# A critical question of language **URL:** \ **Category:** In My Humble Opinion\ **Created:** [April 12, 2002, 3:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/a-critical-question-of-language/103250 "2002-04-12T15:45:01Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 3
**Author:** ![kenobi\_65](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kenobi_65/32/13178_2.png) [@kenobi\_65](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kenobi_65)\ **Post date:** [February 14, 2021, 6:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/a-critical-question-of-language/103250/41 "2021-02-14T18:26:40Z")
In response to @running_coach 's picture: [![](https://i.pinimg.com/originals/ac/78/70/ac78708634612505acc08fb6c6973702.jpg) ](https://i.pinimg.com/originals/ac/78/70/ac78708634612505acc08fb6c6973702.jpg) ---
**Author:** ![Left\_Hand\_of\_Dorkness](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/left_hand_of_dorkness/32/7156_2.png) [@Left\_Hand\_of\_Dorkness](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Left_Hand_of_Dorkness)\ **Post date:** [February 14, 2021, 6:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/a-critical-question-of-language/103250/42 "2021-02-14T18:30:19Z")
D’oh! I didn’t fully read your other posts. My bad. ---
**Author:** ![Left\_Hand\_of\_Dorkness](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/left_hand_of_dorkness/32/7156_2.png) [@Left\_Hand\_of\_Dorkness](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Left_Hand_of_Dorkness)\ **Post date:** [February 14, 2021, 6:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/a-critical-question-of-language/103250/43 "2021-02-14T18:35:56Z")
> [@MrDibble](#): > > How do you pronounce the word “graphical”? Huh. There’s an implication there that the letters in an acronym must be pronounced as they were pronounced in the words from which they’re drawn. Am I understand you correctly? ---
**Author:** ![pulykamell](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/pulykamell/32/3166_2.png) [@pulykamell](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/pulykamell)\ **Post date:** [February 14, 2021, 6:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/a-critical-question-of-language/103250/44 "2021-02-14T18:48:38Z")
Yeah, the words take a life of their own once they enter the wild. Like I said in another thread, “adidasy” has become the generic colloquial word for gym/tennis shoes/sneakers/trainers/etc and has been for decades. To an American ear, calling a Nike a pair of “Adidases” sounds quite odd, but in Polish, sounds perfectly fine. I’m sure all sorts of quirks like these can be found when words and brandnames enter the local language and even within the same language, depending on dialect, words may be analyzed differently and hence, different plurals, different pronunciations, etc. With the “graphical” example, that is indeed the argument many make, which doesn’t fly. For an analogous, but a bit more niche example, back in the late 80s, there was a graphical operating system for the C64 called “GEOS.” Guess how it was pronounced? With a “GEE’” not a “GHEE.” Guess what that “g” stands for? “Graphical.” Going the other way, NASA has weather satellites called GOES satellites. Guess how that’s pronounced? Like the word “goes.” Guess was the “g” stands for. “Geo-stationary.” What words the individual letters of an acronym stand for are irrelevant. GIF is interesting because some people (like me) anaylize it with “gin,” “ginger,” “giraffe,” “giant,” “Gibraltar,” while others analyze it with “gift,” “girl,” “gig.” It’s legitimately ambiguous. (And I suspect, but don’t know for sure, that Doc’s “jiggawatts” in Back to the Future are “gigawatts” with the “gi” analyzed the first way.) The creator of GIFs happens to say it the same way I do, but popular usage dictates pronouncing it as “gift” without the “t” so that’s what I do now, or say something like “ghiff, jiff, whateverthehellyoucallit.” ---
