pronouncing acronyms!!!

[mr. piper]

In line with my single handed crusade to rid the English language of the weapons of grammatical terrorism. There is another particular bad habit which drives me to destraction, which is to try and pronounce acronyms as a word. There are some such as "MOT" as a word, instead of M, O, T. that i have to accept because it is a straightforward  pronunciation, but thinking back to my navy days there were a group of individuals you could always depend on to try and say the un-sayable! One "SEEPO" (C.P.O.) was a vile exponent of this. In reference to the "General Service Training Officer" he would call him "GUSTO" (GSTO), plain enough until he was renamed the"Naval General Training Group Officer", this bloke then called him"NEGUTGO" (NGTGO). After a day yomping on dartmoor i was usually ready to "slit his gizzard"  when he started that palava.

Anyone out there also at the end of there tether with these inconsiderate muppets? Well TEETEEYEFFENN! 

[rja211077]

i have another one for you. BP's Health Safety and Environment manual is called Getting HSE Right - or 'GHSER' (Geezer) for short. It doesn't really bother me, to be honest. Perhaps you should divert your anger to a more worthy cause?

[ursula62]

I should have thought that someone so hot on grammatical correctness would spot their own spelling errors   "at the end of there tether" should, of course, use the possessive "their" rather than the locational "there".

 

Just my two pennyworth on the subject!

[Smiffy]

I thought that the point was that acronyms ARE pronouncable, it's what differentiates them from abbreviations.

[rojash]

Exactly, Smiffy. The definition of an acronym is "A word formed by using the initials of a phrase or other groups of words". So if you can't pronounce it, it's merely an abbreviation.

In fact most modern Acronyms are arrived at by a very strained process so that they can be pronounced. For example, the USA PATRIOT Act. PATRIOT stands for "Providing Appropriate Tools Required to Intercept and Obstruct Terrorism", which you have to admit sounds pretty silly for the name of piece of legislation.

[Skids]

Its those abreviations that are not meant to be acronyms but are pronounced as if they are that are annoying. The military is full of this. Just about everything is abreviated to three or four letters.

For example;
Weeoh - Weapons Engineering Officer
Deeweeoh - Deputy Weapons Engineering Officer
Smurr - Senior Maintenance Rating
Shar - Sea Harrier

[paddy_36]

Have to say, I think everyone's being a bit harsh on Mr Piper - we all have things that annoy us, my personal one being misuse of apostrophes! (In a Pickle - that should be its, not it's!) Maybe using language correctly isn't important to some people, but it is to others. I also hate cliches, but on this occasion feel compelled to say each to their own. Or live and let live. Or whatever. (Did I mention I also hate Americanisms?!) ;o)

[Marsh]

Leisure Management Trainees (Lemon Teas) all agree with mr.piper.

[Clare A]

Like paddy_36, I cringe at the use of 'greengrocers' apostrophes' - so-called because of handwritten signs advertising tomatoe's and potatoe's. Somehow, it's more annoying when the writer doesn't do it consistently. They will write that they have two dogs, but that they grow carnation's.

Pedants R we!

[Octavius]

I must admit, it gets. me goat when someone actually says ' a sap' in lieu of ASAP 

[paddy_36]

Good points, Clare! As you say, there's no consistency either.

Sorry for picking on you, In A Pickle (no pun intended). Feel a bit guilty about that now.

The one thing worse than nouns with random apostrophes is verbs with random apostrophes, e.g. make's.

In a previous life, I was known as an axle - Assistant Customer Services Librarian. I hated that too!

[Clare A]

Agreed, paddy_36. Think yourself lucky - in one of my  previous lives (in residential social work) it was very nearly decided to call us Deputy Unit Managers (DUMs)!

[SimonMorton]

and I was a KNOBRAIN (Knowledge Branch of Indiana).

[mr. piper]

thanks for your input ursula62, in one, over my spelling, it is, that being disabled, i am using a very old flash system instead of a keyboard and i sometimes cannot be bothered to scroll down my alternatives, and they sometimes jump in anyway. Besides that is a spelling mistake, i have no problem with those, it is the intentional cluttering up of our language with "ism's" i hate, also i don't have them in my dict. It does seem strange to point out my issues with grammar then to prove my hipocracy with an example of spelling mistakes. just like saying " As a driver he is a bad cook" Still if you must have your say!

There is also the fact that some abreviations are longer to say expressed as initial letters than to pronounce fully, as in one i remember had the word "work" in it, a single syllable, replaced by "double u", three syllables. and so forth.

Oh and putting capitals in is a chore, so i rarely do!