Sorry, just a minor nitpick. Should be "A NSFW Tumblr Search".
No, it's An NSFW.
Show HN: An NSFW Tumblr Search
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Re: Show HN: An NSFW Tumblr Search
#12Sorry, just a minor nitpick. Should be "A NSFW Tumblr Search".
drop the A/An.. it's cleaner.
Re: Show HN: An NSFW Tumblr Search
#13Re: Show HN: An NSFW Tumblr Search
#14Earlier quoted context omitted.
Depends how you pronounce it. An comes before vowel sounds, like the E in "en", while A comes before consonant sounds, like the N in "no". I'm curious, then, how you pronounce NSFW -- "nnnsfwa?"
I read it as "Not safe for work". For other acronyms, I read them like they spell eg C-I-A or F-B-I. I always lose this fight because people can point to "official English usage" documentation. Its just that to my ears (and internal voice) saying "an N..." vs "a N..." sounds wrong. You're adding an extra "n" sound, so that when its spoken you say something like "aaaahhhnnnnnnnnn" with no break there's a loss of disti…
Would you say "an NSA agent", or "a NSA agent"?
The point of using "an" is to avoid a glottal stop, because glottal stops are awkward and scary.
Re: Show HN: An NSFW Tumblr Search
#15Earlier quoted context omitted.
I read it as "Not safe for work". For other acronyms, I read them like they spell eg C-I-A or F-B-I. I always lose this fight because people can point to "official English usage" documentation. Its just that to my ears (and internal voice) saying "an N..." vs "a N..." sounds wrong. You're adding an extra "n" sound, so that when its spoken you say something like "aaaahhhnnnnnnnnn" with no break there's a loss of disti…
Would you say "an NSA agent", or "a NSA agent"? The point of using "an" is to avoid a glottal stop, because glottal stops are awkward and scary.
See, you have a good example of where I'm wrong. I most definitely say "an NSA" in this case, because that sounds right. I think its just a few particular words that sound funny that way, while pretty much every other time the actual rules make sense.
Re: Show HN: An NSFW Tumblr Search
#16Sorry, just a minor nitpick. Should be "A NSFW Tumblr Search".
The use of "a" and "an" depend on the sound the word after it begins with. Since the "N" in NSFW is pronounced "en", it should be "an". Source: http://owl.english.purdue.edu/owl/resource/540/01/
Nice link, but it's incomplete.
You also need to cater for acronyms that are usually pronounced as words (a RADIUS setup, not an RADIUS setup), and acronyms that have an accepted pronunciation that isn't simply reading out the letters (a SQL statement, not an SQL statement; although that last depends on style guides and local convention, both Oracle and Microsoft prefer the "sequel" pronunciation to "ess-que-ell").