Originally posted by Acolyte [parts omitted]
Also, double plurals: the most common seems to be 'agendas', but you also see some others like 'cherubims' from time to time.: ... a MP or an MP? Even more confusing, is it a LAN party, or an LAN party?
it has become increasingly common to hear such nonsense as "bacteria is" or "criteria was" because few people talk about
one bacterium or a single criterion. the one i dislike hearing, though it is corect in some contexts, is "data" used as a singular noun. again, who talks about one datum? it is acceptable in the same context as "information" which is used the same way.
for the plural of abbreviations, "iou" ("i owe you", just like "oic" for "oh, i see" ) is okay, but the rest seem silly.
as far as what article to use before an abbreviation, if it is an
acronym (and thus said as a word), "a" before a consonant is correct because one is saying it as a word (
e. g., a lan connection, a radar installation, a fat (file allocation table) entry, or a ram disc), but things like "mp", "fbi", "rpg", "swm", "nbc", or even "rhp", which are
not pronounceable as words, use "an" since the first letter begins with a vowel (the letters in english whose names begin with a vowel are: a (aie), e, f (ef), h (aitch), i (eye), l (ell), m (em), n (en), o, r (ar[e]), s (ess), and x (ex)--odd that "u", a vowel, does
not begin with a vowel sound, so "
a usb port"!).
one exception is "suv", which is pronounceable as a word, but no one does so; one refers to this monstrosity as "an ess-you-vee".
ah, english--the language with the most exceptions of all! *g*