I’m reminded of a conversation with a neighbour who decided to become a corporate trainer. This was in the early days of the web. He was telling me about “HMTL”. Yes, you read it as he said it, H-M-T-L.
Whoa! Do I tell him he meant HTML? Yes, I decided. To protect the reputation of training professionals everywhere, I will tell my neighbour that HTML means hypertext markup language.
His pet-sitting credibility remained intact.
I came across a business article that reads in part, “… we will use a link from XI — our [acquired] platform — to our [existing] platform …”.
Hmm? How does the author want us to pronounce the word “XI”? Possible options are:
Does pronunciation matter? Perhaps not so much in scanning. But when you’re pitching a product, knowing how it’s pronounced matters big. However, anyone reading the article might find it helpful to know that “XI” refers to, let’s say, the eleventh release.
If your product name matters, then treat it like your own name. Don’t make me guess it wrong.