4 ms·
Ask HN: Does anyone else pronounce CLI as "clee"?
I often pronounce CLI as "clee". Many of my co-workers chuckle and repeat "cee el eye". They aren't being disrespectful, they've just never heard it.
Some style guides treat CLI as an initialism, which just means that people tend to pronounce the letters individually.
How do you pronounce CLI?
- sunscream89 1y agoNever. Like the new kid renaming the fork the bork, just being cute and all. Cut it out.
- ggm 1y agoInitialism. I have a theory that the french, and americans share a love of taking acronyms/initialisms and finding a way to "pronounce" them. French company/organisational names appear to be chosen to be "pronouncable initialisms" such as IRCAM or INRIA. Australia has the C-S-I-R-O and you can say SI-Rho and some do. But french and americans definitely do this more. There's an ICANN (pronounced I-Can) body called the RSSAC which is AR-SACK. and SSAC which is SEC-SAC. Some initialisms defeat this. the I-E-T-F and the I-E-S-G and the I-A-B for instance. But I-ana is definitely pronounced as an I-word. It's Jif btw. Nobody says "sea, but bigger" for C++ and it wasn't called Cplus.
- 3np 1y agoIn the other direction, in East Asia they go "A-P-P" for app(lication) (: I think I've even overheard M-O-D for mod(ification).
- ggm 1y agoChinese shoppers for sheepskin footwear in Australia ask for U-Gee-Gees not "Uggs"
- defrost 1y agoAt least they're coming to Australia for US trademarked footwear. </glare emoji?>
- ggm 1y agoIndeed. Katie Perry fashion is about to go through the same nightmare of brand power. I don't think the little Aussie battler will win this time either. https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Katie_Perry#Name_conflict https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Katie_Perry#Name_conflict
- MongooseStudios 1y agoNo, you monster.
- al_borland 1y agoNever in my life have I heard it pronounced “clee”.
- cindyllm 1y ago[dead]
- treetalker 1y agoIs this what we're posting now on "Ask hnnnnng"? (That's how we pronounce the abbreviation for Hacker News, right?)
- jefurii 1y agoBrevity is for the weak. It is pronounced "command line".
- catlover76 1y ago[dead]
- ThrowawayR2 1y agoIf GUI is /ɡo͞oē/, not /gwi/, I would think CLI would be /kəlē/, not /kli/ but, meh, what do I know? I stick with the initialism.
- walpurginacht 1y agoI pronounce it as cee ell eye but from now on it's clee I guess
- dakiol 1y agoAs “clee”. But i’m not a native speaker.
- vascocosta 1y agoI pronounce as CLI as well, at least mentally whenever I read it. I don't often, if ever get the chance to say it out loud, so I wouldn't know. English is not my native language so I guess "cee el eye" would not be how I'd say it.
- dalmo3 1y agoYes, but I prefer command line interface terminal.
- aalhour 1y agoNo,