"a" or "an" before MoU [duplicate]
99% of the time, I'm clear on when I should use "a" versus "an." There's one case, though, where people & references I respect disagree.
Which of the following would you precede with "a" or "an," and why?
- FAQ
- FUBAR
- SCUBA
[Note: I've read the questions "A historic..." or "An historic…"? and Use of "a" versus "an", but the rules given there don't necessarily apply here.]
[Edited to add]
Here's a shorter (and hopefully clearer) version of the question… In written English, which is correct (and why): "a FAQ" or "an FAQ"?
Some references with differing opinions:
- an: the UC San Diego Editorial Style Guide and Apple Publications Style Guide
- a: the Microsoft Manual of Style for Tech Publications, 3e
- either: the alt.usage.english FAQ and Yahoo! Style Guide
It depends on whether the abbreviation is an acronym or an initialism. As "fubar" and "scuba" are usually pronounced as a word (making them acronyms), it would make sense to say "a fubar" and "a scuba diver". "FAQ" is a bit harder, because I have heard people say it like an initialism: "‹f›‹a›‹q›", while others pronounce it as an acronym /fæk/. Therefore, one should write either "a FAQ" or "an FAQ" depending on how that person pronounces it, ie, whether it is an acronym or an initialism.
The important point to remember is the following:
Written language is a representation of the spoken word.
Thus, the answer is "If the word following the indefinite article begins with a vowel sound, use an; if it begins with a consonant sound, use a."
In the case of initialisms and acronymns, use the exact rule above. For initialisms (e.g. "US"), the individual letters are pronounced. With what sound does the first pronounced letter begin? In the example "US", the first sound is /j/ (or "y"). This is a consonant sound, despite the letter "U" being a vowel; thus, you use a, as in a US dollar.
Contrast this with the initialism "RPM", which begins with the consonant "R" but is pronounced starting with /a/; thus, you use an, as in an RPM counter.
The rule about the usage of a and an as indefinite articles is that an is used before a vocal sound.
- A warranty (/ˈwɑːrənti/)
- A user (/ˈjuːzər/)
- A one-way (/ˈwən ˌweɪ/)
- A man (/mæn/)
- An angel (/ˈeɪnʤəl/)
- An information (/ˌɪnfərˈmeɪʃən/)
When used before an acronym, the rule is still valid, but which article to use depends from how the acronym is pronounced (letter by letter, or as a word).
- An MP3 (/ɛm pi θri/)
- An RPG (/ɑːr pi ʤi/)
- An FBI agent (/ɛf biː aɪ/)
- A GPS device (/ʤi pi ɛs/)
- A NASA employee (/ˈnæsə/)
Note: Some of this information may be extraneous, but take it for what you will!
In general, some acronyms represent nouns, others verbs or adjectives. If it represents the former, I see no problem with prefixing with an (in)definite article (a/an).
scuba is listed as a noun (lower-case) rather than an acronym in most dictionaries these days. It is of course derived from an acronym, but has evolved into a word in its own right (laser would be another example).
FAQ is an acronym, but is very commonly used as a noun - "a list of frequently-asked questions".
FUBAR has various definitions, but it's normally interpreted as an adjective (at least by the original military one).
Hence, I would happily prefix scuba/SCUBA with a/an, but definitely not FUBAR.
All these words begin with hard consonants, and thus should always be prefixed with a. Saying that, some people pronounce FAQ by spelling out its letters, in which case an is appropriate. I've never heard this done with the other two.
Vincent McNabb is correct. If you want evidence based on "credible and/or official sources" that this is the rule followed in formal English writing, here is my suggestion.
I ran Google searches on Google Books only, meaning the bulk of the search will be against professionally edited and published works, not random web sites. I searched only for phrases where the pronunciation of the acronym was relatively clear and consistent: for example, nobody pronounces "SCUBA" as "Ess Cee Yew Bee Ay" and nobody pronounces "FBI" as "Fibbi."
Here are the number of hits in the Google Books database for:
- "A SCUBA": 49,800
- "An SCUBA": 56
- "A FBI": 16,000
- "An FBI": 343,000
- "A NASA": 264,000
- "An NASA": 16,500
- "A RGB": 7,130
- "An RGB": 33,800
- "A UPC": 11,800
- "An UPC": 436
In each case, basing the article on the initial sound, rather than on the initial letter, is more common; in most cases substantially more common.
As a control, I also looked at two acronyms where both the initial sound and the initial letter are consonants.
- "A VPN": 50,100
- "An VPN": 960
- "A OCR": 9,380
- "An OCR": 1,870,000
Because "An VPN" and "A OCR" are incorrect based on any possible rule, we can conclude that the positive results are grammatical, OCR, or search engine errors. This suggests that the minority viewpoint on SCUBA, FBI, NASA, RGB and UPC are also smaller than they appear.
We can conclude that, based on evidence of usage among published documents digitized by Google Books, the preferred rule is to base the article on how the intended pronunciation of the acronym would be spelled phonetically.