Reading code out loud in English is a skill that separates casual learners from confident developers who can collaborate effectively with international teams. Whether you're discussing logic with a coworker or dictating exact syntax, knowing the precise English terms for every symbol, character, and naming convention makes communication seamless and professional.
How do you read code logic versus code syntax?
There are two fundamentally different ways to read a piece of code in English. When you're discussing the logic, you use mostly English words, skip most symbols, and can even swap the order of terms on screen [0:08]. For instance, an if statement checking coordinates could be read as: "If the X coordinate is less than the width of the box, then log inside. Otherwise, put an alert saying error."
However, when you're helping someone write code, you must include every single symbol [0:33]. That means reading something like: "if open square bracket coordinate dot x less than or equal box dot width close square bracket open curly bracket indent console dot log open parens string inside close parens..." With practice, you can skip certain words like open bracket or open parenthesis, but you must be precise about the terms you choose for each symbol.
What are the correct English names for programming symbols?
The space or indent (also called indentation) refers to the whitespace before a line of code [1:04]. Some developers use spaces, others use tabs — and the debate over two spaces versus four is legendary. Languages like Python are especially sensitive to indentation.
How do brackets, braces, and parentheses differ?
You have parentheses (often shortened to parens), and you always specify open parens and close parens [1:37]. Then there are curly braces (or curly brackets) and square brackets. A useful tip: always add the qualifier — say curly brackets or square brackets, never just brackets by themselves [1:50].
What types of quotes exist in programming?
There are single quotes, double quotes, and back quotes (found next to the escape key) [2:04]. Most languages treat single and double quotes similarly, though some assign special uses to the back quote. Then there are typographic or curly quotes, where the opening and closing quote curve in different directions. Front-end developers may encounter designers requesting curly quotes in displayed text — not in the code itself, but in user-facing content [2:28].
How is the period used differently across contexts?
The period, comma, colon, and semicolon appear constantly in code [2:54]. The period alone has multiple readings depending on context. In decimal numbers like 1.75, you can call it a point. In version numbers like 1.75.0, developers often say the letter "O" instead of "zero" [3:10]. In object notation, you say dot — as in console.log. The same applies to domain names: you say "Platzi dot com," never "Platzi point com" [3:25]. At the end of a sentence, it's simply called a period.
For arithmetic operators: plus, minus, the asterisk (also called times for multiplication), and the slash for division [3:52]. The dash and underscore are distinct characters. Front-end professionals should also know about the en dash and em dash, named because they match the width of the letters N and M respectively [4:02].
What do foobar, camelCase, and kebab-case mean?
The top row of a keyboard holds several important characters: the tilde (the mark over the ñ in Spanish), the exclamation sign (also called bang), the at sign, and the hash [4:22]. The hash is not a hashtag — a hashtag is a hash placed before a word. The hash is also called pound, and its official character name is the octothorpe [4:40]. The caret (the little hat ^) often denotes logical operations or control keys [4:54]. The ampersand (&) has a fascinating origin: it comes from the phrase "and per se, and," spoken when reciting the alphabet in older English-Latin tradition [5:02].
When naming variables with multiple words, developers use specific naming conventions [5:34]. Flatcase joins words in all lowercase. CamelCase capitalizes the first letter of the second word, creating a bump — JavaScript uses this almost everywhere [5:44]. Snake_case joins words with an underscore, common in Ruby and Unix filenames [5:55]. Kebab-case uses a hyphen between words, resembling the skewer in a shish kebab [6:05]. Kebab-case rarely works for variable names since most languages interpret the hyphen as a minus sign, but it's widely used in file naming — for example, JavaScript node modules.
The placeholder words foo, bar, and occasionally baz have been used since the 1960s to name temporary variables with no meaningful label [5:22]. If you see them in examples, don't try to extract meaning — they're simply conventions.
Try recording yourself reading your own code out loud, once describing the logic and once dictating the exact syntax, and share it in the comments.
