2 days ago
- Business
- Wall Street Journal
Vol. 38, No. 5: ‘An Nvidia'
We have a feeling that Nvidia will be in the news for a while, so let's clear up a couple of grammar/Wall Street Journal stylebook points that relate to the chip maker with the supersonic stock.
The easy one is its name. Every editor should know by now that the company presents its name in all-caps: NVIDIA. But it's Nvidia to us, under our rule that we allow a maximum of only four capped letters in a pronounceable proper name, to avoid having our articles look like alphabet soup. So, it's Nvidia—but, for example, NAACP since the latter isn't pronounceable.
Now, here's the style point that might blow some minds.
Do we say a Nvidia executive or an Nvidia executive? Probably many people will say the former, but that is only because many of us mispronounce Nvidia as 'Nah-VID-eeyah.' The article before the name should actually be 'an'—because Nvidia is pronounced en-VID-eeyah (as if the N is pronounced as a letter, then vidia). So as with any vowel sound, that calls for an not a before it. An Nvidia executive.
And this all really makes sense when we realize, as noted by WSJ tech writer Asa Fitch, that Nvidia's name was inspired by the Latin word for envy: invidia. Hence the pronunciation. (This also explains why the company's logo is green.)
A final point, for now: The stylebook notes that Nvidia is a chip maker or an AI chip company. Avoid calling it a manufacturer.
Always be careful if the phrase 'times more than' crops up. It has led to several corrections. One of the WSJ's latest was when we said that U.S. imports from China were three times larger than what was exported to China. But $438.9 billion, the imports-from-China number, is actually only two times larger than the export number of $143.5 billion. It's a common misconception to look at two figures such as those and write that one is 'three times larger.' We meant to say either two times larger, or preferably, three times as much.
Here's the math logic: When something doubles, it doesn't become two times larger. That would be a tripling. The phrase we want is twice as much. There's always one degree of difference between 'larger' and 'as much.'
The key words to watch out for are 'larger' (or the same problem with 'times more'). We always have to check if the math holds up. It often means that 'as much' is the phrase to use.
Meanwhile, watch for any times less likely phrases (mathematically impossible). See the times smaller/times more entry in the stylebook.
Send questions or comments to William Power at
ISSN 1054-7041
