[General] ha = hectares. Is it correct to read it as 'HA'?

[fiddler]

How would you say/read: 'over 1 ha/h'?
'Over one hectare per hour' - it's obvious.
But is 'over one HA per hour' also acceptable? Would any Englishman ever use this form?

I just received recording of some text from a native english speaker, and after hearing 'one HA per hour' I'm a bit confused. It sounds quite odd to me, a foreigner with basic language skills.

 

[GoesStation]

How would you say/read: 'over 1 ha/h'?
'Over one hectare per hour' - it's obvious.
But is 'over one HA per hour' also acceptable? Would any Englishman ever use this form?

No. Was the speaker in the recording American? If so, it's quite possible he didn't know that "ha" means hectare. We don't use Metric land measures here in the United States, and most people are unaware of the units' names.

 

[fiddler]

I'm not sure, but he sounds like 100% Brit...
Maybe he just doesn't know, wherever he lives.
Now I can contact him without doubts in my head (like 'what about commonly used HP = horse power? It looks similar, but on the other hand it's probably different kind of abbreviation...').

Thank you!

 

[Tdol]

It sounds quite odd to me, a foreigner with basic language skills.

It sounds odd to me. I have never heard it.

 

[teechar]

I just received a recording of some text from a native English speaker, and after hearing 'one HA per hour', I'm a bit confused. It sounds quite odd to me, a foreigner with basic English language skills.

Welcome to the forum, fiddler.
Is it possible to listen to the recording?
You can upload it to Vocaroo and post the link below if you like.

 

[fiddler]

https://voca.ro/14R8xdvegpvL

 

[GoesStation]

https://voca.ro/14R8xdvegpvL

The voice is definitely British. When you wrote "HA", I read it as the word "ha", not the initials. I have a feeling the excerpt comes from a text-to-voice system, as a human British English-speaker would know the abbreviation and be very unlikely to pronounce the letters individually.

 

[fiddler]

 

[GoesStation]

View attachment 3702

Did you intend to add something to your post?

 

[fiddler]

No. I'm just showing you how it was written.
nvm

 

[GoesStation]

No. I'm just showing you how it was written.

There shouldn't be spaces around the slash. Nevertheless, any native speaker familiar with the "ha" abbreviation would always read that as "hectares per hour". I strongly suspect your speech sample was machine-generated.

 

[probus]

I have a feeling the excerpt comes from a text-to-voice system, as a human British English-speaker would know the abbreviation and be very unlikely to pronounce the letters individually.

Maybe, but if so such systems have recently made great progress in natural intonation. It never ocurred to me that it might not be a real person speaking.

 

[PeterCW]

The voice is definitely British. When you wrote "HA", I read it as the word "ha", not the initials. I have a feeling the excerpt comes from a text-to-voice system, as a human British English-speaker would know the abbreviation and be very unlikely to pronounce the letters individually.

The clip is too short to be sure but it does sound a little like synthesised speech to me. I would also expect that any human BrE speaker would read "ha" as hectares. not as "aitch a".

 

[fiddler]

Indeed, this short part sounds a bit artificial, but only because individual letters are read. Really. The rest of the recording is even too 'real'.