Why do people pronounce char like charcoal when it clearly stands for character? It should be pronounced like car 🤔

Care*

For the same reason people say sequel instead of S.Q.L.

Because if it were pronounced like car, odds are it would sound like car. D'oh.

It's pronounced like car if you're from Chicago.

Same reason people say gif wrong.

Because then you'd think they're talking about a car.

Should be pronounced shar. Just like ca•ch•e is pronounced 💵. 🙃

@C0D4 sqwakl

You have to put a good sear/char on it. Charge!
Change

Everything has that same pronunciation so the question is: what moron decided that character should be pronounced with a hard k?

Developers often complain about programming language design decisions but natural languages are the real crime of/on humanity.

One of the stupitest things in all latin based languages for example:
"Hello" why the double L? If we have "hel" just add "o" and you have "helo" if you want some letter to sound longer why not add an extra one of that letter like"heelo".

@CoffeeNcode Pretty much, yes. And English took the word from the French "caractère" (pronounced the same way but with more baguette), that themselves took from Latin, and even them from Greek.

"Languages".

@hjk101 because character is of Greek origin and ch is rendering the greek character chi, which visually resembles an X.

And heelo would not just be a longer vowel, it would be a different one like in wheel.

Oh my God, I don't char.

I know English has weird pronunciation rules (mine vs examine), but char stands for character, so the ch should be pronounced the same way in both cases.

I was watching a C video and the guy said ‘char character = “c”;’ in two different pronounciations.

@irene I know it’s common, still wrong. Would you pronounce var differently to variable?

@620hun Everyone I know pronounces the "var" in "variable" as "vair", and "var" on its own as "varrrr". I don't see the issue with that either.

@BadMeetsEvil really? I’ve never heard anyone saying that, but at least my reasoning is grounded

It's like how "lib" is pronounced like "lid" by most people even though it is a shortened version of "library". I guess programmers love making messes with languages of all kinds.

@tokumei true, I’ve never thought about lib

Does anyone say deev-rant? Because the first syllable plus the v of developer isn't pronounced like deaf.

@Fast-Nop kiwis

@Fast-Nop Thanks for the explanation. Languages do evolve so instead of teaching everyone saying tsharacter is wrong do it the other way around...

I don't get your point here. That is kinda what I was going for in "helopad" the "e" sounds the same as in "wheel". So why do we need to determine that by the following consonant?

@hjk101 well we could write hello with a like in pad. But English pronounciation just isn't 1:1.

Though it's still kindergarden in comparison to French: "mon père est mère, et mon frère est ma sœur". Makes only sense when you speak it aloud. ;-)

@Fast-Nop it's not just in English, it's the same in Dutch, German, Italiaan, Spanish. Not only is it overly complex but also inconsistent. Every one leaning the language pays the price, dislexic pay it double. And programmers go mildly insane. Just look at the crap we have to go to for AI datasets and natural languages.

Unfortunately every suggestion is just academic. I can't change it. Language enthusiasts shun people like me

@hjk101 well there have been attempts at that, e.g. Esperanto - which is not really logical especially for Asians who are used to completely different constructions, but what's more, it isn't a language any more than a canal is a river.

There is also a computational advantage in spelling issues, and Google exploits that readily: websites with sloppy spelling usually also feature sloppy content. Spelling is a valid ranking factor, at least with websites. It doesn't apply to short-lived content like chat or devRant postings though.

@irene Most people I know, but I'm in the UK so that's probably something to do with it!

@irene We certainly do 😂

@irene they also walk strangely and even have a ministry of silly walks. ^^

@Fast-Nop You guy's *don't* have such a ministry?! 😲