Pronunciation?

Aidypie

Forgive my ignorance, but I realized the other day that I don't actually know how to pronounce the initialism "AFOL". I don't believe that I've ever heard it pronounced in real life other than in Clutch Powers (:P) and I don't really know if I can trust that as a source.
So, my question is this:
Is it pronounced like A-fall, A-foal, or some other way?
Even if there isn't a real uniform way to say it, how do you say it?

cheshirecat

I say a-fol (like follow)

BooTheMightyHamster

I'm in the a (as in cat) fol (as in follow) camp, just like @cheshirecat‌ . You'll get people coming along saying 'No, the proper pronounciation is this, or that.'
Fact is, it's an acronym, and you can pronounce it however you like. People will know what you mean.

Edit - Re-reading cheshirecat's post, he may be in the 'Ay-fol' camp, in which case I disagree with him completely!
;oD

cheshirecat

No no I'm the a as in cat camp too.

Robatron86

A (cat) FOL (follow) for me

CapnRex101

I am in the A (as in hay) FOL (as in follow) camp :o)

Pitfall69

This conversation is "in tents".

msanders

LOL. This is a funny thread. I'm in the a (cat) fol (follow) camp, but I still can't get a**e hole out of my head when I say it. I can't remember whether its what I thought my son said when he repeated back the acronym when he overheard it. He's only 2 yrs old and his spoken words are not always clear so they can sound hilarious....!

TheLoneTensor

I pronounce it A-F-O-L, which is probably weird.

cheshirecat

As in Ay eF oh eL? Yep that is weird ;-)

Shib

Pronouncing each individual letter almost defeats the point of the acronym

bendybadger

My wife pronounces it AF (as if after) and OL (pronounced like oll in roll). Example "Are you still on that forum again with the rest of the Lego AFOL's?" At least I think that's what she says. :-)

iso3200

I'm with @CapnRex101 as A (as in hay) FOL (as in follow)

I was surprised in a Brand Store when the manager said it as A (cat) FOL (follow) during a conversation. It just didn't sound right to me.

GallardoLU

those in the AF OL camp need to be careful not to be miss heard, AF-OL could easily be misheard (I don't thin I need to tell you what it is similar to)

also I watched a documentary on Netflix about LEGO (its probably still on there) in which the term AFOL was explained but said as AF OL (as above). struck me as wrong when I heard it but hey maybe LEGO has given us the official pronunciation :P

P.S. I'm in the 'cat' group.

CapnRex101

@iso3200‌ - Yay! Welcome to the team :o)

Aidypie

I admit that I am also with @CapnRex101 and @iso3200‌--I've always said A (as in hay) FOL (as in follow).
Sorry, Cat Followers. :)

aimlesspursuits

I'm in the TheLoneTensor camp as I don't pronounce it but I spell it out letter by letter.

cheshirecat

I would have thought Americans would say A as in hay and then everyone else would say it the right way. ;-)

TheLoneTensor

Shib said:

Pronouncing each individual letter almost defeats the point of the acronym

Perhaps, if indeed it were an acronym. Instead, I consider it as an initialism, like YMCA, FBI, DVD, and so on.

Tomato, tomato. Nobody's really wrong here.

BrickDancer

^Same here, I'm spelling it out like FBI or CIA.

Shib

TheLoneTensor said:

Shib said:

Pronouncing each individual letter almost defeats the point of the acronym

Perhaps, if indeed it were an acronym. Instead, I consider it as an initialism, like YMCA, FBI, DVD, and so on.

Tomato, tomato. Nobody's really wrong here.

Fair point, but those examples can't really be pronounced as one word* and have far longer syllabled words than AFOL.
It's true that no ones wrong but for me the point of shortening a word in anyway is to save time.

Also I like the use of tomato, tomato...because I read them both the same way :-)

*I suppose technically they can but the pronunciations sound weird.

cheshirecat

^It is a good point, I've never once heard YMCA pronounced yumca but equally have never heard NATO anything over than neigh-toe.

SuperTramp

SuperTramp

I don't know about AFOL But for some reason everytime i see TFOL i think of this.

dejavu

I always thought of it as pronounced AWFUL. made me feel like a bad girl.

plasmodium

I'm in the @CapnRex101‌ school of Ay-Foll. :-)
And I'm English, so I certainly explode @cheshirecat‌'s theory.

cheshirecat

As is capnrex

plasmodium

cheshirecat said:

As is capnrex

So is @iso3200‌. Back to the drawing board, huh? :-P

Andor

plasmodium said:

I'm in the @CapnRex101‌ school of Ay-Foll. :-)
And I'm English, so I certainly explode @cheshirecat‌'s theory.

Your English?

