weeksie98
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'Meeth-isle' or 'Meth-ill'? Pronunciation of organic groups
Just a small niggle.
I constantly interchange between the two pronunciations of methyl, and my chemistry teacher favours the former. Since I am an annoying stickler for
grammatical correctness, I wondered what other people on the board say, as, every time I say butyl, propyl, methyl or ethyl, I always wonder whether
I'm doing it right. Opinions welcome!
'If organic chemistry were easy, it would be known as "biology".'
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Ax165Xj
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I always use the second pronunciation but as an American, there isn't really an option. If I ever pronounced it the first way, my chemist friends
would think I was having a stroke.
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DraconicAcid
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Methyl rhymes with my great-aunt Ethel.
Please remember: "Filtrate" is not a verb.
Write up your lab reports the way your instructor wants them, not the way your ex-instructor wants them.
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Magpie
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What about meta? Is it may-ta or meh-ta?
The single most important condition for a successful synthesis is good mixing - Nicodem
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DraconicAcid
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As in, "I meta girl last night".
Please remember: "Filtrate" is not a verb.
Write up your lab reports the way your instructor wants them, not the way your ex-instructor wants them.
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eidolonicaurum
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Much like you, I interchange between the two. Though I tend to favour "meeth-isle". Another one is phenyl. I say "fee-nile" to distinguish between
phenol => fee-nol
(I think)
[Edited on 11-4-2014 by eidolonicaurum]
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DraconicAcid
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Quote: Originally posted by eidolonicaurum  | | Much like you, I interchange between the two. Though I tend to favour "meeth-isle". Another one is phenyl. I say "fee-nile" to distinguish between
phenol => fee-nol |
Phenol is fee-NOL. Phenyl is FEN-ill (just like fennel).
Please remember: "Filtrate" is not a verb.
Write up your lab reports the way your instructor wants them, not the way your ex-instructor wants them.
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DrAldehyde
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Ok, how about acetyl?
I hear
Ass ee TULL
Ass UH teel
Ah set ill
I use the first one, but I hear people say it the other ways, discuss.
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DraconicAcid
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I say a-SEE-tull. Biologists seem to say assa-TEEL for some reason.
Please remember: "Filtrate" is not a verb.
Write up your lab reports the way your instructor wants them, not the way your ex-instructor wants them.
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DrAldehyde
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Ok, another one, not exactly organic groups. I graduated from college in 1984, the computer age was barely waking up, we learned to pronounce giga
(gigahertz) as jig-a, I know it's now pretty universally pronounced as gig-a. But I do run into the rare sole who also says jig-a. Anybody else taught
to say jig-a. Probably one of those gif-jif things.
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weeksie98
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I checked various dictionaries. It seems that meeth-isle, along with eeth-isle, is the British pronunciation, and the other is American.
As for phenyl and phenol, I always find myself saying fen-ol and phee-nile.
Just seems logical.
'If organic chemistry were easy, it would be known as "biology".'
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thesmug
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I say Ah set ill sometimes, but more like uh set ul (like di-uh-set-ul). Most of the time I say Ass ee TULL.
[Edited on 4/12/14 by thesmug]
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eidolonicaurum
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Out of the options for acetyl, I say none! I say asee-tile.
Also, how do you pronounce the uranium cations, uranous and uranyl?
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confused
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U-ran-us and U-ran-il
i usually say as ee tile
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unionised
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Reluctantly.
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Eddygp
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AH-suh-tate, but a-SEH-tic and a-SEE-till
there may be bugs in gfind
[ˌɛdidʒiˈpiː] IPA pronunciation for my Username |
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S.C. Wack
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I think there's a difference (at least for methyl) between the UK (perhaps including European languages) and the US. It might be interesting to
compare old editions of Webster's and Oxford's dictionaries to see how far back this goes.
The lack of any large definitive chemical pronunciation dictionary has surely compounded the problem. The ACS committee on pronunciation has to be the
lamest committee in the history of lame committees. Students may have one professor pronouncing one way, others otherwise.
Words have changed in my lifetime, most prominently (on the news) ephedrine. Gould's 1923 Pocket Pronouncing Medical Dictionary has f uh drin, Fieser
(1960 and pre-meth) f uh dreen, but since meth it's uh fed rin. And if you pronounce it any other way now, you're a total idiot who doesn't know shit
from shinola, which is often ironically mispronounced in the process.
[Edited on 13-4-2014 by S.C. Wack]
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Etaoin Shrdlu
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I tend to pronounce chemicals the way I think they should be pronounced based on spelling and similar chemicals, which gets me some very odd looks at
times if I've only run across the name in print. (Is catechol CAT-eh-kahl, CAT-eh-chahl, cat-eh-CHAHL, cat-eh-KAHL, CAT-eh-kool, cat-eh-KOHL,
cat-eh-CHOHL, KATE-chohl...oh, there are so many potential variations. At least 36, by my calculations.)
The one individual from the UK I've worked with said METH-ill, but he was somewhat Americanized by the time I'd met him.
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Texium
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I say METH-ul for methyl, uh-SEH-til for acetyl, fee-nol for phenol, and FIN-ul for phenyl to name a few mentioned on this thread.
I blame being from Texas for the predominance of "uh" sounds.
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DubaiAmateurRocketry
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The abbreviation of Journal of Analytical Chemistry is J.Anal.Chem. hehe
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