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Use of a or an before acronyms
Thread poster: patyjs
CHOMAT
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initials or acronym? Dec 1, 2007

Yasmin wrote:

Lifesnadir wrote:

Here's one for you to ponder: The acronym is SSDC, which stands for Sudden and Severe Disabling Crisis. Does it need "a" or "an" before it?

Lifes




I might be splitting hairs here, but surely SSDC is an initialism and not an acronym as it is an abbreviation that is not pronounceable as a word. Thus, in answer to your question, I would say "an" SSDC (es-es-dee-cee).

What happened to the use of the good old full stop in abbreviations? A peppering of those used to sort the initialisms from the acronyms!


I do agree with you on that point . There is quite a difference between initials and acronyms. It depends upon the morpho-phonic structure of the initials ( euphony was used before) e.g. FLCM will not turn into an acronym as MASH or Gulag did.
Logically speaking , since acronyms work as nouns (nearly) then a/an rules can work.
However, I can't find many countable acronyms starting with a vowel !

[Edited at 2007-12-01 20:28]
 
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Use of a or an before acronyms






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