Hi Chris, On 2013-04-14 23:50, Chris Angelico wrote: > Quirky question time! > > When you read out a qualified name, eg collections.OrderedDict, do you > read the qualifier ("collections dot ordered dict"), or do you elide > it ("ordered dict")? I ask because it makes a difference to talking > about just one of them: > > ... or possibly a collections.OrderedDict... > ... or possibly an collections.OrderedDict... > > Written, the latter looks completely wrong; but if the name is read in > its short form, with the "collections" part being implicit, then "an" > is clearly correct! What do you think, experts and others?
I think if you _write_ "collections.OrderedDict", the article you _write_ in front should match this. The phrase "an collections.OrderedDict" looks odd to me, and if I read it somewhere, it wouldn't cross my mind that the writer used "an collections.OrderedDict" with the idea not to pronounce "collections". ;-) In my opinion, this is too subtle. On the other hand, when you _speak_ about the ordered dict, use the article matching what you actually say. Best regards, Stefan -- http://mail.python.org/mailman/listinfo/python-list