**Author:** ![Pardel-Lux](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/pardel-lux/32/20182_2.png) [@Pardel-Lux](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Pardel-Lux)\ **Post date:** [February 14, 2021, 7:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/a-critical-question-of-language/103250/45 "2021-02-14T19:16:08Z")
When I was a child I only had one brick of LEGO, so that is what I played: I played LEGO with LEGO. It quickly got boring, I almost swallowed it by mistake. When we hit it rich some time later and my parents could finally afford whole sets of LEGOs (the plural refers to the boxes they are sold in, not the total number of bricks). I very much enjoyed the Legæ (or Legœ, depending on the gender of the thing I was assembling) until they got boring too. > [@Die\_Capacitrix](#): > > To add to the confusion: My |talian friend buys Legos to play Lego with his son. Legos in Italian is also the plural of the LEGO set that is sold in a box. This constant CAPITALAZING™ of a trademark® is grammatically frowned upon as an angry twitterism© and is to be banned under lock and key in Mar-a-LEGO for the foreseeable future. Or so we hope. And some say that LEGO is an acronym of the Danish words _ **le** g **go** dt_ that translate as “play well”. But playing in wells is dangerous, kids drown easily. Don’t play in wells at home. ---
**Author:** ![lobotomyboy63](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/lobotomyboy63/32/2900_2.png) [@lobotomyboy63](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/lobotomyboy63)\ **Post date:** [February 14, 2021, 7:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/a-critical-question-of-language/103250/46 "2021-02-14T19:30:26Z")
1 sheep, 2 sheep…1 deer, 2 deer…1 faux pas, 2 faux pas. I brought two Cokes. Maybe bottles of, cups of, cans of…Coke. I like to be mysterious. Two Cokes. I have multiple brothers-in-law. Just ask the Attorneys General or Sergeants at Arms. I’m hoping to avoid courts martial. Yet that batter had 100 runs batted in…shouldn’t that be RsBI, not RBIs? Don’t exceed 7,000 revolutions per minute with that engine…shouldn’t it be RsPM, not RPMs? [According to this site…](https://www.thoughtco.com/irregular-plural-nouns-in-english-1692634) Plural of… …alumna? …corpus? Opera is the plural of… Graffiti is the plural of… alumnae, corpora…opus, graffito I’m flexible and willing to learn. But I’ve always called them LEGOs. ---
**Author:** ![PatrickLondon](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/patricklondon/32/4422_2.png) [@PatrickLondon](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/PatrickLondon)\ **Post date:** [February 14, 2021, 7:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/a-critical-question-of-language/103250/47 "2021-02-14T19:43:35Z")
I would say “bits of Lego” - unless I stand on them in bare feet, in which case quite other words might be used. ---
**Author:** ![puzzlegal](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/puzzlegal/32/3827_2.png) [@puzzlegal](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/puzzlegal)\ **Post date:** [February 14, 2021, 7:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/a-critical-question-of-language/103250/48 "2021-02-14T19:45:08Z")
The definitive word on the pronunciation of “gif” [![](https://img.youtube.com/vi/N1AL2EMvVy0/maxresdefault.jpg "It’s pronounced GIF.") ](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=N1AL2EMvVy0) ---
**Author:** ![pulykamell](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/pulykamell/32/3166_2.png) [@pulykamell](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/pulykamell)\ **Post date:** [February 14, 2021, 7:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/a-critical-question-of-language/103250/49 "2021-02-14T19:50:47Z")
Very cool. Goes over all those points with numbers, too! ---
**Author:** ![Acsenray](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/acsenray/32/4519_2.png) [@Acsenray](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Acsenray)\ **Post date:** [February 14, 2021, 8:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/a-critical-question-of-language/103250/50 "2021-02-14T20:21:35Z")
Trademark owners do not own words. They own trademark rights. They have no legal or moral control over language. We have addressed this many times. > [@O.S.U. wants to trademark the word "the"](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/o-s-u-wants-to-trademark-the-word-the/838662/51): > > Right, but is that the use of “The” as an indicator of source for the T-shirts? Does this use and significant uses like it make it impossible for “The” to function as an indicator of source for T-shirts? You’ll never get a definitive answer to that question just talking about it on the internet. Ultimately, trademark rights are about positioning yourself for a fight. And there are several stages at which a fight can happen. O.S.U. has an application before the P.T.O. Well, someone can challe… > Trademark law is not a regulation of speech in general. For example, the Lego company would love it if you said “Lego-brand toy blocks” all the time and only in reference to their legitimately branded blocks and avoided calling them “Legos,” and especially avoided calling someone else’s blocks “legos” in a generic sense. > But you can do it all day every day for the rest of your life. You can even write a book that does it. A newspaper can go around printing “Legos” and “legos” all it wants, and the Lego company will never get any relief for it. > That’s because there’s no use in commerce here. Nobody is selling goods or services using “Legos” or “legos” as a source indicator (i.e., brand name). They can send out letters and publish websites complaining about “trademark misuse,” but you know what? Trademark misuse isn’t a thing in the law. So tough shit. Ultimately, if the public decides that “legos” is more useful as a generic term rather than as a brand name, then the Lego company is screwed. > [@Bizarre Non-Trademark Infringing Names for Popular Products](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/bizarre-non-trademark-infringing-names-for-popular-products/834627/51): > > Yes, it’s dumb, but it’s not a trademark issue. I have always called them Legos, and I’m not going to stop. [quote=“Acsenray, post:51, topic:834627, full:true”] > [@Bizarre Non-Trademark Infringing Names for Popular Products](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/bizarre-non-trademark-infringing-names-for-popular-products/834627/50): > > > [@Bizarre Non-Trademark Infringing Names for Popular Products](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/bizarre-non-trademark-infringing-names-for-popular-products/834627/41): > > > > > Lego is simply following its legal counsels’ advice to avoid genericide. They don’t actually hate the people they send such letters to. The people reading the letters are the ones overreacting. > > > [/quote] > > > > > > Yeah, but the whole Legos/Lego Bricks stuff is just dumb. I’ve had people bitch on this very board that the plural and singular are both Lego. > > > > > > Talk about being fanboys who need to get lives; getting butthurt about the pluralization of a children’s toy range is pretty much the epitome of toxic dorkiness. > > Yes, it’s dumb, but it’s not a trademark issue. > > I have always called them Legos, and I’m not going to stop. > [@Legos are\_\_\_\_\_](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/legos-are _____ /119819/25): > > You sure about this? Companies ask us not to use their brand as a generic noun because common usage can cause them to lose their exclusive use of a trademark. I recall ads by the Xerox corporation asking people to use the term “photocopy” as the noun or verb, and only use “Xerox” when referring to Xerox brand products, specifically because they were worried about losing their trademark. From reading their ad, it sounded like what made the difference was common usage. The alt.usage.english FAQ … > [@Legos are\_\_\_\_\_](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/legos-are _____ /119819/44): > > I don’t mean to hurt anyone’s feelings, but the only people who call them “Legos” are communists and thieves. They’re “Lego pieces” or “Lego blocks” or “pieces of Lego” or “Lego parts” or, if you really know what you’re talking about, simply “Lego,” as in “look at all that Lego.” Using the word “Legos” demonstrates that you are a worthless philistine. > > But again, no offense intended! Thanks for listening. Remember > [@Why no Brand Names in Sitcoms/TV Shows](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-no-brand-names-in-sitcoms-tv-shows/216948/7): > > Most likely to the Marx Brothers last movie, Love Happy. The producers ran out of money, so paid for the final sequence by featuring the logos of various companies. > [@Why no Brand Names in Sitcoms/TV Shows](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-no-brand-names-in-sitcoms-tv-shows/216948/8): > > > [@](#): > > > > In addition, as long is the brand name is used properly in the script\*, there is no grounds for a suit. … \*Basically, used as an adjective, not a noun or verb. > > There is no such standard of “proper” usage. A kid in a sitcom can say “I don’t want Legos for my birthday” or “I don’t want Lego blocks for my birthday.” The trademark owner might prefer the latter, but has no recourse (other than to send stern letters) if the line said is the former. > > Bottom line: We, as citizens, as writers, as broadcasters, as movie producers – basically as any kind of speaker – can use a brand name however we want. Trademark owners have absolutely no right or power to control our usage of language. It’s only when we slap that name on a product or service we’re selling that we can get into trouble. ---
