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Recently, I found "2x4" as a weapon in a game I played.

I found that it's a common standard for lumber board.

I tried to pronounce it as "two multiplies four" but it feels really weird.

How should I pronounce this word?

ColleenV
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eth4io
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    Great answers from everyone here - I agree with 2x4 being correct for this context. Just for reference, though, I would like to point out that the standard usage of 'x' as in multiplication (e.g. 5x3=15) would be as 'multiplied by', not simply 'multiplies' - i.e. 5x3 would in most common dialects be pronounced as 'five multiplied by three', not 'five multiplies three'. – Geza Kerecsenyi May 29 '20 at 16:29
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    @Geza: I think "Five times three" is much more likely. – Nick Matteo May 29 '20 at 18:26
  • @NickMatteo Also true; I was just looking to correct the inherently non-conventional usage in the post, not necessarily prescribe the standard usage. – Geza Kerecsenyi May 29 '20 at 19:53
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    A 2-by-4 is not a board. It is too thick, especially in comparison with its width. See https://www.dictionary.com/browse/board -- Yes, I see the caption "A common 2x4 board" in Wikipedia, but the opportunity to edit a Wikipedia article does not guarantee one will write it correctly. You can distinguish your 2x4 from other things that might be written 2x4 by writing "2x4 (lumber)" or even "2x4 (piece of wood)". – David K May 30 '20 at 03:06
  • @DavidK I agree that it'd be a stretch to call a length of lumber 2" thick and 4" wide on its own a "board." By the way, the term 2″ × 4″ refers to the cross-section dimensions of 2 by 4 inches, thought that might be worth pointing out because metric. And as I type this, I think adding the double prime notation for inches does a fairly good job at disambiguation. But anyway, as you may already be aware, it's only a historical, nominal size. The actual aspect isn't 1:2, it's 3:7... Okay not too much of a difference but for longer cuts it definitely feels like a board. No lie :( – kumowoon1025 May 31 '20 at 03:46
  • @DavidK Oh or, or... think about it this way: any piece of dimensional lumber is just called a "board" because, it's a general term; and they actually start out as larger, indisputably board-y lumber, milled down to size. General term because, okay you know how you have your typical chess board, but you've seen one of those stocky ottoman-looking chess sets right? I think (hope) you'll agree the nearly cube-shaped bottom is the chess board. Or imagine using two-by-fours to floor a house. It'd be one weird house (maybe a treehouse) but those creaky two-by-fours would be floor boards right? – kumowoon1025 May 31 '20 at 04:02
  • Since this is a site for English language learners, I think it's sufficient to point out that "board" is a word whose definition is a not completely clear, but the phrase "piece of wood" is suitable for a 2x4, a board, and many other such things (provided that they are actually wood, of course). – David K May 31 '20 at 12:59

5 Answers5

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2x4 would be said: "Two by Four"

