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How to pronounce "vs."

Discussion in 'Journalism topics only' started by inthesuburbs, Oct 11, 2008.

  1. inthesuburbs

    inthesuburbs Member

    First, I heard it from a high school kid at the coffee shop, who said her homecoming game would be "verse" the rival school.

    Then I heard it from a college kid doing a sports broadcast. He was going to watch the "Reds verse the Dodgers."

    And this week, I heard it from a young reporter in our news department, in a podcast, when he referred to the debate of "Palin verse Biden."

    That's how they said it. Not versus, but verse. Sure, that's how it's abbreviated, but not how it's pronounced.

    As nicely as I could, I asked the reporter to re-record the podcast, and sent him to the Web for a pronunciation:

    http://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/versus

    My high school football coach was the Latin teacher, and a good one. I guess we're a long way from those days.

    Feeling old...
     
  2. Overrated

    Overrated Guest

    You're obviously well-versused in this matter.
     
  3. KYSportsWriter

    KYSportsWriter Well-Known Member

    [​IMG]
     
    Last edited by a moderator: Dec 15, 2014
  4. shockey

    shockey Active Member

    it's "versus." but the vernacular of youth has seen it evolve to where kids ask, "who are they 'versing?'" as if it's a verb.
     
  5. Magnum

    Magnum Member

    You mean it's not pronounced vizz?
     
  6. Rockbottom

    Rockbottom Well-Known Member

    Against.

    :)

    rb
     
  7. Bruce Leroy

    Bruce Leroy Active Member

    I didn't know this was a big deal. The word is versus, but people shorten it when they say it. Just like it can be shortened from versus to vs. in print.
     
  8. SF_Express

    SF_Express Active Member

    I know a lot of people who say "verse."

    "versus" is right ... but George Bush still says "nucular" ... so whatever....
     
  9. txsportsscribe

    txsportsscribe Active Member

    i've never heard anyone say it as "verse."
     
  10. spaceman

    spaceman Active Member

    It's versus. Would you pronounce the abbreviation of "et cetera" differently, just because it's abbreviated?
     
  11. Some Guy

    Some Guy Active Member

    Really? Seems to be the popular way kids pronounce it in my neck of the woods ... in texas.

    It's not that they're shortening it ... they just think the word is "verse." Ask 100 kids to spell out the abbreviation "vs." and I guarantee 90 of them write "verse."
     
  12. shotglass

    shotglass Guest

    Of course, I become irritated at the suggestion that we adjust the English language by the way the "kids are using it."

    The "kids" can learn the right way.
     
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