a question of grammar

[metaphorge]

[Poll #1000872]

Comments

[gordonzola.livejournal.com]

"an elljay post"

[t3knomanser.livejournal.com]

Either is acceptable when written, but when spoken, there's an implicit vowel at the start of the word- hence making it sound really funny if you try to say "A el-jay post".

[rhiannonstone.livejournal.com]

I think most people read "LJ" as "eljay," and so "an LJ post" is more correct.

[quodlibetic.livejournal.com]

uh El-Jay. :)

[mactavish.livejournal.com]

It depends on how one is pronouncing it when reading it: "el jay," or "livejournal"?

[fizzyg23.livejournal.com]

All the computer shortcuts for sayings or words read as the full sounded out version in my head. So LJ reads as livejournal, lmao reads as laughing my ass off, etc.

[novapsyche.livejournal.com]

I pronounce "LJ" as "el-jay". Thus I would use an, just as I would with, "I went to an ATM to pick up some cash."

I sometimes spell out LiveJournal, but usually only when I'm referring to the site as a whole. LJ I generally use as an adjective (as in "an LJ post").

[tyrsalvia.livejournal.com]

I asked the internet! It says:

Using articles with abbreviations and acronyms:
One of the most often asked questions about grammar has to do with the choice of articles — a, an, the — to precede an abbreviation or acronym. Do we say an FBI agent or a FBI agent? Although "F" is obviously a consonant and we would precede any word that begins with "F" with "a," we precede FBI with "an" because the first sound we make when we say FBI is not an "f-sound," it is an "eff-sound." Thus we say we're going to a PTO meeting where an NCO will address us. We say we saw a UFO because, although the abbreviation begins with a 'U," we pronounce the "U" as if it were spelled "yoo." Whether we say an URL or a URL depends on whether we pronounce it as "earl" or as "u*r*l."

From here.

[elric-dewisant.livejournal.com]

'L' is not a vowel. And even though its sometimes spelled out 'eljay', a eljay, though grammatically correct, just sounds bad.

I wouldn't look down upon anyone who used 'a LJ' or 'a eljay', but I also wouldn't want to proofread anything they wrote, either.

[dubpulse.livejournal.com]

hah. i never stopped to think about this one... i suppose either will suffice but i'm partial to an LJ.

[dubpulse.livejournal.com]

A little tangent here. I believe I've heard some Brits pronounce UFO as 'oof-oh' instead of 'yoo-eff-oh'. It also gets interesting when you're speaking Spanglish, as I am sometimes caught doing with my parents... in which case I may say 'an OVNI'.

[ewhac.livejournal.com]

I've heard several takes on this. One is that the article should be dependent on the first letter of the abbreviation (vowel or consonant); hence, "a LJ post."

Another is that the article should be dependent on the vocalization of the abbreviation; "ell-jay", hence, "an LJ post."

Yet another is that, since the abbreviation is a stand-in for another word/set of words, the article should depend on the expanded abbreviation; "LJ == LiveJournal", hence, "a LJ post."

Strunk & White, The Chicago Manual of Style, or any newspaper editor you can button-hole should be able to definitively answer the question.

An LJ

[cr0wgrrl.livejournal.com]

From the Chicago Manual of Style:
Uncertainty often arises concerning the proper choice of the indefinite article before an acronym. A workable solution may be based on the way such an abbreviation is read. The assumption is that an acronym is read either as a series of letters or as a neologism, or coined word. Rarely is the acronym read as though all of the words were spelled out. If, as is usually the case, the acronym is treated as a series of letters, the choice of the article depends upon the pronunciation of the first letter:

* an NAACP position
* a TVA power station

If the acronym is widely pronounced as though it were a word, the article is determined by the pronunciation of the word:

* a NATO meeting
* a LOOM parade
* an NFL team

Hence, an LJ.

[mistressxenobia.livejournal.com]

TRICK QUESTION!

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