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CFT's TFC Top 5 Weirdos

CFT's TFC Top 5 Weirdos

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Originally posted by Bowmann

a B road
a UN resolution
a VIP

an A road
an MP
an H-bomb
an SOS

a RADA student
a SABENA airline typist

an ACAS official
an OPEC minister
too much free time

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Originally posted by SJ247
I'd like to slap you with the ripe end of a baboon.
Poor baboon.

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Originally posted by reader1107
too much free time
Copying and pasting from Oxford doesn't help much 😛

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Originally posted by Bowmann
Copying and pasting from Oxford doesn't help much 😛
What? Not Webster's?

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Originally posted by reader1107
What? Not Webster's?
Nope. Nor the Web.

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Originally posted by Nordlys
"A RHP" definitely sounds incorrect to me, unless you pronounce "RHP" as "rhp" rather than "Are Aitch Pee".
But you wouldn't say "an" Red Hot Pawn weirdo would you?

So wouldn't the rule follow along with the acronym?

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Originally posted by Frank Burns
But you wouldn't say "an" Red Hot Pawn weirdo would you?

So wouldn't the rule follow along with the acronym?
See my post.

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Originally posted by Frank Burns
But you wouldn't say "an" Red Hot Pawn weirdo would you?

So wouldn't the rule follow along with the acronym?
The reason why "an" is used instead of "a" in front of a word starting with a vowel sound is that it's easier to pronounce. It doesn't have anything to do with how the words are spelt or their derivation.

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Where the abbreviation would in speech be expanded to the full word, use a or an as appropriate to the latter.

e.g. a MS ('a manuscript'😉

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Originally posted by Bowmann
Where the abbreviation would in speech be expanded to the full word, use a or an as appropriate to the latter.

e.g. a MS ('a manuscript'😉
so, "a" RHP user...

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Originally posted by SJ247
so, "a" RHP user...
Would you say "Red Hot Pawn" if you read "RHP"? I wouldn't.

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Originally posted by SJ247
so, "a" RHP user...
That's what I understand from the posts etc.

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Originally posted by Nordlys
Would you say "Red Hot Pawn" if you read "RHP"? I wouldn't.
Nope. I would have said "an arr aytch pee"...

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Originally posted by SJ247
Nope. I would have said "an arr aytch pee"...
So, "an" RHP user...

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Originally posted by Nordlys
So, "an" RHP user...
Yes, but no. In the case of "an" or "a", I will allow myself to break the law, for comfort.