It is "an FAQ". I'm a native en_US speaker, though I'm much more of a
stickler for correct phonetics than most. But even so, I think most
en_US speakers also say "an FAQ", because we say it phonetically: "eff
ay cue". That's the correct way of saying it in US English.


On 10/2/05, Curtis Napier <curtis119@g.o> wrote:
> Łukasz Damentko wrote:
> > On Mon, 03 Oct 2005 01:44:54 +0200
> > Ioannis Aslanidis <deathwing00@g.o> wrote:
> >
> >
> >>-----BEGIN PGP SIGNED MESSAGE-----
> >>Hash: SHA1
> >>
> >>Alin Dobre wrote:
> >>
> >>>the last time this was discussed via irc, ciaranm (who is a native en_GB
> >>>speaker) said that the correct form is: "an FAQ", the explanation being
> >>>that FAQ it's spelled: ef a q, so it phonetically begins with a vocal,
> >>>so it should be prefixed with 'an'.
> >
> >
> > blackace and AllanonJL (both native speakers as well) say it's "a FAQ"
> > not "an FAQ", so we have 2:1 for now...
> >
> > with regards,
> > Łukasz Damentko
>
>
> Yes indeed, ciaran is correct. You go by the "sound" not by the
> spelling. That's why we say "an honor" instead of "a honor" (the h is
> silent). But in the case of FAQ he is incorrect because it's pronounced
> fa-ack not ef-ack. Silly en_GB speakers. :-)
>
> For reference see here:
> http://andromeda.rutgers.edu/~jlynch/Writing/a.html#a
>
> or here:
> http://www.drgrammar.org/faqs/#36
> --
> gentoo-doc@g.o mailing list
>
>


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