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by OJFord 1107 days ago
G'day - just to add for British English, here it's pronounced 'ton' (same as a ton) rhyming with 'stun' or TUN if you will.

It's extremely rare (don't think I've ever heard it) - except maybe in some industries still, I don't know - but there's an interesting history of advocacy/use of saying 'ton-E' or 'tunnie', to disambiguate the same way AmE pronounces it 'metric ton'.
1 comments
Jedd 1107 days ago
Aha, but are you from the south?

I've never heard it pronounced as a two-syllable word in the UK, but I confess to only very occasionally travelling north of Luton.

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OJFord 1107 days ago
SW, couldn't get much nearer the coast, yep.

I don't think it was ever common parlance, just important to disambiguate in some industries. Similarly I think 'thou' (-sandth of an inch) is preferred over 'mil' since that's such a common abbreviation of 'millimetre' (which =39thou, so you want to get that right).

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Jedd 1107 days ago
There was an article posted here a few months back on the subject of 'thousands of an inch', the misuse of 'mill', etc - and a slight digression around how our friends on the far side of the pond are fascinated by fractions.

https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=34891145

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