# Do You read a "$" like an "S" when it is written as part of a word? **URL:** \ **Category:** Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share\ **Tags:** trump\ **Created:** [January 21, 2025, 2:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-you-read-a-like-an-s-when-it-is-written-as-part-of-a-word/1013211 "2025-01-21T14:01:45Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 18\ **Page:** 1
**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:** [January 21, 2025, 2:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-you-read-a-like-an-s-when-it-is-written-as-part-of-a-word/1013211/1 "2025-01-21T14:01:45Z")
This, of course, could just as well be in The Pit, where it may well end up anyway. I wouldn’t mind… But to keep it short: When you read $MELANIA or $TRUMP do you read it like Smell-ania and Strumpf (sock in German, in case it is relevant), so that both together become a _smelly sock_? Or is the dollar sign so far away from a capital _ **s** _ in your mind that it does not accur to you to form these words. I, for one, have the impression somebody is trolling the presidential couple big time. Of course, some people would not mind a little trolling in exchange for several **billion** $. BTW: $TRUMP and $MELANIA are not easy to write in this board: you have to put a \ before the $ or HTML does funny things with your text afterwards. ---
**Author:** ![LSLGuy](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/lslguy/32/5813_2.png) [@LSLGuy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/LSLGuy)\ **Post date:** [January 21, 2025, 2:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-you-read-a-like-an-s-when-it-is-written-as-part-of-a-word/1013211/2 "2025-01-21T14:16:50Z")
Depends. In software development in certain languages and environments it’s very common to prefix words representing variable values with “$”. After years in that biz, I mentally pronounce your examples as “dollar melania” and “dollar trump”. Where “dollar” doesn’t contain any connotation of money; it’s just a semantically meaningless symbol like “#melania” is pronounced “pound melania” or “&melania” is pronounced “amp melania”. Or, for humor, “!melania” is pronounced “bang melania”. Conversely, when somebody writes a word with embedded $, such as “a$$hat” or “dealer$hip”, I mentally pronounce that as if they’re "S"s: “asshat” & “dealership”. But with a “flavor” or emotional tone of derision or contempt somehow related to money. ---
**Author:** ![Munch](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/munch/32/5281_2.png) [@Munch](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Munch)\ **Post date:** [January 21, 2025, 2:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-you-read-a-like-an-s-when-it-is-written-as-part-of-a-word/1013211/3 "2025-01-21T14:17:07Z")
Only in the middle of a word. As written, I understand it to mean it’s some sort of crypto or stock indicator - a financial hashtag of sorts. ---
**Author:** ![TriPolar](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/tripolar/32/3008_2.png) [@TriPolar](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TriPolar)\ **Post date:** [January 21, 2025, 2:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-you-read-a-like-an-s-when-it-is-written-as-part-of-a-word/1013211/4 "2025-01-21T14:19:55Z")
I interpret ‘1 $billion’ as ‘1 billion dollars’. ---
**Author:** ![Mangetout](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mangetout/32/19_2.png) [@Mangetout](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mangetout)\ **Post date:** [January 21, 2025, 2:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-you-read-a-like-an-s-when-it-is-written-as-part-of-a-word/1013211/5 "2025-01-21T14:22:36Z")
Yeah, although I recognise it as a dollar sign, the fact that I’m not in a place where dollars are currency does (I think) make it seem like it might be intended as an S, if I see it in any context that isn’t recognisable as ‘currency’ to me (of which $TRUMP would be an example - I had to google that to figure out it’s his crypto thing) ---
**Author:** ![Mangetout](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mangetout/32/19_2.png) [@Mangetout](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mangetout)\ **Post date:** [January 21, 2025, 2:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-you-read-a-like-an-s-when-it-is-written-as-part-of-a-word/1013211/6 "2025-01-21T14:26:35Z")
Offtopic, but I frequently get scam emails offering me the chance to participate in the supposed embezzlement of sums such as $100,000,000,000 billion dollars USD - that is: ‘_100 quintillion dollars dollars US dollars_’. Cubic dollars are good for building wealth, or building anything, really. ---
**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:** [January 21, 2025, 2:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-you-read-a-like-an-s-when-it-is-written-as-part-of-a-word/1013211/7 "2025-01-21T14:30:45Z")
> [@Mangetout](#): > > of which $TRUMP would be an example - I had to google that to figure out it’s his crypto thing) He just started it the day before the inauguration. She started hers the day of the inauguration. That was yesterday. Seems like ages ago already… And it seems to be an important distinction that it is not his crypto thing, but his crypto _meme_ thing. ---
**Author:** ![Thudlow\_Boink](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/thudlow_boink/32/320_2.png) [@Thudlow\_Boink](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Thudlow_Boink)\ **Post date:** [January 21, 2025, 4:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-you-read-a-like-an-s-when-it-is-written-as-part-of-a-word/1013211/8 "2025-01-21T16:09:17Z")
> [@Pardel-Lux](#): > > When you read $MELANIA or $TRUMP do you read it like Smell-ania and Strumpf I’ve never seen those. I thought from the thread title that you were asking about things like the name of recording artist Kedollarsignha. ---
