Timeline for Do you use "a" or "an" before acronyms / initialisms?
Current License: CC BY-SA 4.0
57 events
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| Nov 21, 2023 at 16:58 | history | edited | Laurel♦ |
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| May 31, 2023 at 21:02 | comment | added | Drew | @AaronF: There are two camps. Oracle, MySQL, etc. say "sequel" (it's an acronym). Microsoft, IBM, etc. say "ess keq ell" (it's an initialism). I think most people say "sequel" in NoSQL, but I could be wrong. | |
| Jun 3, 2021 at 17:39 | comment | added | Aaron F | @Jay "I think we should have a fight to the death over this" +1 :-D | |
| Jun 3, 2021 at 16:38 | comment | added | Jay | @AaronF Database people go back and forth on this. Search for "how pronounce SQL" and you get a slew of articles with various people's opinions. duckduckgo.com/… I think that most people I've worked with pronounce it "sequel". The MySQL folks same somewhere on their site that they pronounce their product "my es-que-ell" but they have no objection to "my sequel". I think we should have a fight to the death over this. | |
| Jun 2, 2021 at 19:39 | comment | added | Aaron F | @Jay this is an old question, but popped up as a duplicate of a recent question. From what I can remember, the only time "SQL" is pronounced as "sequel" is when it's the product name "Sql Server" (note the lack of capitalisation). "SQL" the acronym which stands for "structured query language" should be "ess que ell", also when it's part of the product MySQL, for example. | |
| Jun 8, 2020 at 20:34 | answer | added | Synetech | timeline score: 0 | |
| Dec 31, 2019 at 10:56 | history | rollback | herisson |
Rollback to Revision 10 - The sentence doesn't make sense with "respectfully disagree". The structure is "one case ... where [people & references (that) I respect] disagree"
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| Dec 31, 2019 at 6:50 | history | edited | Justin | CC BY-SA 4.0 |
Changed respect to respectfully
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| S Dec 13, 2018 at 15:26 | history | suggested | CommunityBot | CC BY-SA 4.0 |
update broken links to either their current location or an archive link
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| Dec 13, 2018 at 14:18 | review | Suggested edits | |||
| S Dec 13, 2018 at 15:26 | |||||
| Nov 12, 2018 at 13:12 | history | post merged (destination) | |||
| Nov 12, 2018 at 10:29 | answer | added | Roaring Fish | timeline score: 1 | |
| Nov 12, 2018 at 10:24 | answer | added | Lukas G | timeline score: 3 | |
| Nov 12, 2018 at 10:21 | comment | added | Nayeong Kim | @Mari-LouA yeap you are right haha it should be pronounced as “ef” but i think while i was reading the text, I unconsciously pronounced the abbreviations as not shortened forms 😂 | |
| Nov 12, 2018 at 10:16 | comment | added | Mari-Lou A | How do you pronounce the letter "f"? I pronounce it as ef | |
| Nov 12, 2018 at 10:05 | comment | added | Kris | Nothing special about "F" -- it depends on whether the abbreviation is pronounced (read) as such or in an expanded form. HTH. | |
| May 9, 2018 at 12:53 | history | edited | Edwin Ashworth | CC BY-SA 4.0 |
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| Apr 13, 2017 at 12:38 | history | edited | CommunityBot |
replaced http://english.stackexchange.com/ with https://english.stackexchange.com/
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| Mar 12, 2016 at 17:07 | review | Suggested edits | |||
| Mar 12, 2016 at 17:19 | |||||
| Nov 24, 2014 at 16:49 | comment | added | phenry | This question addresses a special case of the general rule, which is only covered briefly in one relatively low-rated answer at the other question. I don't believe it should be considered a duplicate. | |
| Nov 22, 2014 at 13:07 | review | Close votes | |||
| Nov 24, 2014 at 16:49 | |||||
| Nov 22, 2014 at 12:51 | comment | added | FumbleFingers | possible duplicate of When should I use "a" vs "an"? | |
| Jul 14, 2014 at 19:37 | comment | added | Cruncher | in almost all cases of "a" vs. "an", you get the answer by just trying them both, and picking which one sounds more natural. This might be because I'm a native speaker though. I imagine it would be tougher when learning the langauge. | |
