How do you pronounce zsh? Sudo? Ssh?

z00s@lemmy.world to Asklemmy@lemmy.ml – 106 points –

Ok, going for full controversy here. zsh = "zoosh" ssh = "shoosh" sudo = sue-dough

Before you achktually me, I know it's supposed to be "sue-DO", because the acronym stands for "superuser do", but for the life of me, when I see those letters together it just seems wrong to pronounce it that way.

112

Zed-shell, soo-dough, s-s-h

Zed-shell

Why not Zee-shell? Zed's dead.

It’s “zed” because Brits know that it came from “zeta,” which has no “d” in it. That’s also why they don’t say “ay bee see dee eee eff jee”, they say “al bed cam del epp dye gam.”

For me, zsh is pronounced "bash."

(One-upping your "full controversy," LOL)

Haha I was waiting for this one!

When I first saw sudo I assumed it was pronounced "pseudo" because it lets you fake like you're doing stuff as another user. So that has stuck for me. (And despite all evidence, I still low-key believe it's a clever pun encompassing both that and the official "superuser do.")

Yeah. I totally thought this too. That’s why I was stubborn about it. 🙄.

On a more serious note. I love this lol.

For ZSH and SSH I just speak the letters: Z-S-H, S-S-H. Sudo as "SUE-do" "SUE-doo".

One I wonder about is xrandr. I say "EKS-rand-ur", have heard others say "eks-R-and-R".

edit: for sudo long vowel. Also I tend to stress the H in ZSH and SSH.

Even though it's only one extra syllable, "eks-R-and-R" just sounds awkward. I definitely go with "EKS-rand-ur"

I have also always said eks-rand-ur. Not heard eks-R-and-R

Technically it stands for “rotate and rescale” or something like that.

zsh: “Z shell”
ssh: S-S-H
sudo: I always think of it as “pseudo”

For me (UK):

zsh = zed ess aitch

sudo - exactly the same as "pseudo"

ssh = ess ess aitch

I'm not alone in this, it's only what all of my colleagues say.

I'm Aussie so I feel like the proper way to say zsh is as you described, but it just feels cumbersome, so I say "zoosh"

I enjoy your pronunciation! I've been using Linux primary for nearly 20 years now. Here's my list:

Command Phonetic
zsh zee shell or zed-ess-aitch
ssh ess-ess-aitch
sudo soo-doo
awk awk
sed sed
regex reg-eks

For you, is it 'reG-eks' or 'reJ-eks'? I know it should absolutely be the former, but my brain tells me to say the latter when I read it.

Always the former. It's a short form of regular expression, not rejular expression. But I don't really judge others for their chosen pronunciation, as long as it's understandable.

'Nam flashback to the Gif/Jif pronouciation wars.

Anyone else get ptsd flashbacks to:

  • “aitch tee tee pee ess colon backslash backslash…” or
  • “the email address is all lowercase, all one word…”

Zee shells See shells
by the awk soo-doo
for the sed reg-seks.

1 more...

Well, achktually SUDO stands for "substitute-user do." The default action just happens to be the super user, but you can substitute any user.

TIL

I've never used Linux with more than one user (me) so the thought never crossed my mind

Zee shell
Sue dough
Ess ess aitch

That said, I have no problems changing my pronunciations if I find the creators or whatever said, "Actually, it's pronounced ."

Sue-dough & s-s-h here. Can’t speak to zsh yet, haven’t actually talked about it w/ others yet. How about /etc/? Sometimes I call it “e-t-c” but others I say “etsee”

I guess I’m in the minority here calling it “et cetera”

I say etsy because I think I heard some Linux YouTubers call it that back in the day and it just stuck

As a former IT guy, I got used to just saying "secure shell" every time I saw SSH, to help teach my younger IT folks the lingo. I don't even say the acronym anymore. When I did, I just spoke the letters (es-es-aich).

Same for ZSH; I just call it Z-Shell (zee-shell).

Sudo has always been "soo-doh" (or "sue-dough" as OP spelled it; same pronunciation). I've never met anyone who pronounced it differently in my 20 years of IT work.

That's interesting because any time this comes up online I see scores of people claiming that it MUST be pronounced "Sue Doo", but literally never heard anyone say that IRL either

Word IPA Notes
sudo sʏː.doʔ short u (though my accent pronounces it a bit differently); then ‘do’ (as in the note) followed by a glottal stop
zsh ziː.esː.ejtʃ z-s-h spelled out
ssh esː.esː.ejtʃ s-s-h spelled out

ZSH = Zee-shell
SSH = S-S-H
SUDO = Sue-dough
KornShell = Aaaarrre you readyyyyyyyyy!

Zsh: "Zed shell" or "Zee shell" (depends)

SSH: spelt out S-S-H (both in English and in my native language)

sudo: like "sumo wrestler" only with a "d"

Its fun to talk about SQL pronunciation as well.

I am a fan of “ess Quaal”

I'm relative sure SQL is a backronym for Sequel, and Microsoft had to change the name and wanted to keep the pronunciation. But ess Quall is my favorite so far, that's amazing

The original name SEQUEL, which is widely regarded as a pun on QUEL, the query language of Ingres,[14] was later changed to SQL (dropping the vowels) because "SEQUEL" was a trademark of the UK-based Hawker Siddeley Dynamics Engineering Limited company.[15] The label SQL later became the acronym for Structured Query Language.

