How do you pronounce FAQs?

Facks.
:)

That’s how I do it, and I ain’t changin’ for nothin’.

me too

As far as i’m concerned your first answer is right, individual letters – Eff Ayy Cue’s.

Interesting…I’m in the Faks/Facks camp, and my teenage children are on the ‘individual letters’ side. I was assuming it was a generational thing, but apparently not :)

Honestly, I think it’s acceptable either way. With acronyms it seems to be the rule that if you can say it without looking like a doofus it’s said like a word, otherwise spell it out. Like the difference between NATO and the AARP. You don’t say ‘arp’.

UNICEF / NAACP: Yoonisef or N Double A C P
HIV / AIDS: H I V or AIDS
Etc.

I read “fax”.

Individual letters. I’ve actually never heard facks or fax.

I think if the letters of the acronym make a reasonable sounding word (N.A.T.O) then it is commonly said as a word (Nato). Otherwise (AARP), you would likely say each individual letter (The aye aye are pee).

F.A.Q. has the distinction of working both ways. That would make it bisensical I suppose.

I say “Eff-Ay-Kyoos.”

I say “frequently asked questions”.

Fucks. I’m not mature enough for anything better.

And my Dutch pronunciation of ‘faq’ probably helps as well :P

@cprevite: That’s what I said. :-P

Letters Usually Require Vocal Expression

I say faks, but that’s just ‘cause I’m lazy.
Logically, it should be eff ay kyoo.

Like Asmont and Cprevite already pointed out,
the rule of thumb seems to be that if you can pronounce
the acronym without sounding like a total idiot, AARP! do it.

But! NATO does not have the same issues as FAQs!
FAQs sounds a lot like facts and is close
enough in context to cause confusion.

Soooo…eff ay kyoo it is.

fax is my vote.

@asmonet I knew I was channeling someone much smarter than me. I should have said “as asmonet said..”.

@Nims! How dare you!

@cprevite: Oh well, in that case. We still tight.

@asmonet so tight – we squeak

@asmonet Eh, lazy usually wins anyway.
[squeak]

@Nimis & @asmonet: Am I being teased here? Now I feel like a DOOFUS (Dangerously, Overbearing, Omnipresent, Flutherer, Under, Scrutiny)

Jesus Captian! Aye dn’t read her answer. I’m only one man.

@cprevite Certainly not! And I would out-doofus you anyday.
We squeak in unison, brother! That being said… [squeak, squeak]

You know what they say: great minds squeek alike

F-A-Q.

@cprevite: Actually, something is only called an acronym when it can be pronounced. If not it is called an initialism.

Facks. Also, I say hivv. As in, “Make sure you wear protection so you don’t get the hivv”.

@bluemukaki Well then that invalidates the whole thread – dammit. <stomps off in mock indignation>>

I don’t think I talk about them much, but when I do, I guess I am most likely to echo the pronunciation that someone else has just used.

I’d rather hear “F-A-Qs” than “facks” because the sound of the latter is too easily confused with “facts” and can cause misunderstanding. I’m all on the side of clarity in any situation.

F-A-Qs seems to make more sense to me.

I’m in the letters camp. As @Jeruba said, I feel like I’m mis-pronouncing “facts” if I say it the other way.

eff ayy cue.
I have heard of facks, and in my mind I say that (not that I talk to myself, I will be on the internet and thinking, ”...ok…click on the “facks” word…”)
Frequently Asked Questions.

squeak

better late than never.

So much for in unison.

@Jeruba: I agree, it’s a bit confusing if it’s pronounced that way. I’ve never heard it pronounced as “facks”.

:’( sad

@KrystaElyse, or maybe you did but didn’t recognize it!

I kind of like that it sounds like facts. After all, isn’t that what we’re looking when reading the FAQs?

It can be an impediment to understanding, especially in a technical situation.

Me: I keep getting this strange error message.
Tech. support: Did you check the facts?
Me: What facts do you mean? I copied the message. You want to hear it?
Tech. support: The facts. The facts. Did you check them? The frequently asked questions. <you dummy>

I see how that could be frustating. I’m only ever using the phrase at home, so that never occurred to me!

Here’s another example, and this is one that has got me more than once in team meeting situations.

“We want to add some facts to our webpage.”
What, everything we’ve got up there now is lies?
“Does anyone want to volunteer to help write some facts?”
Any particular subject?
“You know—F-A-Qs. We want to have an F-A-Qs page linked to our team page.”
So we’re not going to wait and see if anybody asks some questions, and then pick the ones that are frequently asked? No? We’re just going to concoct them and call them FAQs when theyre really just a catchall page of miscellaneous information? Oh. That’s what I thought.

A major high-tech company posted an announcement on a new product a couple of days ago that included an invitation to see common FAQs about the product. Aside from the fact that if it is brand new, it’s a little soon to have a collection of FAQs, I’d actually be curious to have a look at the rare FAQs.

F-A-Q. :)

<—Always late.
[squeak]

^lame

squeaky squeak!

I wish to revise myself. I say “Fack”. In my opinion, the Q in FAQ stands for QuesionS, so I think of “FAQs” as analogous to saying “TCBY Yogurt”.

So, I don’t say anything for FAQs. I just smirk.

F-A-Q. Same reason as Jeruba.

I actually say the three words out.

what kinda d.o.r.k. am i?