Possible Duplicate:
Using the definite article with acronyms and initialisms
For example, which one of these is more appropriate:
I am talking about what the UNICEF has done for India.
or
I am talking about what UNICEF has done for India.
-
If your question is about abbreviations in general, "UNICEF", in my opinion, is a bad example, because I think this acronym is more of a name than an abbreviation. I think most listeners don't even know that it is not a name. (At least in non-english speaking countries where the spelled out name is not easily understood.)– I'm with MonicaCommented Sep 17, 2012 at 7:45
-
1The latter is more appropriate, but not because you can't use "the" before an abbreviation. For example, "I live in the UK" and not "I live in UK". It depends what it's an abbreviation for, and (in the case of names of organisations) how they choose to abbreviate their own names.– BillyCommented Sep 17, 2012 at 7:47
-
I believe that those in the know say 'CIA' rather than 'the CIA'.– Barrie EnglandCommented Sep 17, 2012 at 8:00
-
@MattЭллен Would you like to checkout my comment at the answer to the Q you cited?– KrisCommented Sep 17, 2012 at 11:13
Add a comment
|
2 Answers
It depends on how you pronounce the abbreviation (in this case, UNICEF) in whichever part of the world you are in. If you treat it as an acronym and pronounce it as one word (~younisef), then you won't need the article. However, if, you treat it as an initialism and spell out each letter when you pronounce it, then you will need the the.
Illustrating with examples:
I am talking about what UNICEF has done for India.
I am talking about what the UN has done for India.
I believe that this is more of a general rule of thumb than anything else.
answered Sep 17, 2012 at 7:57
Yes, you can.
See numerous examples on Google. There's no reason why the definite article cannot be used just because it precedes an abbreviation.
The possibilities and examples are too numerous to discuss.