I think you’re right about the SEQUEL to SQL backformation but why would Microsoft enter into it at all?

The naming and origin of SQL happened back in the 70s, long before Microsoft did its work on porting Sybase to OS/2 in the late 80s.

Cuz I'm an idiot and hadn't yet had coffee :)

I thought it was just "sequel"? Like that was the official pronunciation? Or is there not an accepted "official" pronunciation?

I think it is, or at least thats what I call it in my regular day to day. But calling it es Qual is fun

Thanks to The Primeagen, I've recently become fond of pronouncing it /skwiːl/

Y'know: Squeal, Squeal-lite, Pee-squeal, etc.

Haha sounds like some kind of exotic spanish fashion brand. "Who am I wearing? Oh, it's es Quaal."

I know it's not consistent but I read them like zsh = zee shell, ssh I spell out "s s h", sudo I say /ˈsuː.doʊ/. or "soo dough"

I never read it out loud, but in my mind it's always "zeesh"

sudo is just pseudo and ssh is just 3 letters

Zeesh sounds like something Amy from Futurama would say

Zush rhymes with kush in my head. But out loud I say the letters because I think zush probably isn't how you're supposed to say it

Soo-dough (dough like the stuff you knead)

Es-es-aych

Oh also, I've found myself pronouncing the normal English word "gnome" as "guh nome" now because that's how the DE is pronounced lol

  • Zee shell
  • Sue dough
  • Ess ess aych
  • Sequel
  • Jif
  • Double U double U double U dot

I've always pronounced sudo the same way that the sudo part of sudowoodo is pronounced. I actually used to think it was an obscure Pokemon reference when I first started using Linux but both Linux and sudo itself Predate Pokemon.

There is entirely too much dough in this thread (/j).

I pronounce it staccato:
s'ú . d'ó

Zee shell, or zish or just each letter ze es aych depends on my mood and if I’m feeling spicy.

Having no idea what they mean, I'd go with a direct phonetic pronunciation:

  • zsh = zish or zĭsh
  • shh = shh, sh, or ʃ
  • sudo = sü-dō or sue-dough

All of these, so far as I know, either are or evolved from Unix tools.

zsh is short for "z shell." A shell is a way to interact with a system via text - a command line interface. There are many including sh (shell), bash (Bourne again shell), fish (no idea what it stands for if anything) and others. I pronounce "zsh" as "zee shell."

ssh is short for "secure shell," a way to access systems remotely that replaced unencrypted remote access methods (hence "secure"). I pronounce this as "ess ess aitch." The last symbol you used looks like a calculus symbol to me.

sudo, depending on whom you ask, could stand for one of a few things; it was preceded by a command called "su" which stood for "super user" or "switch user" because it allowed you to imitate a user other than your own (super user being a user who has few or no permissions restrictions on a system). "sudo" is generally considered to be short for "su do" (whatever you consider "su" to mean) (ie, switch user and do or become super user and do).. I pronounce this one as "pseudo" but I didn't know what it meant when I first learned it. If I had, it's not impossible that I would pronounce it differently.

Caveat: I'm an experienced Linux user, but not an expert. All of the above is generally accurate but I suspect there are many lemmy users who would contest the details.

Hope this information helps!

edit: forgot that it was "fish," not "Phish."

I just pronounce them as I should do in my native language.

ZSH: zé-es-há /zeːɛʃhaː/

SSH: es-es-há /ɛʃɛʃhaː/

sudo: sudó /ʃudoː/ (with ʃ(sh) and long o at the end - this is a rule in my language, every o at the end of a word must be long, with two exceptions)

I say them like this (in my head) even if I read english text.

Spanish or Portugese? Catalan?

Nah, the continent is OK, but a bit more to the east

  • "zish" so it doesn't sound like "sheesh"
  • ess ess aych
  • sue-dough

Only correct answer is whatever theprimeagen says

Ok, thanks for the info GayHitler420 🫡

Just out of curiosity, are there 419 other gay Hitlers out there, or is that just a weed reference? 'Cause I don't know if I could deal with that many gay Hitlers running around.

I mean, just to be clear, it's the Hitler part and not the gay part that bothers me. And the weed part is cool with me too, but it would be hard to be a Hitler if you're just chillin on weed every day.

It would be extremely difficult to conquer the Sudetenland if you had the munchies constantly.

Man, don't worry I'm changed man. Now I'm conquering countries in my head while I'm high from 20 kg of weed and 2 tons of pure medical cocaine.

Good for you, GayHitler, good for you

I say zsh, s s h, and sudo. But I'm Finnish and we're literal folk language wise.

Ah but do you say it "Sue Doo" or "Sue dough"?

But I'm Finnish

Wait... Linus?

No. If they want to call it sue doo or sue dough, they should have written that. :)

I also pronounce Linus Linus.

Zsh - za-sh (like bash)

Ssh - s-s-h

Sudo - sue-do

Awk - aw-k (like the hawk but no h)

Cat - c-a-t

Chmod - ch-mod (ch like change and mod like model)

Mkdir - m-k-dir

Vim - vim

Vi - v-i

Journald - journald (like journal and the d like Harold)

Sed - sed

Man - maan

At work we all pronounce zsh “zish” like dish but with a z.

sudo is sue-doo, not sue-dough or pseudo

SSH is just s-s-h