... as in "an hotel". The 'h' is silent like 'p' in long grass.
PaulH.
doug russell wrote:
>
> Kai,
>
> The rule is if a word starts with a vowel then it is preceded by 'an' - if it
> starts with a consonant then it is preceded by and 'a'. Technically, the
> issue is that MG is an acronym for Morris Garage and Morris does not start
> with a vowel - thus you would use 'a' not 'an'. However, the problem you are
> having (and you are not alone) is that the pronunciation of the letter 'M' in
> 'MG' sounds like it starts with a vowel (the phonetic spelling of MG is
> 'emmgee'). So while you might be tempted to use an 'an' (as in 'I have an
> emmgee') it would be inappropriate because we do not phonetically spell
> acronyms - they are spelled using the letters of the words they represent
> ('MG' is spelled mg)!!! This is not uncommon and usually happens with
> acronyms that start with the 'e' sounding consonants as in F which is
> pronounced 'eff', M 'emm', N 'enn', S 'ess' and X 'ex'. In fact most of us
> have probably found ourselves using an 'an' in front of MG in casual
> conversation - again, it's because 'M' sound like it starts with vowel- in the
> future, when tempted to put an 'an' in front of a vowel sounding acronym -
> spell it out the acronym's first word as in "I have a MorrisG car" - it's
> correct, will sound right with some practice and will keep your teacher from
> mooing all over the place!!!
>
> So much for those bilabial fricatives (or whatever they are called).
>
> BTW, I've very impressed that such an off topic topic can be so full of MG
> content - Good Job Kai!!!
>
> Dr. Doug
>
> -----Original Message-----
> From: owner-mgs@autox.team.net On Behalf Of Kai Radicke
> Sent: Wednesday, December 10, 1997 4:50 PM
> To: MG List
> Subject: MG/Grammar
>
> OK, I have a really stupid question...
>
> my English teacher was having a cow (or a Triumph) about me using "an MG"
> in a sentence I wrote. I don't think I have ever seen "a MG" in my life,
> it just sounds dumb. My teacher does have a point, but anyone know why we
> do this?
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