Another (somewhat arcane) grammar question

[Octavia]

When you write an acronym in the singular, do you make a/an agree with the first underlying word of the acronym, or the way in which you say the first letter? I thought of this the other day when Zoe posted in another thread, "it's a RB but not an H&A." It read oddly to me because in my head, I heard "it's a arr-bee" rather than "it's a round brilliant." But the second half read correctly to me because I read it "an aich-and-ay" rather than "an hearts-and-arrows." Not picking on you, Zoe, it actually made me really curious about which way is correct!! And now the same issue has come up in a document I'm proofreading at work, so...please weigh in and help a girl out!

 

[sonnyjane]

I don't know what's academically proper, but I choose (and much prefer) my a/an based on the sound of the first letter of the abbreviation, not what it stands for, so I agree with you. In your example, I would have written "an RB" because I read it as "RB" or "arrrr-bee", not "round brilliant". In other words, when I read an abbreviation, I'm reading it as individual letters, not substituting the word for which it is an abbreviation.

 

[zoebartlett]

I see what you mean. I've gotten so used to abbreviating that I had to read what you posted above several times to see what you meant. I read it as "...a round brilliant" instead of the letter names themselves.

So I'm not sure I answered your question but your post caught my eye.

 

[AGBF]

I'm simply wondering what I do when I'm not watching myself. I have a strong urge to go back and peruse my own, old postings. (In other words, the heck with what is correct. What on earth did I, personally, do before I thought about whether "RB" was preceded by an "a" or an "an"!

Deb/AGBF

 

[AGBF]

When you write an acronym in the singular, do you make a/an agree with the first underlying word of the acronym, or the way in which you say the first letter? I thought of this the other day when Zoe posted in another thread, "it's a RB but not an H&A." It read oddly to me because in my head, I heard "it's a arr-bee" rather than "it's a round brilliant." But the second half read correctly to me because I read it "an aich-and-ay" rather than "an hearts-and-arrows." Not picking on you, Zoe, it actually made me really curious about which way is correct!! And now the same issue has come up in a document I'm proofreading at work, so...please weigh in and help a girl out!

I think I figured this one out. For myself only, of course. I'd say, "It's a RB, but not an H&A" because I'd be thinking, "It's a round brilliant, but not an H&A". In other words, I'd be thinking the words, "round brilliant" when I saw the letters, "RB", but I'd still be thinking "H&A" definitely not, "hearts and arrows", when I saw, "H&A".

Deb

 

[Haven]

I don't know what's academically proper, but I choose (and much prefer) my a/an based on the sound of the first letter of the abbreviation, not what it stands for, so I agree with you. In your example, I would have written "an RB" because I read it as "RB" or "arrrr-bee", not "round brilliant". In other words, when I read an abbreviation, I'm reading it as individual letters, not substituting the word for which it is an abbreviation.

This is what I do. I have no idea what's correct.

 

[Pandora II]

My understanding is that when it is an abbreviation it can be either although reading the abbreviation as a word itself is possibly more common and so it would be 'an rb'.

With acronyms, they should always be read as words... FBI (eff-bee-eye), NHS (en-aitch-ess), HIV (aitch-eye-vee) etc and so you would use the appropriate article for the initial 'sound'.