How is $\ln$ pronounced by English speakers?

I live in the US, so I pronounce Ln as "ell enn" or I sometimes say natural log.

If I had the expression ln($x^2$) I would say: "ell enn of ex squared".


Vancouver, Canada. I exclusively pronounce it as /lɑn/.


As a non-native English speaker who has to read mathematical expressions quite frequently, I use the following guides:

  1. Handbook for Spoken Mathematics, Research and Development Institute, Inc: This is probably the most complete reference. Not of easy consultation, though.
  2. H. Valiaho, Pronunciation of mathematical expressions (pdf): A short list divided by topic (e.g. Logic, Sets, Functions etc.). Reports also variants.

For what concerns $\ln$, these guides recommend:

the natural log of x

from [1] and [2];

l n of x

from [1], and this coincides with your example; [2] recommends other pronunciations too, but I suspect they are rarer.