**Author:** ![I\_Love\_Me\_Vol.I](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/i_love_me_vol.i/32/521_2.png) [@I\_Love\_Me\_Vol.I](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/I_Love_Me_Vol.I)\ **Post date:** [February 15, 2021, 10:05am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/a-critical-question-of-language/103250/51 "2021-02-15T10:05:45Z")
> [@RickJay](#): > > So what the proper pluralization? Lego, or Legos? Growing up I played with Lego a lot. I always called it “Lego” whether it was one piece or 100. When I first heard “Legos” some 20 years ago or so It bugged me. Still does. > [@Dead\_Cat](#): > > To add the British perspective: over here Lego is most commonly a collective noun; “let’s play with the Lego!” and “go and tidy up your Lego” are not referring to just one brick. The term “Legos” isn’t really used. Exactly. ---
**Author:** ![Alessan](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/alessan/32/465_2.png) [@Alessan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Alessan)\ **Post date:** [February 15, 2021, 2:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/a-critical-question-of-language/103250/52 "2021-02-15T14:08:05Z")
> [@pulykamell](#): > > Yeah, the words take a life of their own once they enter the wild. Like I said in another thread, “adidasy” has become the generic colloquial word for gym/tennis shoes/sneakers/trainers/etc and has been for decades. To an American ear, calling a Nike a pair of “Adidases” sounds quite odd, but in Polish, sounds perfectly fine. I’m sure all sorts of quirks like these can be found when words and brandnames enter the local language and even within the same language, depending on dialect, words may be analyzed differently and hence, different plurals, different pronunciations, etc. Or like how in Hebrew, the colloquial word for oats is “quacker”. Not “Quaker”, although that is the origin of the term, but rather “quacker”, as if you’re describing a duck. ---
**Author:** ![Acsenray](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/acsenray/32/4519_2.png) [@Acsenray](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Acsenray)\ **Post date:** [February 15, 2021, 2:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/a-critical-question-of-language/103250/53 "2021-02-15T14:12:16Z")
> [@pulykamell](#): > > Like I said in another thread, “adidasy” has become the generic colloquial word for gym/tennis shoes/sneakers/trainers/etc and has been for decades. To an American ear, calling a Nike a pair of “Adidases” sounds quite odd, but in Polish, sounds perfectly fine. My dad used to refer to all sneakers as “Keds,” a brand that I don’t think I’ve actually seen in real life. I think it was the common term for his generation in India. ---
**Author:** ![robardin](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/43a26b/32.png) [@robardin](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/robardin)\ **Post date:** [March 10, 2021, 1:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/a-critical-question-of-language/103250/54 "2021-03-10T13:44:52Z")
On the “Lego” vs. “Legos” divide: I assume this is partially also a US vs. UK (or non-US) divide, because in the States there is a completely unrelated food product called “Eggos” (frozen waffles), pronounced not as “egg-ohs” but “AY-goes” to rhyme with Lego(s). As seen on _Stranger Things_! (Actually that’s another question - do you say “LAY-go” or “LEH-go?” Hahaha.) And key to my point, their TV ads in my youth had the tagline, “Leggo my Eggo!” as someone protested an attempted swiping of their coveted breakfast. [![](https://img.youtube.com/vi/5uL8FZsYrf0/hqdefault.jpg "1989 Eggo Waffle "Leggo my Eggo" TV Commercial") ](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5uL8FZsYrf0) So unconsciously, since 1. “ **Leggo** my Eggo” has a homophone for “Lego” for the toy bricks, and 2. The food product is actually named in the plural as “Eggos” on the box, even if a single waffle taken from the box (of multiple) is called an “Eggo” 3. You see/hear this ad ALL THE TIME in formative years then in reverse, where a single toy brick might be thought of as “a Lego”, because it is a singular piece taken from a box, one might well think of that as “a box of Legos”. My guess is, since the toy bricks are actually pronounced with a short E, “LEH-go”, in their commercials (and in the original Danish phrase from which the name derives, I assume), anyone who says “Legos” is pronouncing it “LAY-goes” in subsconscious patterning after “Eggos”. I know because I do this, or did this, and never realized it nor stopped to think about why until just now. \*\*NOTE: um, I see in that video clip I linked to that the box just says “Eggo”. Well shoot. But I’m sure everyone I know calls them “Eggos”. ---
