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Subject:Re: Articles with Acronyms From:"Arlen P. Walker" <Arlen -dot- P -dot- Walker -at- JCI -dot- COM> Date:Tue, 10 Jan 1995 11:54:00 -0500
Question: When using an acronym (as you all know, very prevalent in our
profession) preceded by an article, should you use the article that
agrees with the first word the acronym represents, or use the article
that agrees with the pronunciation of the acronym.
Let's ignore acronyms vs. initialisms this time. Pronounce it the way it would
be read out loud. For example, would you read it as "FTP" or as "File Transfer
Protocol?" If you would read it the first way (as I would, in this case) then
write "an FTP." If, using your second example, you'd read it aloud as
"SiteScan2000" rather than "SS2000" then write "a SS2000." (I'd suspect "an" is
proper in this case, but as I haven't used or written about one I'm not
qualified to judge.)
Have fun,
Arlen
Chief Managing Director In Charge, Department of Redundancy Department
DNRC 24
Arlen -dot- P -dot- Walker -at- JCI -dot- Com
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