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How to pronounce T-SQL

acronym contested

T sequel /ˌtiː ˈsiːkwəl/ mp3
or: T S Q L /ˌtiː ˌɛs kjuː ˈɛl/

T-SQL is most commonly pronounced "T sequel" (/ˌtiː ˈsiːkwəl/). This is one of several readings in active use; the developer community hasn't converged on a single answer.

Microsoft's dialect: 'tee-sequel' is the common reading, but plenty of DBAs say the letters 'tee-ess-kyoo-ell'. Both are in circulation inside Microsoft's own docs and talks.

Alternate readings you might hear:

Pronouncing project and product names correctly avoids the small but persistent friction of being gently corrected during standups, conference Q&As, and team calls. Hearing the word a few times locks in the right reading better than reading IPA ever will. Pronounce is a community-maintained dictionary — every entry tagged with a confidence level and (where possible) a citable source.

How do you pronounce T-SQL?

T-SQL is pronounced "T sequel" (/ˌtiː ˈsiːkwəl/). Microsoft's dialect: 'tee-sequel' is the common reading, but plenty of DBAs say the letters 'tee-ess-kyoo-ell'. Both are in circulation inside Microsoft's own docs and talks.

What is the IPA for T-SQL?

The IPA for T-SQL is /ˌtiː ˈsiːkwəl/, respelled "T sequel".

Is T-SQL sometimes pronounced "T S Q L"?

Yes — "T S Q L" (/ˌtiː ˌɛs kjuː ˈɛl/) is one of the alternate readings of T-SQL in active use.

Hear it from the command line

$ say-it T-SQL # primary × 3 + audible "or: …" for each alternate
$ say-it --alt T-SQL # focus on the first alternate
$ say-it --all T-SQL # primary AND every alternate, each repeated
$ say-it --solo T-SQL # primary only, no "or: …" tail
$ say-it --why T-SQL # print the dict entry with source URL

Install the CLI: curl -fsSL https://pronounce.renlab.ai/install.sh | bash

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About this entry

Audio on this page plays the committed canonical MP3 first and uses Web Speech only as a fallback if playback fails. The CLI (say-it T-SQL) passes the same English-like respelling to its detected OS TTS backend. Found an issue or want to add a reading? Contribute on GitHub.

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