Posted on: 13-07-10 10:37:26
Quote:
Originally posted by meghal
I know the rule of using A or An. A is followed by a noun starting with consonant, (A cat) An is followed by a noun starting with vowel (An eel). But I do not know the rule about what to use with an acronym?
A MBA graduate or An MBA graduate?
A SMS or An SMS?
Though not an expert on this, it is my practice for use of À`or AN depends on the `phonetic`sounds for the first letter of an ACRONYM rather than the spelling itself.
M is pronounced as EMM (starting with E),
S is pronounced as ESS (again starts with E).
So it is always AN MBA and AN SMS.
But if you were to expand the acronym, it will work the traditional way :
An MBA will become A Master of Business Administration.
An SMS becomes A Short Message Service.
I could be wrong or naive...but had no issues so far in communicating.
Hiren
You are very correct. The reason these two acronyms in question MBA and SMS do not merit the prefix of an 'an' after expansion, is because the indefinite article 'an' is derived from the same root as ONE. (One MBA and ONE SMS message)
To provide you with a silly example NAPRON the one that the cooks and carpenters wear was called a napron*, which then got transformed to an APRON and so on and so forth... That is English Grammar. When you type mile-a-minute the mind gets bogged down.
Freddie.
*nappie, napkin, napron etc., (Currently Paper towel)
