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As we know the term 'et al 'is used frequently to denote a team along with a specific person,how is it actually pronounced?

For eg.Sir William Brown et al have conducted extensive studies on black holes.

I have heard the pronunciation as 'et al' itself and usages like 'and others'.How should it be correctly pronounced?

aelin_s
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3 Answers3

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The way to pronouce 'et al.' is given in many dictionaries. For instance Cambridge.

If you are asking whether you should actually say 'et al.' or something different, that is up to you. Academia has a close question: 'et al' in presentation speech, and the remarks there suggest 'and others', 'and coauthors', and the accepted answer suggests 'and his/her group/coauthors/colleagues'.

You could say: "Sir William Brown and (his) coauthors'. However, you can just say "Sir William Brown et al."

Community
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Arm the good guys in America
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"et al." is an abbreviation. When read aloud, you pronounce the full term "et alii" (or "et alia") - same as you would say "et cetera" when reading aloud the "etc." abbreviation.

Alternatively, you could say "and others" - same as you would say "for example" when reading aloud the "e.g." abbreviation.

michael.hor257k
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    This answer contains no reference. I read aloud et al. as et all. – Arm the good guys in America Dec 27 '16 at 14:00
  • In England, you will occasionally hear speakers pronounce ‘i.e.’ and ‘e.g.’ as the names of those alphabetical letters. E.g. “aye ee” and “ee gee”. Indeed, I'll do it occasionally, but I rarely use those except in written form. – can-ned_food Mar 23 '17 at 02:24
  • One correction: et alii is the correct form for human beings. Et alia is neuter plural, which is never used for citations... unless robots or abstract energy beings coauthored the paper. – Fomalhaut Aug 30 '17 at 02:08
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If you must pronounce it, it is quite straightforward: ‘et’ as in ‘etiquette’, ‘al’ as in ‘Alexander’.

But I always discouraged my students from speaking Latin, and suggested they said “and coworkers” instead. In the context of quoting a paper, then “and co-authors”, as @JanusBahsJacquet suggested, would be better.

David
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  • Saying “and coworkers” is probably not a very good idea, since co-authors and co-editors of a volume (or article) are frequently not coworkers. – Janus Bahs Jacquet Dec 14 '16 at 20:05
  • @JanusBahsJacquet — In the specific context of citing a paper — which is what the question was about — I agree. I think the context of my recollections was student seminars, where the reference was more to work from a particular lab. – David Dec 14 '16 at 20:10