Re: what is it?
From Peter Punk <ppu...@damthatspam.chello.nl>
· alt.ascii-art
· 12 Oct 2001 20:55 · View full thread
· report
On Fri, 12 Oct 2001 15:59:49 GMT, Peter Henderson <pet...@usa.net> provoked the following text: >> ..since in American English, the leading 'h' is almost always >> pronounced. There is no 'dropped-H' Cockney accent in the U.S.A. >> >> 'Hour' is the exception that proves the rule. In American English, >> the leading 'h' in 'hour' is =not= pronounced...so correct usage >> there is '=an= hour.' But that's a rare exception. > >How about acronyms like RTF? Is it a RTF file (because R is a consonant) >or an RTF file (because when R is pronounced it startes with a vowel >*sound*)? See http://www.m-w.com/cgi-bin/dictionary?ar According to the >dictionary the letter R is spelled "ar" so it really does start with a >vowel, even though it's a consonant. I'm a native English speaker, but >was never taught this... Does anyone have an authoritative answer? I >think it's "an RTF file" based on what I've said...but I need an >authoritative answer to prove my English teacher wrong... :o) AFAIC the decision to use "a" or "an" is based solely on the pronounciation of the word (i consider acronyms and abbreviations to be words too) and not on the way it is written. So to me the sentences "an RTF file" or "an SLB connector" or "an MBR virus" are correct. In the beginning there was the spoken word, then some genius came along and thought it a good idea to write those spoken words down and in the process decided that they were more important than the spoken word, even though the spoken word was here first. -- Peter Punk \ / ---\\\\--- / \ Op zoek gaan naar buitenaards leven? Kijk op http://home.hetnet.nl/~setiathomegroep/index.html voor tips, antwoorden, discussies. links, downloads en meer. 1785wu/2.545yrs She's genuinely bogus.
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X-Google-Language: ENGLISH,ASCII-7-bit X-Google-Thread: f996b,ef84650dd3e606e5 X-Google-Attributes: gidf996b,public X-Google-ArrivalTime: 2001-10-12 13:55:48 PST Path: archiver1.google.com!news1.google.com!newsfeed.stanford.edu!newsfeeds.belnet.be!news.belnet.be!newsgate.cistron.nl!amsnews01.chello.com!Flipper.POSTED!tanya. From: ppu...@damthatspam.chello.nl (Peter Punk) Newsgroups: alt.ascii-art Subject: Re: what is it? Organization: Total Disorganisation Message-ID: <gil...@4ax.com> References: <m9q...@4ax.com> <trn...@corp.supernews.com> <3BC...@usa.net> X-Newsreader: Forte Agent 1.8/32.548 MIME-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset=us-ascii Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit X-Original-NNTP-Posting-Host: 192.168.0.75 X-Original-Trace: 12 Oct 2001 22:56:09 +0200, 192.168.0.75 Lines: 41 X-Authenticated-User: donderfliegen Date: Fri, 12 Oct 2001 20:55:44 GMT NNTP-Posting-Host: 213.93.74.225 X-Complaints-To: abu...@chello.nl X-Trace: Flipper 1002920144 213.93.74.225 (Fri, 12 Oct 2001 22:55:44 MET DST) NNTP-Posting-Date: Fri, 12 Oct 2001 22:55:44 MET DST Xref: archiver1.google.com alt.ascii-art:8553
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