Loosing? Learn the English language, people!

Most people are lazy. Modern life allows them to survive.

This.

No exceptions.
It's an HTFU pill. People who pronouce 'haitch' instead of 'aitch' are just wrong.
and a UPS - U is pronounced 'you', not 'oo', so the 'sounds like a consonant' rule applies.

No.
Whatever.
Yes.

But never think you can get away with removing an existing consonant, such as the magnificent "H" in the mighty "Hotel" just to try and crowbar the "an" instead of "a". You will die, horribly and painfully, if I catch you doing that.
'A historical document' or 'an historical document'?

If I were writing I would avoid using MP3 and write around it.
I received a digital-music player for my birthday.

Don't the vast majority of people just say "iPod" when faced with this challenge?

"thingamie"

or the hippy version: "fucking music make play ear walking box thing fuck grrr fuck"

A iPod?

A nipod?

That seems wrong... a HTFU pill seems right.

It's hard to scream for "no exceptions", it is language.

H on harden is strongly pronounced, it isn't "'arden the fuck up", it is "harden the fuck up"... the strong H means A rather than An.

Maybe the difference is now more subtle... which acronyms, when spoken, would you pronounce as a word (i.e. NASA) or spell out (i.e. MP3) vs the ones where you would expand them (i.e. Harden the fuck up). I mean... who actually says "H T F U" rather than "Harden the fuck up".

Why would you expand it? I wrote HTFU, not "harden the fuck up". You'd surely read what I wrote, not what you know it stands for. That's just weird.

The hotel / 'otel thing reminds me of Eddie Izzard talking about the differences between American and English pronunciation. "You say 'erbs, whereas we say 'herbs', because it's got a fucking H in it."

I always read HTFU as "harden the fuck up".

Guardian style guide has this to say, and I would agree:

Also Eightball if you're thinking it should be dreamt, personally I think that's ridiculous, and the Guardian also agree:

Should be dreamt.

Not when the MP3 player isn't made by Apple.

'a historical document' or 'an historical document'?

a

ffs

a!

You will die, horribly and painfully, if I catch you doing that.

Would that be "a horribly painful death" or "an horribly painful death?"

a

ffs

a!
Many style hand husage guides suggest hotherwise.

Me dunno about this things but me would like to wish to learn more to be a better good..

This sort of issue is solved by writing everything in Cockney Rhyming Slang.

I think you'll find that is now called CRS.

It's a branding issue, going forward.

Crap buzzwords thread >>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>

Me no idiot big but little a bit, about but wish improve the style better of that rather cretin.

I'll just quote Fowler's advice here--everyone should have a copy of Fowler's.

I've got a question...

a vs an?

When to use which?

Or rather, I know to use A when the word following 'sounds like' it starts with a consonant, and to use An when the word following 'sounds like' it starts with a vowel.

With some exceptions for the letter H and U.

Not a problem, but what of acronyms?

For example: a MP3 player sounds wrong, and an MP3 player sounds right.

But I can't find any rule on this, except ones that state that abbreviations and acronyms should normally be expanded in speech and therefore it's "a music" rather than "an music".

Except, no-one expands MP3 when spoken, and to me the "Em" sound of the first letter is what shapes the use of An instead of A.

Does anyone know what the rules are on acronyms and the use of a vs an?

Language is meant to be spoken, so yes. an MP3 player. If you are writing an acronym it will normally be read out as an acronym, whatever the 'rules' state.

This is correct. One should not assume that someone will mentally expand the acronym.

No exceptions.

Hm. I'm not aware of an acronym in which the following advice from Fowler's might apply, but there may well be one. Also relevant to TW2's question:

'A historical document' or 'an historical document'?

Opinion is divided over the form to use before h-words in which the first syllable is unstressed: the thoroughly modern thing to is to use a (never an) together with an aspirated h (a habitual, a heroic, a historical, a Homeric, a hypothesis), but not to demur if others use a with minimal or nil aspiration given to the following h (an historic, an horrific, etc.).
It is arguable what quality people might want to give to a leading 'h' in an acronym. I consider it quite conceivable that there might be a local accent somewhere in which the 'h' would naturally be preceded by 'an', but I'm just speculating.

That seems wrong... a HTFU pill seems right.

It's hard to scream for "no exceptions", it is language.

H on harden is strongly pronounced, it isn't "'arden the fuck up", it is "harden the fuck up"... the strong H means A rather than An.

Maybe the difference is now more subtle... which acronyms, when spoken, would you pronounce as a word (i.e. NASA) or spell out (i.e. MP3) vs the ones where you would expand them (i.e. Harden the fuck up). I mean... who actually says "H T F U" rather than "Harden the fuck up".

Why would you expand it? I wrote HTFU, not "harden the fuck up". You'd surely read what I wrote, not what you know it stands for. That's just weird.

The hotel / 'otel thing reminds me of Eddie Izzard talking about the differences between American and English pronunciation. "You say 'erbs, whereas we say 'herbs', because it's got a fucking H in it."

Yes, Fowler's advice is not to mentally expand the acronym. I would write 'an HTFU pill', too. The 'name' of the letter as used in the acronym does not have the same sound as that in the actual spoken word.

I have variously heard people say 'H T F U' and I think I might even have said it myself.

(I occasionally use 'haitch' where it helps in separating sounds. For instance, I have found that, when spelling my surname, people often miss out the first 'c' when I say 'ess cee aitch' and notice it more easily when I say 'ess cee haitch'.)

Quite - this is English. It's all about the exceptions and irregularities.

I don't think that's an exceptionless rule.

See. I would say that using "an" as in "take an HTFU pill." I can see both working.

Now where's Schick to explain the nuances of Der, Die or Das.

Do you mean the German definite article "der, die, das"?

No need for me to explain them. All you need is the German Sesame Street song:

Sesamstraße (intro) - YouTube

The Grauniad are correct.

It's not "An otel" you stupid fucking newsreader cunt, it's "A HOTEL" FFS.

[...]

But never think you can get away with removing an existing consonant, such as the magnificent "H" in the mighty "Hotel" just to try and crowbar the "an" instead of "a". You will die, horribly and painfully, if I catch you doing that.

Fowler's again:

Three special cases: *an hotel *(with no aspiration in the second word) is now old-fashioned (E. Waugh and 1930s), but by no means extinct (Encounter, 1987; A. Brink, 1988)

Substitute advice or advise in the same sentence, and change the "s" or "c" accordingly.

But then the sentence doesn't make any sense any more:

'I practised running' to 'I advise running' and then 'I advice running'.

:)

Good morning pedants, when I'm writing I like to think that my grammar is relatively decent, however I consistently manage to confuse practice/practise. Does anyone know of a mnemonic I can employ to help me remember which is which?

Your use of 'however' here is incorrect, however--never use it in a run-on sentence where you should start a new sentence (and separate the 'however' by a comma).

'Good morning, pedants. When I'm writing, I like to think that my grammar is relatively decent. However, I consistently manage to confuse "practice" and "practise".'

(NB I often use run-on sentences or simple concatenations of sentences when writing on the forum to approximate the rhythm of spoken language--I realised early on that on the forum I mostly find myself feeling as if I'm speaking to people directly as opposed to hiding behind my computer, so that the above pedantic punctuation is not strictly required.)

I always read HTFU as "harden the fuck up".

Same! Reading the acronym AS the acronym is horrible and weird because it's "hard" to pronounce - think it's the 3 hard consonants at the start. Feels like it takes longer to say "HTFU" than it does to say "harden the fuck up".