iTouch, you say? No.
The Internet has taken over the world by storm. And what used to be tech jargons have now made their way to everyday conversations. But some words seem to have been lost in translation or grossly misread.
So before you start laughing at your friends for saying “iTouch” instead of iPod Touch, make sure that you're not guilty of mispronouncing the following tech words.
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GIF
noun; Graphics Interchange Format; more commonly known as those hilarious moving images you see on BuzzFeed and 9Gag.
Correct pronunciation: The correct way of saying GIF has been widely debated on the Internet. Despite it's creator Steve Wilhite, stating that it should be pronounced as “jif” with a soft-G, a lot of people are still insisting that it's “gif” with a hard-G. The Oxford Dictionary has added both pronunciations as accepted ways of saying the word.
Whether it's “jif” or “gif”, at least we can all agree that GIFs have made the Internet a more hilarious place.
Wrong pronunciation: Certainly not by spelling it out “G-I-F”
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meme
noun; viral Internet joke usually in the form of a photo with text
Correct pronunciation: “meem” as in “meet”
Wrong pronunciation: “me-me”, “mem”
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cache
noun; refers to the storing of recently used information to the computer's memory so it can access it faster.
Correct pronunciation: “cash”
Wrong pronunciation: “ca-shey”
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iPod Touch
noun; a touchscreen device made by Apple that functions like the iPhone but without its call and text features
Correct pronunciation: “iPod Touch”
Wrong pronunciation: “iTouch” We've all heard it. People trying to shortcut the name by saying “iTouch”. Stop it people! There's no such thing as an “iTouch”. What, what are you touching? (insert straight face meme here)
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Nokia
noun; Finnish company famous for its mobile phones in the early 2000s
Correct pronunciation: “knock-yah” according to actual Finnish people
Wrong pronunciation: “no-key-ya” Apparently, most of us here in the Philippines have got it wrong
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WiFi
noun; A facility allowing computers, smartphones, or other devices to connect to the Internet or communicate with one another wirelessly within a particular area. (source: Oxford Dictionary); a.k.a. the first thing you look for when in a restaurant
Correct pronunciation: “wīfī”
Wrong pronunciation: “wee-fee”, “wifey”
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router
noun; a device that mediates the transmission routes of data packets over an electronic communications network (as the Internet). (source: Merriam-Webster)
Correct pronunciation: “rau-ter”
Wrong pronunciation: “rooter”
Update: "Rooter" is also an accepted way of pronouncing router especially in the UK.
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Imgur
noun; Imgur is a free image hosting website that lets users share digital images online
Correct pronunciation: “image-er” (source: Imgur)
Wrong pronunciation: “im-gur”, “im-jour”
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Asus
noun; Asus is the world's 5th largest PC vendor as of 2013 (source: Gartner)
Correct pronunciation: “Eh-SUS” (source: Engadget)
Wrong pronunciation: “Ah-sus”
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Linux
noun; an open source operating system
Correct pronunciation: “lih-nux” (source)
Wrong pronunciation: “lie-nuks”