stosss wrote: > On Tue, Mar 9, 2010 at 9:32 PM, stosss <sto...@gmail.com> wrote: > >> Paul Brians >> Emeritus Professor of English >> Washington State University >> >> If the word following begins with a vowel sound, the word you want is >> “an”: “Have an apple, Adam.” If the word following begins with a >> consonant, but begins with a vowel sound, you still need “an”: “An >> X-ray will show whether there's a worm in it.” It is nonstandard and >> often considered sloppy speech to utter an “uh” sound in such cases. >> >> The same rule applies to initialisms like “NGO” (for “non-governmental >> organization”). Because the letter N is pronounced “en,” it’s “an NGO” >> but when the phrase is spoken instead of the abbreviation, it’s “a >> non-governmental organization.” >> >> When the following word definitely begins with a consonant sound, you >> need “a”: “A snake told me apples enhance mental abilities.” >> >> Note that the letter Y can be either a vowel or a consonant. Although >> it is sounded as a vowel in words like “pretty,” at the beginning of >> words it is usually sounded as a consonant, as in “a yolk.” >> >> Words beginning with the letter U which start with a Y consonant sound >> like “university” and “utensil” also take an “a”: “a university” and >> “a utensil.” But when an initial U has a vowel sound, the word is >> preceded by “an”: it’s “an umpire,” “an umbrella,” and “an >> understanding.” >> >> As found at: >> >> http://www.wsu.edu/~brians/errors/a.html >> >> also see: >> >> http://www.wsu.edu/~brians/errors/errors.html#errors >> >> and >> >> http://www.wsu.edu/~brians/errors/index.html >> >> > > The articles "a", "an" and "the" can be dropped when there is only one. > > "You are doing an su to root" implies there are more su to root > commands. There is only one su, switch user or super user command. > > "You are doing the su to root" or "you are doing su to root", these > are correct but "a su" and "an su" are incorrect. >
As I read it, the second paragraph above of Paul Brians supports the use of "an" over "a" because "su" is an initialism where the first sound is "es". -- http://linuxfromscratch.org/mailman/listinfo/lfs-dev FAQ: http://www.linuxfromscratch.org/faq/ Unsubscribe: See the above information page