**Author:** ![Jasmine](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jasmine/32/2964_2.png) [@Jasmine](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jasmine)\ **Post date:** [March 10, 2021, 1:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/a-critical-question-of-language/103250/55 "2021-03-10T13:50:48Z")
Well, there are a LOT of things I never heard of until I got on the web. LOL In any case, “Lego” is a brand name for a set of construction blocks. To me, if you say, “There are 3 Legos on the floor.”, you are telling me that there are three separate sets on the floor. A simple solution is to simply say, “There are three Lego blocks on the floor.” Problem solved. ---
**Author:** ![Telemark](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/telemark/32/372_2.png) [@Telemark](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Telemark)\ **Post date:** [March 10, 2021, 2:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/a-critical-question-of-language/103250/56 "2021-03-10T14:12:41Z")
> [@Jasmine](#): > > “There are three Lego blocks on the floor.” Problem solved. Legos are bricks, not blocks. ---
**Author:** ![Dead\_Cat](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/9fc29f/32.png) [@Dead\_Cat](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dead_Cat)\ **Post date:** [March 10, 2021, 2:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/a-critical-question-of-language/103250/57 "2021-03-10T14:49:58Z")
WHAT? You seriously pronounce “Eggo” as “Ay-go”? How do you pronounce “egg”? Ayg? Also, I have never heard the “Lay-go” pronunciation for Lego. It’s Leg-o. ---
**Author:** ![robardin](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/43a26b/32.png) [@robardin](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/robardin)\ **Post date:** [March 10, 2021, 3:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/a-critical-question-of-language/103250/58 "2021-03-10T15:23:11Z")
Yes, the TV ad I linked to clearly pronounces it (to my ears) as “AY-go” waffles. Not “EGG-oh”. To the degree that the pronunciation of the tagline is forced to say “LAY-go my AY-go” where saying “LAY-go” for “leggo” is exaggerated purely for the rhyme effect. And saying “LAY-go” for the toy bricks is pretty common, too, I think. I guess because that’s how “LEGO” would naturally be pronounced in Spanish? I wouldn’t say either is definitively right or wrong; in fact I never thought about it until reading this thread. It’d be like asking if “sure” was pronounced “sherr” or “shore”. I hear and say it both ways, though one predominates (“shore” as in “Yeah, sure, whatever” but “sherr” in “Surely you jest” - maybe because of that Airplane! gag about “don’t call me Shirley” that wouldn’t work otherwise). Imagining stepping on a loose brick and complaining, “WHO LEFT ALL THIS LEGO SCATTERED ALL OVER THE FLOOR?” I’d probably be saying “LAY-go”. ---
**Author:** ![robardin](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/43a26b/32.png) [@robardin](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/robardin)\ **Post date:** [March 10, 2021, 3:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/a-critical-question-of-language/103250/59 "2021-03-10T15:35:05Z")
BTW, if calling the bricks “lay-go” blows your mind, if you Google for “lego pronounced as laygo” you’ll find that there is a third “accepted” way to pronounce it: … wait for it … “LEE-go”. (What?) But I guess I cannot judge. ---
**Author:** ![Eyebrows\_0f\_Doom](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/eyebrows_0f_doom/32/3119_2.png) [@Eyebrows\_0f\_Doom](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Eyebrows_0f_Doom)\ **Post date:** [March 10, 2021, 4:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/a-critical-question-of-language/103250/60 "2021-03-10T16:24:17Z")
> [@robardin](#): > > there is a completely unrelated food product called “Eggos” (frozen waffles), pronounced not as “egg-ohs” but “AY-goes” to rhyme with Lego(s). As seen on _Stranger Things_ ! WHAT are you taking about? “Eggos” _is_ pronounced like “egg-ohs.” It sounds _exactly_ like Legos. The commercial you linked to has everyone saying “egg-ohs.” On Stranger Things they say “egg-ohs.” Maybe if you have a super exaggerated Southern accent you might say “AY-goes.” I have also never _ever_ heard anyone call the bricks “Lay-goes.” [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/a-critical-question-of-language/103250.md?page=2) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/a-critical-question-of-language/103250.md?page=4)