If it's pronounceable, I say the word out. No one says out the letters for N.A.S.A. or I.H.O.P., so why do they say the letters for N.E.S.?
If it's pronounceable, I say the word out. No one says out the letters for N.A.S.A. or I.H.O.P., so why do they say the letters for N.E.S.?
They do for most. F.B.I., A.T.M., D.E.A., A three acronym word is much more common to be simply spelled out, if it's longer than that, people tend to say it as a word or say it differently. The S.N.E.S. is called Super Nintendo by most people, not Sness, because it just sounds horrible.
If I'm explaining the N.E.S. to casual gamers, then occasionally I will refer to it as the original Nintendo.
FBI (Fibi?) and ATM (atom maybe?) aren't all that pronounceable. DEA is a little bit, but it's still two syllables with a big stress on the A. Nes is a nice clean word, and I see no reason not to say it out. Maybe it's just the crypto-zoologist in me that likes it. Reminds me of Loch Ness.
Doesn't sound right? Then why is Black Entertainment Television called B.E.T. be, well, everyone who watches it? Does 'hiv' (sounds like give) also not sound right? Longer acronyms (4 letters+) that are pronounceable are generally spoken as words because it's easier to say and remember, but to claim that there's some de facto rule where acronyms are always said as a word if they're pronounceable is just flat out wrong.
Last edited by Emperor Megas; 05-26-2014 at 01:22 AM.
When I speak english I say N.E.S ans S.N.E.S
but when I speak French I say Ness and Super-Ness
Funny uh?
Last edited by MaxWar; 05-25-2014 at 05:37 PM.
I call it N.E.S by the letter
I can't stand when they call the Genesis "a Sega"
The correct way.
That's probably a branch-off from the computer world. Some people pronounce G.U.I. as "gooey". When referring to a graphical user interface I would just say "interface" and assume that you understood what the heck I was talking about. If I felt compelled to use the acronym I would just say it by the letters, so it's a G-U-I just the same as driving drunk will get Y-O-U a D-U-I!
On the original topic though, I think it's time to retire N-E-S and go with something more modern a la Microsoft. Nintendo One anyone? Then we can argue about if it's the N-E-S box 1 or NESbox 1. which leads me to the way I like pronounce Microsoft's latest , ahem, "endeavour".
"The Nes-bone's connected to the X-bone..."
Here Fido, now fetch me an X-box One. No, NO!! I meant the "ORIGINAL X-BOX", not this new crap! BAD DOG!! Go bury the X-bone out in the back yard somewhere.
P.S. It always has been and always will be N-E-S, B-T-W!
I've never heard "duey" or DUI (always D. U. I.) or "mad" for M.A.D. (but I've never heard it pronounced), but the rest of Emperor Megas' acronyms I heard.
Ultimately, like everything else in English, it's decided by usage, and there are no rules.
For the original nintendo I use N-E-S. For Super Nintendo I say "snes"
Now it is the beginning of
a fantastic story! Let us
make a Journey to
the cave of Monters!
Good luck!
always done it by the letters and why would you any other way?
I've never heard DUI or DWI 'pronounced', ever... It's always D-U-I or D-W-I
But, I've always heard GUI pronounced gooey since the term was coined. Sure, these days you can just use interface, or U-I (actually, just U-I seems to be the norm now...). The 'Graphical' part is completely useless today as no one operates a computer by command line anymore (well, certainly no non-techies do). But in the early days of Win 3.1 and people trying to write DOS applications with a 'Windows/mouse' style interface, it was more meaningful as specifically graphical in design... Technically, all programs have a user interface (if you interact with it at all), but you wouldn't call the Infocom game interface 'GUI'.
This is me as well... The original is always an N-E-S ('nes' just sounds kind of silly)... But the other one is 'snes'. I never got used to saying S-N-E-S, but I have heard people call it that...