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I've heard a lot of Americans pronounce abbreviations like GUI as goo-ey. Is this the same with British English, or is it more common to spell out the word, like gee-you-eye?

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I think "gooey" is also more common in the UK. I don't recall hearing another programmer spell it out, though I suppose I wouldn't be terribly puzzled if somebody did.

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    +1. I too have heard "gooey" far more than gee-you-eye in the UK. – psmears Apr 25 '11 at 20:21
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    In my experience, a lot of people coming out of college since the 90s tended to use GUI, perhaps because they had been taught by people for whom the Graphical component of the acronym was new/exciting/significant. Since virtually all User Interfaces are now graphical, it's hardly worth flagging it up any more. So UI is coming back into fashion - which is a good thing because everyone naturally pronounces that one as "you-eye". – FumbleFingers Sep 8 '11 at 16:59
  • So I'm all alone with "yooey"? Just kidding, although I had a non-techie friend who attempted to say GUI as "gwee". That one we didn't understand for a minute. – tdhsmith Sep 8 '11 at 19:41
  • I'm a Brit and I say goo-ey, as do all my techie friends. – Starkers Feb 18 '13 at 14:25
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As a non-programmer, but auditor of IT quality systems, I hear the non-techies say "gee-you-eye" while the techies say "gooey".

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  • You mean the non-techies pronounce it "guy"? – FumbleFingers Sep 8 '11 at 16:48

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