rhymes with "pal" or "gal." It means "and others" and appears in research discussions.
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How do you say "i.e." when reading a technical document aloud?
i.e. stands for Latin id est ("that is") and is read aloud as "that is" /ðæt ɪz/ in English presentations. So "the system is stateless, i.e., it does not store session data" is read "...i-dot-e-dot, that is, it does not store..." Never say "in example" — that is "e.g." Always expand abbreviations when speaking; do not say "I-E" as letters.
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How do you say "e.g." when presenting technical content?
e.g. stands for Latin exempli gratia ("for the sake of example") and is read aloud as "for example" /fɔːr ɪɡˈzɑːmpəl/. So "use a caching layer, e.g., Redis" is spoken as "...for example, Redis." Do not say "E-G" as letters or "example given" — that is not the correct expansion. In technical talks, always expand: "for example."
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How do you say "vs." (versus) when comparing technologies?
vs. is read aloud as "versus" /ˈvɜːrsəs/ — two syllables, stress on the first: "VER" /vɜːr/ + "sus" /səs/. So "REST versus GraphQL", "microservices versus monolith." Do not say "V-S" as letters in speech — expand it to the full word "versus." In British English the /ɜː/ vowel is like the vowel in "bird" or "word."
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How do you say "TL;DR" in a team meeting or Slack discussion?
TL;DR is said as "tee-el-dee-ar" /tiː ɛl diː ɑːr/ or as "too long, didn't read" — both are common. In informal Slack: "tee-el-dee-ar: it failed because of a timeout." In a formal presentation you might say "the summary, or too-long-didn't-read, is..." The semicolon is never spoken. Context determines which form to use.