A bit of a frivolous post, though if anyone can point to official guidance please do so.
My wife has a very small self-employment. She had always dealt with her tax return before we met, and likes to keep up with relevant matters herself. She was in a webinar by a trade body yesterday, and the presenters kept on treating it as rhyming with "cease". She hadn't thought about it before, but that just felt wrong to her.
Alternatives she has considerd
- Rhyme with seize
- Rhyme with says
- Rhyme with nice (her preference now she has thought about it)
Personally, when I refer to it in speech at all, which is rare, I have been saying the individual letters and not tried to make it a word.
Any views?
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I don't even abbreviate it, I say Self Employment Income Support Scheme from Her Majesty's Government every time it comes up in conversation.
Esseeeayeessess
as in SEISS
Not yet heard any attempt at anything else in all the Awed live productions
I say the letters but not necessarily in the right order - SEIS muddles things if I get the wrong number of Ss
Yes, me too!
I think I try but can only manage four letters, so S E S S, S E I S, S I S S, followed by oh - self employment grant.
I'm surprised no-one's mentioned the impact of (regional) accents, which can blur the differences between OP options - or even invent new ones. Give it a try in your best/worst approximation of brummie/geordie/scouser (all other options equally valid) and see how many variants you can create!
Personally, I don't. It's S E I S S.
Fun fact. W W W takes longer to say than World Wide Web.
Even shorter now web addresses don't begin WWW.
Generally, they do. It's just that browsers tend to autofill "www." now. (take a look in your address bar to see that it has been added).
Looking in my address bar. No www.
Not on this site or any of the 4 other sites I have open.
Except that Wikipedia says the correct translation of Carpe is 'pluck' not 'seize' ... oh hang on, we're talking about Boris. As you were!
My Oxford Latin dictionary gives several more meanings including consume, pick, plunder, and take.
I have a hatred for 'wordifying' letters, so I would spell it out.
One of our suppliers is B O C (for welding gases and the like).
Often referred to as "Bock" - puts my teeth right on edge..
To be fair, i think they are pretty commonly known as Bock.
Wordifying only troubles me when it's blatantly trying too hard - like SEISS (and remember when SOCIE, SOCI and SOIRE were a thing?)
@ stepurhan (OP).
Your question advises that your wife prefers:-
“Rhyme with nice (her preference now she has thought about it)”
I have to say that I’m with your wife.
No – I’d best re-phrase that:-
"I agree with your wife" :)
Regards.
Basil.
And with that simple rephrasing a great argument was averted. :-)No – I’d best re-phrase that:-
"I agree with your wife" :)
Can you pronounce CJRS? Or is it a myth that a pronounceable word must contain at least one vowel?
I seem to have the opposite issue from a lot of you.
I've pronounced it to rhyme with 'nice' from day one but most of my clients (when they can even remember what it's called) seem to like calling it S E I S S.
I rhyme it with nice too - less chance of stumbling over the individual letters and missing one. CJRS I just call job support scheme to avoid the same issue.
