# What do people "hear" when they read "F\*ck"? **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [March 15, 2004, 9:00am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-do-people-hear-when-they-read-f-ck/234402 "2004-03-15T09:00:17Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![TJdude825](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/dec6dc/32.png) [@TJdude825](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TJdude825)\ **Post date:** [March 16, 2004, 12:50am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-do-people-hear-when-they-read-f-ck/234402/21 "2004-03-16T00:50:38Z")
> [@Sarah23](#): > > There is name for people who “see” letters (usually associating certain colours with specifics letters, or “seeing” sounds, such as a dog’s bark or a baby’s cry), but I can’t remember what it is. 🙂 I think the word you’re thinking of is synesthetic, but I’m not sure it entirely applies here. Anyway, I hear something like “fuck – oops wait! I mean… not fuck… darn I said it again… ok how about if i just say something that reminds people of the word, but then doesn’t actually say it, like using an asterisk or something… yes that’s a good idea. nobody will ever be offended this way.” :rolleyes: ---
**Author:** ![Ruby](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/13edae/32.png) [@Ruby](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ruby)\ **Post date:** [March 16, 2004, 1:12am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-do-people-hear-when-they-read-f-ck/234402/22 "2004-03-16T01:12:16Z")
I’m another one that hears “fick”. Since the asterisk is almost superscript, it reminds me of the dot of an “i”. “g-d” sorta sounds like “guuh’-duh”. Can’t really explain that one. 🙂 Acronyms have sounds too. IANAL sounds like i-anal. Not a pretty image. ---
**Author:** ![umop\_ap\_sdn](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/u/dbc845/32.png) [@umop\_ap\_sdn](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/umop_ap_sdn)\ **Post date:** [March 16, 2004, 2:05am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-do-people-hear-when-they-read-f-ck/234402/23 "2004-03-16T02:05:11Z")
F\*ck = “fck”, no vowel. G-d = “gd”, also no vowel. IANAL sounds like 5 words of only one or two sounds each: “I-æ-n-æ-ell” ---
**Author:** ![Silver\_Serpentine](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/3be4f8/32.png) [@Silver\_Serpentine](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Silver_Serpentine)\ **Post date:** [March 16, 2004, 2:29am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-do-people-hear-when-they-read-f-ck/234402/24 "2004-03-16T02:29:06Z")
I hear “fock” for f\*ck, and “gu’odd” for g-d (like a little skip). ---
**Author:** ![DevilDan](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/e495f1/32.png) [@DevilDan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DevilDan)\ **Post date:** [March 16, 2004, 2:38am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-do-people-hear-when-they-read-f-ck/234402/25 "2004-03-16T02:38:21Z")
> [@gotpasswords](#): > > No [Unix](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fsck) geeks here yet? > > It’s a Unix disk utility similar to the Windows scandisk. Well, f\*ck me. I actually do “hear” a phonetic “fsck” in my head. Now it’s going to start bothering me. ---
**Author:** ![BuckleberryFerry](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/5f9b8f/32.png) [@BuckleberryFerry](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BuckleberryFerry)\ **Post date:** [March 16, 2004, 3:55am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-do-people-hear-when-they-read-f-ck/234402/26 "2004-03-16T03:55:21Z")
> [@cityboy916](#): > > F\*ck = “fck”, no vowel. > G-d = “gd”, also no vowel. > IANAL sounds like 5 words of only one or two sounds each: “I-æ-n-æ-ell” Seconded. Sounds like the censors used to merely block out the word are being used to block out the vowels. ---
**Author:** ![Starguard](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/8dc957/32.png) [@Starguard](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Starguard)\ **Post date:** [March 16, 2004, 4:17am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-do-people-hear-when-they-read-f-ck/234402/27 "2004-03-16T04:17:26Z")
\*\* F \*\* = For **U** = Unlawful **C** = Carnal **K** = Knowledge There was once a movie named this :eek: ---