https://www.thespruce.com/dimensional-lumber-definition-1821735

bhundven
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    Which if it's not rough sawn lumber of that actual measurement, it's really dimensional lumber, measuring 1.5" x 3.5" - the former being pronounced, a real two by four, the latter just two by four even though it isn't. – Mazura May 28 '20 at 14:24
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    @Mazura Why am I not surprised that not only do Americans use their own weird measurement units that nobody else understands, but they also don't even use them accurately? :) – alephzero May 28 '20 at 14:39
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    @alephzero for once, we're pretty much as bad in the UK, where a (planed) 2x4 might be 44x100mm or 44x95mm. – Chris H May 28 '20 at 14:44
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    I think the pronunciation would often closer to "tuba four", as distinct from e.g. an eight-square rectangle on a chessboard which would be "two by four", with roughly equal stress on all three words. – supercat May 28 '20 at 15:11
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    @supercat That's dialectal; the reduced /tuːbəfoɹ/ pronunciation is common but so is the full /tuːbaifoɹ/. – Hearth May 28 '20 at 15:23
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    @Hearth: Certainly some dialects pronounce the diphthong, but I can't think of any that would use the same rhythm and stress pattern as for e.g. "You need to multiply two by four". – supercat May 28 '20 at 15:31
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    @alephzero The reason for this is that these "2x4" studs are most commonly used in wall construction, and typically have a 0.5" drywall (or plywood, sheet-rock, etc.) board attached to them, so the combined width of the board + stud = 4". – Darrel Hoffman May 28 '20 at 15:52
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    @DarrelHoffman I'm not sure that's the real reason. My understanding is that they used to be actually 2" by 4" before they started planing them. I used to live in an old house where the studs were very rough and measured a full 2" x 4". Also, plenty of drywall around here is not 1/2". – evildemonic May 28 '20 at 19:49
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    @supercat In Canada we certainly say "two by four" - I hear "tuba' four" and I think some kind of southern US accent like Louisiana or maybe Florida. Depending on the intonation this also goes with some maritime accents (would fit in Newfoundland, for example). Definitely regional. – J... May 28 '20 at 20:35
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    Also known as a "Clue by Four", for bashing sense into people. *8') – Mark Booth May 28 '20 at 23:00
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    @alephzero 2x4s are so-named for historical reasons. Now, however, they are all milled. For some reason 1.5x3.5 was the agreed-upon size (probably just the size of the blades allowed for). Since 1.5x3.5 is a mouthful, we still refer to boards as 2x4 (or 2x8, 1x4, 2x6, etc) for the nominal measurements. (EDIT -- did a quick check and it's actually more to do with bartering and economics than a mechanical reason such as blade depth/thickness). – TylerH May 29 '20 at 01:16
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    @evildemonic they did. The older parts of my parents house - originally built in the 1920s or 30's and gradually added onto over the years - were framed with rough cut 2x4's that are 2" by 4" in size. – Dan Is Fiddling By Firelight May 29 '20 at 14:01
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    @alephzero Probably for the same reason you're shocked your country didn't invent almost all the necessities of modern life that you use today. – user91988 May 29 '20 at 16:03
  • “Tuba four” would include a yod sound in British and international English, and would sound like “tyooba four”. Only in North America would they drop the yod and sound like “tooba” - so this example is misleading. – Chris Melville May 29 '20 at 17:43
  • @alephzero. There are basically two types of countries, those that use the SI system of units and those that have landed men on the Moon. ;-) (excluding Burma and Liberia of course. But then again, a US customary inch is defined in terms of the SI metre, except it's spelled meter.) – pheon May 30 '20 at 16:40
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    @ChrisMelville This is diverging from the point, but the "tooba" pronunciation is not exclusive to North America and is commonly found in Norfolk, England, because "yod-dropping" seems to be the most extensive of any dialect of English there: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Norfolk_dialect – Robert Furber May 30 '20 at 21:03
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    @RobertFurber Thanks: you’re right. But yes, the point is that “tuba” is pronounced differently in different places, so it’s not a useful example to use as a starting point. – Chris Melville May 31 '20 at 06:51
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To add to bhundven's excellent and correct answer, the word "by" is spoken in English in other contexts when the "x" is written. For instance, you may hear of a 6x6 maze ("six by six maze"), or a 4x4 magic square ("four by four magic square"), or a room measuring 12 feet x 10 feet ("twelve feet by ten feet").

(There's also a class of sport utility vehicle called a 4x4 ["four by four"] because it has four wheels and four-wheel drive.)

T.J. Crowder
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Wastrel
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x, Symbol.

5: (used between figures indicating dimensions) by:

3″ × 4″ (read: “three by four inches”);

3″ × 4″ × 5″ (read: “three by four by five inches”).

– https://www.dictionary.com/browse/x

See also, display resolution (e.g. 1920 × 1080)

Geometric dimension of an object, such as noting that a room is 10 feet × 12 feet in area, where it is usually read as "by" (for example: "10 feet by 12 feet")

The lower-case Latin letter x is sometimes used in place of the multiplication sign. This is considered incorrect in mathematical writing {because you're supposed to use a Unicode glyph}.