TheLoneTensor

His English?

Aidypie

@TheLoneTensor‌ Beat me to it ;)

tedward

I am also in the A-F-O-L camp mostly because when I hear Ay-fall (the only pronunciation I have ever heard on the Pacific Coast of North America) I hear my friend's variant that stands for Adult Hobbyist Of LEGO or A-Hole. ;)

iso3200

I guess AHOL will always be the butt of the joke won't it :-p

plasmodium

Andor said:

plasmodium said:

I'm in the @CapnRex101‌ school of Ay-Foll. :-)
And I'm English, so I certainly explode @cheshirecat‌'s theory.

Your English?

Well, 'British' would be more accurate, but I'm not going to open that can of worms...

nexander

My 2 year old says it perfectly. He is trying to say 'apple' though!

Aidypie

@nexander‌ Sounds pretty adorable. ^^

Paperballpark

Seems like the main difference is how the A is pronounced. Whether it's A (ay) or a. I'm in the latter camp, and I suspect most UK peeps are too. the former seems to be a mostly American pronunciation.

plasmodium

Paperballpark said:

Seems like the main difference is how the A is pronounced. Whether it's A (ay) or a. I'm in the latter camp, and I suspect most UK peeps are too. the former seems to be a mostly American pronunciation.

Well, that's what @cheshirecat‌ said, and turns out three of the four "ay-"ers (so far) were all English...

matticus_bricks

TheLoneTensor said:

I pronounce it A-F-O-L, which is probably weird.

I too pronounce each individual letter. I use the same principle as acronyms like IT or IBM or FBI or CIA.

CapnRex101

Interestingly a few people have suggested that the pronunciation with the long A (ay) is more common in the US than the UK. This could well be accurate as the first time I heard the term spoken would probably have been on a YouTube video, where the majority of contributors are American rather than British, and I have therefore been influenced by that.

plasmodium

For me, it's because it's an acronym, so I sort of see it in chunks, kind of like "A-Fol".

TheLoneTensor

plasmodium said:

For me, it's because it's an acronym, so I sort of see it in chunks, kind of like "A-Fol".

That's part of the discussion though right? It's an acronym to you because you choose to treat it like an acronym. Some others don't, and as such, it's not an acronym to them.

BrickDancer

And a tidbit about the origin of "AFOL", it was coined in June 1995 in a USENET discussion group at rec.lego.toys by a Jeff Thompson. But no hint at how it was intended to be pronounced.

Lego tried to coin their own similar term for the kids segment "Kids with A Bunch Of Bricks" (KABOB), but that didn't seem to catch on much.

CupIsHalfEmpty

dejavu said:

I always thought of it as pronounced AWFUL. made me feel like a bad girl.

I also pronounced it that way and didn't really like the way it rolled off the tongue, so I would just spell it out. I guess I never thought to pronounce it differently.

But taking a step back, I don't really like how "Adult Fan Of Lego" sounds as a title. I'm hosting a LUG meeting this weekend. When I try to explain to non Lego friends and family who's coming over, I say "a bunch of Adult Fans Of Lego" it just sounds odd. I think it's the use of the word "Fan" how about "Enthusiast" or "Aficionado". Maybe we can coin a more sophisticated title, like "2nd Generation Lego Aficionado" to refer to builder/collectors who are no longer "kids" (AKA first Gener's) and are now, well, 2nd Generation Lego Aficionados. We can be the "2nd geners"

or maybe not... this was an afol idea.

Andor

Great Idea! And i see what you did there. :P

TheLoneTensor

As an observation, I've never referred to myself as an AFOL, nor do I think I would ever feel comfortable saying it aloud to another person (in any form or pronounciation), but that's just me. I just like Lego, and I happen to be an adult. If someone else wants to put a label on me as a result, that's up to them.

Shib

^Funnily enough I have a similar view, I only use the term in appropriate setting, e.g online forums or at Lego events. If I'm talking to anyone in the real world I generally use the term collector, just because it's far easier than explaining what an AFOL is, even if my collection is for building with rather than just for owning.

MorkMan

Can we change it to just FOL (as in foal)?
Why bother mentioning that we are/you are/they are an Adult? Or Teen? Or Kid?
Isn't that understood from context?
Those kids over there are FOL's. I wonder if their parents are FOL's?
The leading A, T, or K are extraneous.

klatu003

A.F.O.L. sounds ok.

A(cat) plus FOL sounds like awful.

A(hay) plus FOL sounds like this:

cheshirecat

A(cat) plus FOL sounds like awful.

No, that would be A(saw) plus FOL. Pronounced properly A(cat) plus FOL sounds nothing like awful.

klatu003

^pronounced properly... LOL.