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kwik · Dec 5, 2008

I.S.O. and DVD and ASA and NRA etc etc etc... are acronyms to me. You don't say them phonetically. You say the letters one by one fast making it sound like a word.

/story

mrodgers · Dec 5, 2008

It's called an acronym. Technically, I would say you wouldn't pronounce it like an actual word, but as I-S-O the acronym. The problem is, even with auditors coming into my workplace from external companies who are auditing against our standards certification of stuff like ISO 14001 (environmental standards) and ISO 9000 (quality standards), they say it like eye-so.

So, I guess eye-so it is.

kundalini · Dec 5, 2008

I'm old. I've always pronounced it eye-ess-ohh.

I also have an eye-are-aye set up with my credit union as opposed to an eye-rah.

But take that with a grain of salt because a lot of folk tell me to kay-emm-aye.

Dao · Dec 5, 2008

Harmony said:
ISO:

Is it /eye-so/ or /I.S.O./?

This is not a poll, it's just that I've heard it both ways and am wondering if I'm pronouncing it wrong - I said I.S.O.

I believe both are correct since it is an acronym and a lot of acronyms have been pronounced as a word.

ANSI, SATA, SCSI, IKE, ISO, SEMA, POS (note, not Piece of SXXX), NATO....

LaFoto · Dec 6, 2008

In German, ISO is more felt like an acronym, we would not speak all three letters individually as in I - S - O, but we would much rather make it a "word", and that word (in my own thinking and speaking) would then sound like "EE-so", since the letter "i" sounds like "ee" in German language.

BTilson · Dec 6, 2008

I may be off base, but in this case I don't think ISO has anything to do at all with International Standard of Organization. I've been told that ISO comes from a greek word meaning light (or something... I can't remember exactly) and that it wasn't an acronym for anything in the case of photography. I've been told numerous times that the "correct" pronunciation is "eye-soh" and not "eye ess oh". I personally say "eye ess oh" because that's what I was used to for so long.

table1349 · Dec 6, 2008

BTilson said:
I may be off base, but in this case I don't think ISO has anything to do at all with International Standard of Organization. I've been told that ISO comes from a greek word meaning light (or something... I can't remember exactly) and that it wasn't an acronym for anything in the case of photography. I've been told numerous times that the "correct" pronunciation is "eye-soh" and not "eye ess oh". I personally say "eye ess oh" because that's what I was used to for so long.