| S Apr 9, 2014 at 22:42 | history | bounty ended | Village | ||
| S Apr 9, 2014 at 22:42 | history | notice removed | Village | ||
| Apr 9, 2014 at 18:16 | answer | added | chapka | timeline score: 23 | |
| Apr 5, 2014 at 6:06 | comment | added | Mari-Lou A | @Village nearly all the answers agree on one thing, that the placement of a vs an depends on pronunciation, if you pronounce FAQ as fack it follows a; if you spell out each letter, ef ei kju: then an precedes it. But if you're adamant in receiving an answer with credible and/or official reference then it has been provided here english.stackexchange.com/a/47600/44619 | |
| Apr 5, 2014 at 5:54 | comment | added | Mari-Lou A | The last four links are obsolete (the importance of quoting relevant passages being the moral here, I think) | |
| Apr 5, 2014 at 5:04 | history | tweeted | twitter.com/#!/StackEnglish/status/452310888176168960 | ||
| S Apr 5, 2014 at 2:12 | history | bounty started | Village | ||
| S Apr 5, 2014 at 2:12 | history | notice added | Village | Authoritative reference needed | |
| Apr 10, 2013 at 22:57 | answer | added | John Lawler | timeline score: 16 | |
| Apr 30, 2012 at 12:07 | history | edited | RegDwigнt | CC BY-SA 3.0 |
edited body
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| Apr 30, 2012 at 11:38 | history | post merged (destination) | |||
| Feb 4, 2012 at 18:17 | history | protected | RegDwigнt | ||
| Feb 3, 2012 at 19:55 | answer | added | Spoxjox | timeline score: 136 | |
| Nov 7, 2011 at 21:37 | answer | added | Lynn | timeline score: 4 | |
| Oct 4, 2011 at 15:09 | comment | added | Jay | @Jim: While I admit to sometimes rephrasing a sentence to avoid a spelling or grammar problem, that is the coward's way out! | |
| S Sep 30, 2011 at 18:01 | history | post merged (destination) | |||
| Sep 30, 2011 at 17:25 | comment | added | yoozer8 | Or rephrases all sentences with SQL to avoid putting either "a" or "an" in front of it. | |
| Sep 30, 2011 at 15:10 | comment | added | Hugo | @Jay SQL: In which case the writer picks their own style (or follows the in-house style) and uses it consistently. | |
| Sep 30, 2011 at 14:37 | vote | accept | 2hamed | ||
| S Sep 30, 2011 at 18:01 | |||||
| Sep 30, 2011 at 14:32 | comment | added | Jay | This does raise questions about when there are multiple common pronunciations of the acronym. Like "SQL" is sometimes pronounced "es-kew-el", and sometimes "sequel". The former would call for "an" and the latter for "a". I think, though, that we always choose "a" or "an" based on pronunciation of the acronym and not the spelled-out words, e.g. "an SST", as in "an ess-ess-tee", not "a supersonic transport". | |
| May 10, 2011 at 4:49 | review | Suggested edits | |||
| May 10, 2011 at 6:24 | |||||
| Apr 13, 2011 at 13:34 | history | edited | JSBձոգչ |
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| Mar 3, 2011 at 4:06 | history | edited | avpaderno |
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| Feb 6, 2011 at 4:54 | answer | added | avpaderno | timeline score: 34 | |
| Feb 6, 2011 at 4:49 | vote | accept | Saturn | ||
| Feb 6, 2011 at 4:48 | comment | added | user502 | RPG, when spoken, sounds like "are pee jee," thus it's prefixed with an "an." | |
| Feb 6, 2011 at 4:46 | comment | added | chaos | "An RPG". The controlling factor is whether it's spoken with a vowel sound. (So "an hour", "a unicorn", etc.) | |
| Sep 11, 2010 at 20:46 | history | edited | RegDwigнt |
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| Aug 20, 2010 at 4:04 | vote | accept | Dori | ||
| Aug 16, 2010 at 21:57 | history | edited | Dori | CC BY-SA 2.5 |
Clarify question
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| Aug 16, 2010 at 8:19 | answer | added | Noldorin | timeline score: 20 | |
| Aug 16, 2010 at 8:15 | answer | added | Vincent McNabb | timeline score: 229 | |
| Aug 16, 2010 at 8:07 | history | edited | Vincent McNabb |
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| Aug 16, 2010 at 8:05 | history | asked | Dori | CC BY-SA 2.5 |