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Subject:Re: A or An? From:Will Rodina <rodina -at- TRINITY -dot- UDAYTON -dot- EDU> Date:Thu, 3 Jul 1997 10:15:49 EST
[de-lurking mode on]
> I have the following phrase in a topic:
>
> "... with a/an .eel extension."
>
> The question is, should it be A or AN? Grammatically speaking, I would
> guess you ignore the dot and use AN. But if you say it out loud, you might
> well say "with a dot eel extension", in which case A sounds right.
>
> When I read it, something in me twitches if I have AN. What do you all
> think?
My suggestion would be to reword the phrase. Something along the
lines of "... with an extension of .eel" might suffice.
If you like the phrasing as is, then I would go with 'an'. The item
that's being referred to is 'extension' and not '.eel'.
Just my $0.02.
[de-lurking mode resumed] :)
---
Will Rodina, University of Dayton
rodina -at- trinity -dot- udayton -dot- edu
The University would have to pay me more for me to speak for them.
Consequently, I speak for myself. So there.
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