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Subject:Re: Articles with Initialisms From:Sue Gallagher <sgallagher -at- EXPERSOFT -dot- COM> Date:Fri, 23 Feb 1996 12:28:54 -0800
At 05:10 PM 2/23/96 GMT, Katharine Woods wrote:
>I've had this (pronounciation) problem when documenting files
>by extension names. For
>example, ".INI" and ".EXE" files. Some people pronounce these as
>"dot ini" and "dot exe" (requiring an "a"), others as "ini" and "exe"
>(requiring an "an") and both groups get upset if the filename
>extension is preceded by the inappropriate article.
>Of course, this might just be a British thing. I've never heard
>heard anyone talk about "period exe" or "period ini" files. :-)
No, Katharine... You're not alone. I too wrestle with the difference
between "a dot-eye-enn-eye" file and "an innie" file all the time --
I'm never sure what to do. Most of the time, I try to recast the
sentence so that I can use the definite article instead -- 'cause
with "the", the pronounciation doesn't matter. Unfortunately, this
isn't always possible.
-Sue Gallagher
sgallagher -at- expersoft -dot- com