**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:** [January 21, 2025, 4:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-you-read-a-like-an-s-when-it-is-written-as-part-of-a-word/1013211/9 "2025-01-21T16:21:31Z")
As I wrote, they are new. He started his 48 hours ago, she hers 24 hours ago. And it has been highly lucrative so far. Next one, I guess, will be $BARRON. ---
**Author:** ![Thudlow\_Boink](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/thudlow_boink/32/320_2.png) [@Thudlow\_Boink](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Thudlow_Boink)\ **Post date:** [January 21, 2025, 4:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-you-read-a-like-an-s-when-it-is-written-as-part-of-a-word/1013211/10 "2025-01-21T16:23:40Z")
If the dollar sign were at the end, I’d read it as “string” (thanks to all my years programming in BASIC). ---
**Author:** ![WOOKINPANUBv.2](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/wookinpanubv.2/32/3260_2.png) [@WOOKINPANUBv.2](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/WOOKINPANUBv.2)\ **Post date:** [January 21, 2025, 5:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-you-read-a-like-an-s-when-it-is-written-as-part-of-a-word/1013211/11 "2025-01-21T17:56:32Z")
I read it like an “s”, mostly because that’s how I use it in many of my passwords. Melania will forever be Smelania, now. ---
**Author:** ![MrDibble](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mrdibble/32/114_2.png) [@MrDibble](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MrDibble)\ **Post date:** [January 21, 2025, 6:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-you-read-a-like-an-s-when-it-is-written-as-part-of-a-word/1013211/12 "2025-01-21T18:44:52Z")
> [@LSLGuy](#): > > After years in that biz, I mentally pronounce your examples as “dollar melania” and “dollar trump”. Same. Except # is “hash” for me. ---
**Author:** ![Ludovic](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/7ab992/32.png) [@Ludovic](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ludovic)\ **Post date:** [January 21, 2025, 6:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-you-read-a-like-an-s-when-it-is-written-as-part-of-a-word/1013211/13 "2025-01-21T18:52:36Z")
I do in the case of $TRUMP, possibly because my eyes mentally complete it as “Strumpet”, where as $melania doesn’t literally begin with “smell”. Anyway, the full word made me immediately think of a good nickname for people who hawk the coin. ---
**Author:** ![Projammer](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/projammer/32/559_2.png) [@Projammer](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Projammer)\ **Post date:** [January 21, 2025, 7:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-you-read-a-like-an-s-when-it-is-written-as-part-of-a-word/1013211/14 "2025-01-21T19:01:48Z")
Programmer here, so a $ preceding a word defaults to a variable name. In places where it’s obviou$ly replacing an S it gets interpreted as an S. Presumably to get past censor filters, ---
**Author:** ![scudsucker](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/scudsucker/32/14101_2.png) [@scudsucker](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/scudsucker)\ **Post date:** [January 22, 2025, 7:42am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-you-read-a-like-an-s-when-it-is-written-as-part-of-a-word/1013211/15 "2025-01-22T07:42:12Z")
> [@MrDibble](#): > > Except # is “hash” for me. Pah! We pedants know the symbol as an “octothorpe” ---
**Author:** ![Mangetout](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mangetout/32/19_2.png) [@Mangetout](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mangetout)\ **Post date:** [January 22, 2025, 9:11am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-you-read-a-like-an-s-when-it-is-written-as-part-of-a-word/1013211/16 "2025-01-22T09:11:14Z")
Choice of upper or lower case makes a slight difference to my perception too - I suppose because (at least in the typeface I am seeing here) $ more closely resembles an uppercase S than lower. So $TRUMP looks - to me - more like STRUMP than $trump or $Trump look like Strump or STrump (even accounting for expected initial capitalisation of proper nouns). ---
**Author:** ![DPRK](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/4491bb/32.png) [@DPRK](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DPRK)\ **Post date:** [January 22, 2025, 11:49am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-you-read-a-like-an-s-when-it-is-written-as-part-of-a-word/1013211/17 "2025-01-22T11:49:06Z")
You will know when to read a “$” like an “S”. It is called |\_33"|"$|7&&1\< ---
**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:** [January 22, 2025, 4:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-you-read-a-like-an-s-when-it-is-written-as-part-of-a-word/1013211/18 "2025-01-22T16:09:48Z")
> [@Pardel-Lux](#): > > Next one, I guess, will be $BARRON. Oh, no! It was $BARRON, but it was not set up by the Trumps. There are other grifters out there! Shocking! > **[Traders lose millions on 'fake' Barron meme coin that has no link to Trump's son](https://www.the-express.com/news/politics/161200/barron-trump-meme-coin-melania)** > > A fake $BARRON meme coin inspired by Donald Trump's son but with no official link surged by 90% in a minute before completely losing its value.