Questions on the pronunciation of mathematical terms and notation.
Questions tagged [pronunciation]
91 questions
89
votes
3 answers
Is there a definitive guide to speaking mathematics?
Is there a definitive guide to speaking mathematics to avoid ambiguity? I'm writing a program to generate text for a variety of mathematical expressions and would like to code it so that it adheres to some standard. I've found Handbook for Spoken…
Michael Prescott
- 875
38
votes
11 answers
How is $e^x$ read aloud?
My current research colleague from New Castle told me that I was reading it wrong. I usually read it as e power x.
How do you read aloud $e ^ x$?
Is it:
e raised to x
e power x
e powered x
or e raised to the power x.
What is the correct…
Thale
- 649
35
votes
6 answers
How to read letters such as $\mathbb A$, $\mathbb B$, etc., or $\mathfrak A$, $\mathfrak B$, etc.?
This is a soft question. We can read the letters $\bf A$, $\bf B$, etc. as bold A, bold B, etc. We can read the letters $\textit{A}$, $\textit{B}$, etc. as italic A, italic B, etc. We can read the letters $\mathcal A$, $\mathcal B$, etc. as…
g.m.
- 481
34
votes
19 answers
How is $\ln$ pronounced by English speakers?
I have always heard an expression like $\ln (x^2)$ pronounced aloud as "ell-enn ex squared". That is, the name of the function $\ln$ is read aloud as a two-letter abbreviation. However, I recently came across a Youtube video in which the speaker…
mweiss
- 24,547
29
votes
7 answers
pronunciation of sinh x, cosh x, tanh x for short
I heard teachers say [cosh x] instead of saying "hyperbolic cosine of x".
I also heard [sinch x] for "hyperboic sine of x". Is this correct?
How would you pronounce tanh x? Instead of saying "hyperbolic tangent of x"?
Thank you very much in advance.
Tony
- 533
23
votes
3 answers
How do you pronounce (partial) derivatives?
I am not an English speaker that is why I asked this question. In addition, I think english.stackexchange.com is not the proper place to ask this because (I am so sorry) I don't think most of them know mathematics deeply.
How do you pronounce the…
kiss my armpit
- 3,963
20
votes
2 answers
What is this math symbol called?
My professors use a symbol $$x_0$$ and they pronounce it as x not or x nod, I am not sure what the exact name is because they have thick accents. I have tried looking this up on the Internet but I could not find an answer. Does anyone know what this…
Steven
- 211
19
votes
3 answers
How do you pronounce the inverse of the $\in$ relation? How do you say $G\ni x$?
If I am talking about sets $G$ and $H$ and I want to say in words that $G\subset H$, I, like everyone else, will say that $G$ is contained in $H$, or that $H$ contains $G$.
But if I am talking about a set $G$ and a single point $x$, I get vaguely…
MJD
- 67,568
- 43
- 308
- 617
17
votes
2 answers
How to pronounce "$ a:b=c:d$" in English?
I just realized that I have never used something as simple as proportions in spoken English so far, but today I have to. So simple question for native speakers: How do you pronounce for example
$$ a:b=c:d$$
where the colon denotes a proportion…
Hagen von Eitzen
- 382,479
16
votes
3 answers
How do you pronounce the symbol $'$ in $f'$?
I'm not a native English speaker. A quick Google search revealed the symbol's name is apostrophe, just like in French. When used in a mathematical setting, I usually call it prime, so for instance $f'$ I'll read $f$ prime. That's the way you call it…
Olivier Bégassat
- 21,101
14
votes
7 answers
How does one read aloud Vinogradov's notation $\ll$ and $\ll_{\epsilon }$?
How does one read aloud the Vinogradov's notation $\ll$ and $\ll_{\epsilon }$ as in
$$f(x)\ll g(x)$$
and
$$c\ll_{\epsilon }\left( \prod\limits_{p\mid abc}p\right) ^{1+\epsilon}.$$
Is the first one “is very much less than”? (This is a direct…
Américo Tavares
- 39,180
11
votes
2 answers
How do you read "$a_n$" in English?
What is the correct way to read "$a_n$" in English? What is the translation of what in Spanish is "$a$ sub $n$"?
user88299
- 121
11
votes
4 answers
How does one pronounce $a \odot b$?
I have seen authors use $\star$, $\ast$, $\cdot$ and $\odot$ to represent arbitrary binary operations on sets. I'm wondering, what is the standard way to read or pronounce something like $a \star b$? How would you read $a \odot b$?
Zach Langley
- 1,367
10
votes
4 answers
How to say $\sin^2(x)$ in English
What's the official way to say $\sin^2(x)$? Is it "sin squared of $x$" or "sin of x, pause, squared"?
Schmidt
- 667
9
votes
1 answer
How do you pronounce $\mathbb{R}^2, \dots, \mathbb{R}^n$
I've been starting some vector calculus and I keep pronouncing it "R squared" in my head, which is clearly wrong. What is a better way to pronounce it, so that I can state things like $f: \mathbb{R} \rightarrow \mathbb{R}^2$ out loud?
porglezomp
- 317
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