– Multiplication sign

Mazura
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    Do not also see, How is “X” pronounced in English? because even though I'm also guilty of using the "lower-case Latin letter", /ˈɛks/ is not how you pronounce it. – Mazura May 28 '20 at 14:55
  • For Windows and EN-US keyboards at least, ALT+0215 gets you that glyph: × ...Knowing that off the top of my head may indicate I use it a lot. I suspect Mac OSX has a slightly more intuitive and/or easier way. – T.J.L. May 28 '20 at 15:04
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    en dash (as used in the answer) is the one I know by heart. ALT+0150 – Mazura May 28 '20 at 15:06
  • @T.J.L. MacOS doesn't even have it on the keyboard in any way as far as I know. A lot of Math symbols and Greek characters are under Alt and Shift-Alt combinations, but this one isn't. You need to use the Emoji & Symbol viewer to select the character from the Math symbols. It does very helpfully give you all the Unicode variant version as well, so you can just as easily use the slightly larger/bolder or cursive versions. And the viewer itself can be pinned in the menu-bar so it is only 2 mouse-clicks away and you can setup a favorites list, with your most-used symbols in that viewer. – Tonny May 28 '20 at 16:17
  • @Tonny Color me surprised. I guess it's just better language support, not Unicode in general. Interesting. – T.J.L. May 28 '20 at 17:08
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    @T.J.L. Just learned a thing: Ctrl-CMD-space brings up a popup version of the symbol/emoji viewer with search box in which you can type the name of the symbol. As you type the search shows symbols found and narrows it down as you type more chars. Just typing "mul" is enough to be just left with the multiplication symbols. Ctrl-CMD-space-arr gives you all the arrow symbols, etc. Works surprisingly well actually. You don't have to use the mouse at all, as you can select a symbol from the shortened list by cursors and insert with enter. – Tonny May 28 '20 at 18:57
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    @Tonny macOS also comes with an input source called "Unicode Hex Input" which is essentially identical to a US QWERTY keyboard, except the option key now supports entering Unicode values by (hexadecimal) number rather than acting as a more traditional dead-key for entering digraphs. – chepner May 29 '20 at 19:35
  • @chepner I know, but who knows/remembers the hex codes? And Unicode values are mostly specified in decimal (because of Windows Alt codes) so you need to convert them to hex first. Somewhat limited usefulness in my view. The emoji/symbol viewer will be a lot easier to use for the vast majority of people. – Tonny May 29 '20 at 23:17
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I am a carpenter by trade and you would say 2 by 4 - in the old days the 2x4 would actually be 2" x 4" because they did not plane anything - now they plane the wood to 1 1/2 x 3 1/2 so basically they still hang onto the original size

Norm
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It is pronounced "two by four" or "tuba four" as supercat suggested; I think I say it both ways myself. @Mazura is correct about the actual size which probably results from the line upon which the saw blade centers, two inches in one direction and four inches in the other. The blade obviously is wider than the line, which means the actual dimension is less than what is stated. I agree that is somewhat annoying. Also, we Americans still surprisingly cling to the English system of measurement, which they have abandoned. Personally, I prefer metric.

M. W.
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    As explained elsewhere, 2 x 4 is theoretically the dimensions before planing (to smooth the board). But since about 1970 they lie, and the dimension is probably about 1.75" by 3.75" before planing. – Hot Licks May 29 '20 at 02:30
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    Give us time! Post Brexit we'll be reviving chains, cubits, stones, pecks, fathoms, pipkins and nipperkins. – Old Brixtonian May 29 '20 at 13:36
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    @Old Brixtonian: You don't use stones now? I think every sailor uses fathoms, pecks aren't all that uncommon. – jamesqf May 29 '20 at 16:16
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    Boards don't need to lose 1/2" during planing. So-called "nominal lumber" has those dimensions so they can be "finished" to be 4" thick walls - 1/4" of material on each side, plus 3 1/2" of lumber. In English, the adjective "nominal" is found on many measurements. For example, with voltage. A 1.5 volt battery may not be precisely 1.5 volts. The same with "mains voltage" -- "nominal 120 volt mains voltage" may vary between about 114 and 126 volts. – Julie in Austin May 29 '20 at 21:44
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    I know everybody is bemoaning the "English" system of measurement still in use in the US, but I love it. I love the way units are tied to things that a person can kind of gauge by themselves. Feet, yards, inches, a pint's a pound the world around, a ton is the weight of a big tank of water, etc etc. What I'd like to see is to revive the measurements which were formerly used in other countries, too. Now that would be a lot of good clean fun. While we're at it, let's adopt the French revolutionary calendar. Slippy, Drippy, Nippy, Flowery, Bowery, Showery, Heaty, Wheaty, Sweaty? or Sweety? Hmm. – Robert Dodier May 29 '20 at 21:57
  • It isn't true: this side of the pond, a pint weighs 20 ounces! – Mike Spivey May 31 '20 at 13:57