How is “Espacenet” pronounced?
Here is how I have always pronounced it:
I checked with the EPO and here is what they wrote:
we would suggest: [Espassnet]. Would sound like a combination of the French “espace” and the English “net”.
At my request a nice EPO person recorded a sound file of the pronunciation, and here it is:
Here is a Youtube video in which an EPO person says “espacenet” over a dozen times:
So I think my pronunciation is correct. What do you think? Please post a comment below.
I pronounce it “E” spacenet. Very English.
I pronounce it as “EPO website” or “EPO database”.
I pronounce it “E” space and leave the net off completely. Not sure why the ‘net’ is there anyway.
The “net” is there because Espacenet is on the Internet. (“Espace” was the name of a series of CD, DVD products with patent data from the EPO, and it was logical to name the online successor “Espacenet”).
In London we go for the French sounding “espace” and the English “net”, with the emphasis on the second syllable.
…and I should add that the “a” of “espace” is pronounced as in “pat”
Your pronunciation is correct. It is meant to be pronounced the French way and not “eee”-“space” as in English.
Espassnet 🙂
Without thinking about the word or its origins, i have been pronouncing the word: “eee” “space” (as in American English) “net”.
However, now that you bring it up, the ess-pass-net pronunciation is in line, I believe, with French, Spanish, Italian, i.e., European pronunciation as compared to an American pronunciation.
Accordingly, i think ess-pass-net is correct ans will switch my pronunciation to the “correct” one!
I say, “E spass net,” but I’ve been doing this for 28 years. I find that younger or people who have not been in IP as long say, “E space net.”
To an unprepared US audience, E Space Net. Using the French-inspired pronunciation will confuse the audience for a bit, while they figure out what you meant, during which interval you will have lost their attention. (I wonder if this is related to our problem with other loan words that are or contain English homologs.)
I’ve heard it pronounced like the first recording. Phonetically, in English, it is “Ehspahsnet”.
It doesn’t matter how it is supposed to be pronounced. You should use whatever will be understood in the part of the world you happen to be in. In America this would most definitely be e-space-net. Just like e-commerce, e-mail, or any of the other vowel prefix electronic gizmos, such as the i-phone. I suppose e-space-net would sound funny if said in Europe, but if you said e-spass-net here you would sound at best pretentious, and at worst just plain weird. Besides, e-spass sounds like the American slur “spass”.
The Aussie, ocker approach is E SPACE NET, as if ‘E’ is a word, SPACE is a word and NET is a word.
Thanks for your pronouncation method, now i can remember how to spell it 🙂
The name Espacenet is derived from the colletion of patent information on the “Espace” cd-roms (produced by a french company and published by the European patent office).
To pronounce, take the french word “Espace” – like the Reneault car, stress on second syllable, and add “net” from internet to it: eSpassnet.
I call it Space Net because I am a sci fi fan.