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When a/an precedes a parenthetical aside (sometimes seen in informal/conversational writing), should the vowel rule depend on the first word in parentheses, or the next word in the "regular" flow of the sentence?
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The a/an rule is based purely on sound. Would you say the words inside the parentheses if you were reading the sentence out loud? If yes, then you use the first word in the parentheses to decide whether or not to use an or a. If not, then—wait, what do you mean you wouldn’t say the words in parentheses?! |
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A bracket only means that the word or phrase inside is less important or in some cases less relevant. But in any case that does not exclude bracketed words from the general sentence structure. Therefore, in this case the preferred way is:
But you must understand that this is only the preferred way, not necessarily the right way. English is a rapidly growing and changing language and has numerous styles and methods. Sometimes more than one way can be called "right". And in my opinion both examples may be correct grammatically. |
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You choose "an" vs. "a" based on the following word, be it in brackets or parentheses or anything else. Having the word in (parentheses) doesn't change this any more than having a word in "quotes" or italics does. |
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In real life, you'd say "I need a memorable idiom". So write it that way too. |
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Since it's followed by memorable, not idiom, in your second example, a is the correct choice. |
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