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

Subject: Re: "a SQL sever" vs "an SQL server"
From: Odile Sullivan-Tarazi <odile -at- mindspring -dot- com>
To: "TECHWR-L" <techwr-l -at- lists -dot- techwr-l -dot- com>
Date: Thu, 22 Sep 2005 15:05:46 -0700



So, you're saying that you would write (or say) "a HTML"? And "a LED"?

You'd write . . . .

a FDA ruling
a HR rep
a HHS employee
a MRI
a RMDBS
a SNA


In each case, the opening word of the spelled-out phrase would be preceded by "a": a hypertext, a light, a Federal, and so on. But the abbreviations in these examples are all pronounced as groups of letters, which -- because of the nature of these particular opening consonants (taking one article when pronounced as letters, another when sounded as elements of a word) -- alters the phonetic environment. We pronounce "St." as "street" (or "saint," depending upon context), but we do not pronounce "LED" as "light-emitting diode."

See also _Chicago_ 5.73, 5.202, 7.46, 15.9. Or _WIT_ 372. Or _The New York Library Writer's Guide to Style and Usage_ 188 and 328. Or _The Gregg Reference Manual_ 501b. Or individual entries for abbreviations in our own technical manuals (as in _RMF_ 12, in a discussion of "SCSI," or 228, in a discussion of "URL").


Odile


At 5:01 PM -0400 9/22/05, 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

On 9/22/05, Odile Sullivan-Tarazi <odile -at- mindspring -dot- com> wrote:

The article must align with the abbreviated form, not the phrase the
form stands in for, because the form of the article is determined by
sound.
<snip>

--
Art Campbell art -dot- campbell -at- gmail -dot- com
"... In my opinion, there's nothing in this world beats a '52 Vincent
and a redheaded girl." -- Richard Thompson
No disclaimers apply.
DoD 358


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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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