XPost: uk.d-i-y, alt.home.repair, alt.sci.physics   
   From: CFKinsey@military.org.jp   
      
   On Sat, 05 Oct 2019 20:23:02 +0100, NY  wrote:   
      
   > "Mark Lloyd"  wrote in message   
   > news:Rx5mF.17840$JD1.8167@fx11.iad...   
   >> On 10/4/19 2:51 PM, Commander Kinsey wrote:   
   >   
   >>>> I have a LED   
   >>>   
   >>> That irritates me, why don't you write "an LED"?  How do you say "LED"?   
   >>> I say "Ell Eee Dee", not "Light Emitting Diode".  So it needs an "an",   
   >>> not an "a".   
   >>   
   >> "an LED" irritates me. I know the word is "light".   
   >   
   > I think it is normal convention that an initialism that starts with a *vowel   
   > sound* takes "an", on the grounds of euphony: that in normal English, you   
   > never precede a word that starts with a vowel sound with "a".   
   >   
   > Hence an apple, but a uniform. A hedge or a hotel or a historic event but an   
   > honourable occasion (H is sounded for the first three but silent for the   
   > last one). For some reason, it considered "better" to use "an" before hotel   
   > and historic, even though the H is sounded. That sounds as daft to my ears   
   > as "an spoon" - it's not a vowel sound so you use "a". I could understand if   
   > people pronounce hotel the French way, but it needs to be consistent: "an   
   > 'otel" or "a hotel".   
      
   My god!  I agree with you completely.  I was about to say the same thing as   
   soon as you wrote "a historic event", it's really grating to my ears to hear   
   an historic.   
      
   Also, Americans get the Hs wrong.  Like erb, as in marijuana.  An 'erb would   
   be fine, but they think the H is always silent.   
      
   > As regards initialisms/abbreviations, you do get anomalies like "an LED"   
   > (ell-ee-dee) that starts with a consonant but "a UFO" (you-eff-oh) that   
   > starts with a vowel pronounced as a consonant.   
      
   I say "a URL" for a web address, but I knew someone who said "an url", as in   
   how you would pronounce "hurl" with a silent H.  He insisted that acronyms   
   should be pronounced like words.  WLED became "well-ed", as in "well" followed   
   by the name "Ed".  I    
   assume because pronouncing a W before an L was too difficult, so he then added   
   extra vowels.   
      
   --- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05   
    * Origin: you cannot sedate... all the things you hate (1:229/2)