**Author:** ![Madness2MyMethod](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/4af34b/32.png) [@Madness2MyMethod](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Madness2MyMethod)\ **Post date:** [March 16, 2004, 4:49am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-do-people-hear-when-they-read-f-ck/234402/28 "2004-03-16T04:49:10Z")
my mind just tries to sound out what is there. f\*ck sounds like fck in my head f\*\*king sounds like fking I rarely see G\_D, but when I saw it the first time in this thread, I just said the letters in my head, “G” “D”. I hear the words in my head as I read them. I’m told this is a result of how we’re taught to read in elementary school, and that “speed readers” unlearn this habit and read chunks of a sentence without sounding anything out. ---
**Author:** ![vivalostwages](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/v/d07c76/32.png) [@vivalostwages](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/vivalostwages)\ **Post date:** [March 16, 2004, 4:51am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-do-people-hear-when-they-read-f-ck/234402/29 "2004-03-16T04:51:05Z")
I imagine it sounds the way Drew Barrymore sounded in **Donnie Darko** after she got fired, went outside, and yelled “FUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUCK!” at the top of her lungs. ---
**Author:** ![emekthian](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/ecae2f/32.png) [@emekthian](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/emekthian)\ **Post date:** [March 16, 2004, 5:06am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-do-people-hear-when-they-read-f-ck/234402/30 "2004-03-16T05:06:57Z")
I hear it it as “fuck”. I hear IMHO as “im-hoe”, like him without the h, then hoe. ---
**Author:** ![netscape\_6](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/8c91f0/32.png) [@netscape\_6](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/netscape_6)\ **Post date:** [March 16, 2004, 5:49am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-do-people-hear-when-they-read-f-ck/234402/31 "2004-03-16T05:49:20Z")
> [@Ruby](#): > > Acronyms have sounds too. IANAL sounds like i-anal. Not a pretty image. I hear it as the name for something you sit on. ---
**Author:** ![vivalostwages](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/v/d07c76/32.png) [@vivalostwages](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/vivalostwages)\ **Post date:** [March 16, 2004, 8:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-do-people-hear-when-they-read-f-ck/234402/32 "2004-03-16T20:04:43Z")
For a long time, I thought the first M in MPSIMS stood for “Mindless.” ---
**Author:** ![The\_Controvert](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/dec6dc/32.png) [@The\_Controvert](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/The_Controvert)\ **Post date:** [March 16, 2004, 10:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-do-people-hear-when-they-read-f-ck/234402/33 "2004-03-16T22:36:57Z")
> [@vivalostwages](#): > > For a long time, I thought the first M in MPSIMS stood for “Mindless.” Hey, I thought that too! ---
**Author:** ![Hauky](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/0ea827/32.png) [@Hauky](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Hauky)\ **Post date:** [March 16, 2004, 10:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-do-people-hear-when-they-read-f-ck/234402/34 "2004-03-16T22:49:28Z")
To me, f\*ck is fuck, @$$ is ass, and so on. The only one that’s different is G-d, since I hadn’t encountered it until recently. I tend to still think it as Gee dee (I didn’t know what it meant at first), but once in a while it turns into God in my head, too. I’m still working on it. 😉 fsck is eff-sock, by the way, probably because the first time I encountered it (I improperly shut down my brand new Redhat 7.1 install), I figured it must mean “file socket.” I’m not entirely sure what a file socket is. Another interesting tidbit: when I say “What the fuck?” out loud, I find myself thinking “WTF?” I’ve tried pronouncing that, but it doesn’t work very well; the closest I’ve gotten is “whut-fuh?” I pretty much try turning every acronym into pronouncable words, but the ones without vowels are kind of hard. ---
**Author:** ![netscape\_6](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/8c91f0/32.png) [@netscape\_6](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/netscape_6)\ **Post date:** [March 17, 2004, 6:02am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-do-people-hear-when-they-read-f-ck/234402/35 "2004-03-17T06:02:34Z")
I don’t why but for some reason I don’t bother to pronounce WTF. Just about Every other word I read get pronounced. Just not WTF for some reason. ---
**Author:** ![netscape\_6](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/8c91f0/32.png) [@netscape\_6](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/netscape_6)\ **Post date:** [March 17, 2004, 6:09am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-do-people-hear-when-they-read-f-ck/234402/36 "2004-03-17T06:09:05Z")
Let me restate that. When I read it’s like this: say the statement: “I was like I was like WTF? It was so big and bright blue.” When reading it in my head it would be like I would hear all the words but WTF. It’s hard to explain. ---
