That nerd would surely pronounce his kink /ΛleΙͺtΙk/. Also, nobody loves \LaTeX. Unrealistic. 3/10.
this post was submitted on 23 Jul 2025
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I do love LaTeX. Wrote every thesis and paper with it. Using bibtex was a lifesaver as I didnβt have to care for citations and references. Not caring about numbering, footnotes or annotations and having them automatically is amazing. Also structuring the thesis or paper into multiple separate files that work with version control has web a game changer for me
Even now i'm not in university anymore I use LaTeX for my CV and any formal letter I have to send.
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Also, nobody loves \LaTeX.
Lies, LaTeX is great.
Yes, absolutely.
But does anyone love it?
English is stupid, but how does "latex" get a "k" ending? I have heard people arguing for years that it's supposed to be pronounced that way, but never any justification for why.
From another comment:
The 'X' at the end of \LaTeX is actually a uppercase chi, so it pronounced with a 'k' sound.
It's also wrong, it's supposed to be a ch-sound as in Bach.
Depending on the time. In ancient Greek it was /k^h^/ (aspirated k, basically the normal k in English) which turned to /x/ as you said but neither is wRoNG, especially when your native language doesn't have one if the sounds
I had no idea that a software typesetting system was that old. Is that what Homer used to typeset the Odyssey?
The k-sound is used when the chi is prefixed in front of certain vowels. The ch-sound is the truly correct pronunciation here, there's no history involved for that.
Knuth, the guy who coined it, also says the ch-sound is the correct one, though he also says the k-sound is also acceptable. As long as you do not use the ks-sound at least :)
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Because it's not an X at the end, it's a Greek chi. Same with the arXiv preprint distribution
it's "archive," not are-ex-iv.
The greek Ο should be a "ch" sound like "Bach" or "Loch". And if you copy that last character from the project page or anything it's definitely an X, not a Ο.
Indeed, "CH" like "Bach" or "loch" is an accepted pronunciation of LaTeX. We didn't have unicode in the 1980s and LaTeX is a logotype so it doesn't really get to evolve.
Meh, it's pronounced Latex. I've chosen my hill to die on. Pretending it's a "k" or "ch" sound is dumb.
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Petition to change the name to RX4
99 what you did there...
(I know, IC isn't valid Roman numeral representation of 99, but it was the only joke I could think of.)
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You guys should try https://typst.app/
Love Typst, and I hope it takes off.
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Anyone else have any good latex quotes? Hereβs mine:
βI donβt mean to brag, but Iβm deathly allergic to latex.β
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As a long-time LaTeX user, I can confirm that there's quite a bit of overlap between that and masochism.
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LaTeX sheen, fursuit blush
Venn of this is just two concentric circles.
fake, no one likes LaTeX
TTIWWOP.
Curious, is anyone pronouncing them the same or does this only work in text?
Iβve not heard anyone pronounce them the same, but I donβt doubt theyβre out there. Probably a decent overlap with the people who pronounce GIF like the peanut butter.
It's pronounced yiff, right?
I guess Iβm one of them. Iβve never used LaTeX, but I donβt know how else Iβd pronounce that.
Lay-tech or Lah-tech is how I've been told it's pronounced, don't ask which one is correct, I don't know
The last sound being one that afaik doesn't exist in English. It's like the j in jalapeΓ±o but waaay guttural. It's the Greek letter Ο.
La-tech
The 'X' at the end of LaTeX is actually a capitol chi, so it pronounced with a 'k' sound.
It's actually a ch-sound, as in Bach. But Knuth also thinks the k-pronunciation is fine.
The tex there has the Greek letter chi instead of Latin x at the end and is supposed to be reminiscent of a Greek root from which we derived the word technique: techne or ΟΞΟΞ½Ξ·. The tex there is just pronounced tech usually. The original intention I believe was for it to sound like the ch in loch or bach but that sound isn't common in modern English.
Not to be too pedantic, the modern Greek chi is a voiceless velar fricative (or in some cases a voiceless palatal fricative) rather than uvular. The velar location is the same place English pronounces the letter k, uvular is a bit further back, more like the French r. It's a little confusing because the IPA uses the chi symbol for the voiceless uvular fricative even though Greek doesn't pronounce it that way. In Klingon, the voiceless velar fricative is written as H (I believe gh is a voiced velar fricative rather than uvular as well). I think the uvular consonants are q and Q. Apologies if my pedantry was unwelcome
Hey I'm regularly wrong and don't mind being corrected.
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My PhD supervisor insisted it was "Law-tex"
That's how you can tell if someone is into latex (kink), they don't feel comfortable calling LaTeX (tech) by the same pronunciation around people.
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I've only heard LaTeX pronounced like latex in media where someone uses it to show what a geek some character is. eg, I've been typsetting my homework assignments in latex since I was 9.
I've never encountered that kind of LaTeX in media.
I know how LaTeX is pronounced but I always read it the same as latex.
latex-project.org says "lah-tech" or "lay-tech"
Nah. I've said it like the English word in my head for decades. I'll keep doing it. Argle bargle.
It's like those 'kevinist' names where it sounds like 'taylor' but is spelled like 'wishbone' or something. Just. No.
(Hush, Ceilidh, I almost have a sound argument)
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Iβve literally never heard anybody pronounce them differently, your comment confused me at first but TIL.
Wait is the TeX not short for βtextβ? Iβve always pronounced them the same.
The "X" is the greek letter, pronounced like the ch in Bach. Knuth explains this in the TeXbook, think TeXnician, not TeXpert.
They're pronounced so differently my wife didn't get it until I informed her that LaTeX is how "latec" is spelled
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