Is there some hidden pronounciation rule I’m not aware of? And why do we say F.B.I and not FBI or U.S.B and not USB ?
I know it seems a really silly question seeing the actual situation with the ICE eveywhere on the news… But this really bothers me on why people yell ICE when it’s actually the I.C.E :/.
What about NASA?
N.A.S.A.? What about it? /s
Maybe this is some sarcasme… But why then follow rules if we can just say things how we prefer? GIF or JIF?
Because rules of language are not laws and are under no obligation to be consistent and/or make sense.
Er, aren’t you disproving your own point there?
There’s two ways GIF can be pronounced, so we use both.
Beats having to say “Graphical Interchange Format” or spelling it out every time we want to communicate with someone.
The goal is to condense meaning as much as possible without losing the original context.
Although with some acronyms, it actually takes longer to pronounce the acronym than spell it out, and we still pronounce it because of vocal flow (easier for the mouth to string those shapes together).
Not disproving, just making context on how confusing it can be if there isn’t proper rules to follow :/
Welcome to the English language, where there are two sets of rules to follow (Germanic and Latin) and social linguistic development often eschews both.