**Author:** ![Engywook](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/bc8723/32.png) [@Engywook](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Engywook)\ **Post date:** [March 17, 2004, 10:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-do-people-hear-when-they-read-f-ck/234402/37 "2004-03-17T22:07:29Z")
> [@netscape 6](#): > > Let me restate that. When I read it’s like this: say the statement: “I was like I was like WTF? It was so big and bright blue.” When reading it in my head it would be like I would hear all the words but WTF. It’s hard to explain. Because W is the only letter in the alphabet whose name in English hogs three whole syllables. IMHO, internet abbreviations aren’t pronounced in one’s head at all - they’re read the same way as icons or images inserted in text. You know what it is, but you don’t hear a thing. YMMV. 😉 ---
**Author:** ![umop\_ap\_sdn](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/u/dbc845/32.png) [@umop\_ap\_sdn](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/umop_ap_sdn)\ **Post date:** [March 18, 2004, 6:45am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-do-people-hear-when-they-read-f-ck/234402/38 "2004-03-18T06:45:00Z")
> [@Engywook](#): > > Because W is the only letter in the alphabet whose name in English hogs three whole syllables That’s why I never pronounce the letters in WWW. I say “world wide web.” When people hear me say “world wide web dot something-or-other dot com”, they know I mean www. 🙂 And WTF to me is “wh-tff”. ---
**Author:** ![Sleel](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/73ab20/32.png) [@Sleel](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sleel)\ **Post date:** [March 18, 2004, 8:40am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-do-people-hear-when-they-read-f-ck/234402/39 "2004-03-18T08:40:29Z")
> [@RandomLetters](#): > > I don’t hear anything when I read F\*ck. Or any other text, for that matter. My inner dialog is text only, no sounds. I’m pretty much like **RandomLetters** in that I don’t hear things when I read. The only time I have to slow down and “pronounce” things is when I get to names or foreign languages in the text. I went to an introductory speed-reading course once and they said that subvocalizing physically or mentally is one of the main limiting factors in learning to read quickly. Since I started reading when I was about three (before my first clear memory in fact) I may have skipped the letter-to-sound stage very early on. That probably explains my fast, though not spectacular, reading speed of around 700 WPM. Seeing “f\*ck” in text makes me mentally pause, until I can match the concept with the text, but it doesn’t make me hear it. [aside] A side effect of this is that I have a hard time remembering fiction characters’ names since the name becomes kind of like a glyph for all the personality traits, physical description, and actions associated with the character in the story. When I see “Anne” in “Anne of Green Gables” I don’t really see the word, I skip straight to the gestalt “girl with red hair (which she hates) and a stubborn personality who is prone to misadventure living in a house with green-painted gables, etc…” [/aside] ---
**Author:** ![fluffball86](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/bc8723/32.png) [@fluffball86](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/fluffball86)\ **Post date:** [March 18, 2004, 2:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-do-people-hear-when-they-read-f-ck/234402/40 "2004-03-18T14:22:09Z")
> [@](#): > > That’s why I never pronounce the letters in WWW. I say “world wide web.” When people hear me say “world wide web dot something-or-other dot com”, they know I mean www. I say Dub Dub Double Yew. > [@](#): > > side effect of this is that I have a hard time remembering fiction characters’ names since \*\*the name becomes kind of like a glyph \*\* for all the personality traits, physical description, and actions associated with the character in the story Ditto for me, esp if the name appears a lot, or if it is something hard to pronounce (ie Joe is easy to pronounce so unless it is every second word I always pronounce it). Almost any word that is hard to pronounce just becomes a group of letters. In com sci we use the same commands/variable names over and over and over, so those become meaningless shapes too. Sort of like when you say a word many times, and it just becomes a sound pattern. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-do-people-hear-when-they-read-f-ck/234402.md?page=1)