ATFA
It will come as no surprise to fellow modern citizens that, in the technical translations I do, I’m forever coming up against acronyms. I sometimes want to weep over the space they occupy in my brain – certain they’re elbowing out much more satisfying junk like poems memorised in grade school (only three lines of Casey at the Bat remain, but OFDM, ECMA, ISAM, HSTR… Oh! Oh! Pick me!).
Tragic as this is, it’s not the point. The point is that every day I debate whether to use “a” or “an” with certain acronyms that start with a consonant.
For example:
Grammatically speaking, it should be “a MVNO,” but the mind jars when reading and automatically inserts an “n.” So, in a bid to soothe my readers already assaulted by ATFA*, I have taken to using “an” when that’s how it would read out loud.
Anemveeo… smooth enough to ease telco execs into a meditative trance.
You think it’s sad that my days are filled with this kind of, uh, challenge? Well, let me tell you that there are user groups out there where tempers can rise to a frenzy over questions like this.
*All These Fucking Acronyms
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Comment
- Working in the world peace gig, and being inundated with the dreaded acronyms on an hourly basis, I’m very much stealing your “ATFA.” I know of several persons that will appreciate it in their arsenals.
— roggey May 26, 9:06pm # - I agree wholeheartedly. But.. working as you would in tech/telco, how do you deal with all those new versions of perfectly acceptable old words: “space” instead of “segment”, “traction” instead of “purchase” or “progress”? We need a new lexicon of ridiculous techspeke.
— roger May 26, 10:10pm # - I’m continually amazed by the speed at which new techie terms are coined—many of which only involve slapping ‘ability’ onto the end of a word which once meant something else entirely.
A sizeable portion of my research is spent googling a term that i’m sure I’ve just made up, only to find out, hey! it really is a word. Jesus, do people really talk like that? (And, suspecting they do, being very grateful that my work rarely involves meetings.)
— gail May 27, 4:02pm # - “I have taken to using “an” when that’s how it would read out loud.”
You will be happy to know the Chicago Manual of Style agrees with you:
15.9 “A” or “an” preceding an abbreviation. When an abbreviation follows an indefinite article, the choice of a or an is determined by the way the abbreviation would be read aloud.
Examples: an HMO, a UFO.
— language hat May 27, 4:30pm # - You’ll be delighted to know that here’s another corporate writer who frequently has to deal with the damn things who’s going to pepper his next meeting with ATFA. Serves them right for pretending they’re cleverer than they are.
I’m not against all businessspeak and techspeak though. ‘Mouse’ is pretty good. ‘Google’ is terrific. ‘Modem’ saved us from ‘modulator/demodulator’ which no doubt would have morphed into ‘MD’, thus confusing generations of scriptwriters who also had to deal with Managing Directors.
And let’s not forget ‘blog’. How cute is that?
— Mark Gamon May 27, 4:31pm # - i agree with u totally
— shanlucid May 27, 5:44pm # - OMG!
— beerzie May 27, 7:59pm # - LMAO!
— Adrian May 27, 11:10pm # - Well, I’m right chuffed that the Chicago Manual of Style agrees with me (always liked those folks).
And I’m tickled at the idea of ATFA being slipped into meetings.
And… yes, even though acronyms can be handy in saving us a minute here and there when talking or typing, there are some that can mean over 100 different things. (MD is a good example.) So hardly conducive to clarity.
— gail May 28, 9:37am # - The problem with ATFA’s is there are only so many letters to go around!
In my line of work I had cause to type into my web browser ‘PCC’ looking for the Presbyterian Church in Canada, only to come up with 2,000 hits for the Pagan Community Centre. Whoa! Wrong room!
— GMR May 29, 9:08pm #
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