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

[Odile Sullivan-Tarazi <odile -at- mindspring -dot- com>]

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: