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Re: "a SQL sever" vs "an SQL server"

Subject: Re: "a SQL sever" vs "an SQL server"
From: "Guy K. Haas" <guy -at- hiskeyboard -dot- com>
To: "TECHWR-L" <techwr-l -at- lists -dot- techwr-l -dot- com>
Date: Thu, 22 Sep 2005 14:19:18 -0700


St. and Rd. are abbreviations.

SQL is an initialism (see http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Initialism).

When I read that "Pat went to the PTA meeting," I don't pronounce it (mentally, let alone aloud) as "Pat went to the Parent Teacher Association meeting" -- I render it "Pat went to the Pee Tee Aye meeting."

Nobody I know of would subvocalize about "a Structured Query Language server" -- they would either render it as "a see kwell server" or "a(n) ess kyu el server".

--Guy K. Haas (gy kay hahzz)
Software Exegete In Silicon Valley

Art Campbell wrote:

I don't think so.

When you read an address out loud, you don't pronounce St. as "sssst"
or Rd. as "Rrrrd,"
you say the word the abbreviation represents -- "street" or "road."

And in this case, "represents" is the operative verb because abbreviations and
acronyms do, indeed, represent the root phrase or words. Therefore the
article should
agree with the root phrase or words.

Art



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Follow-Ups:

References:
"a SQL sever" vs "an SQL server": From: arroxaneullman
Re: "a SQL sever" vs "an SQL server": From: Art Campbell
Re: "a SQL sever" vs "an SQL server": From: Art Campbell

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