Do you type "An fps" or "A fps"?

[wewontdie11]

Personally I say "I are going to playings of FPS now". Often in my best Borat impression.

I usually say a FPS though.

 

[Cryfear101]

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/A_and_an#Discrimination_between_a_and_an

Always check Wikipedia first!

Honestly please tell me that was nessecery :S

 

[Pimppeter2]

An is grammatically correct I believe. But I occasionally use both

 

[Fists]

who cares which is apparently correct? The english language is always changing and "a FPS" just sounds jarring (assuming you read the letters rather than expand it) so we should just use "an FPS" until its accepted (assuming it isnt already)

 

[randomsix]

Pronounced "eff-pee-ess" and therefor should have an "an" article.

Regardless of pronunciation, it is not spelt with an E to begin with. Therefore, grammatically speaking, the correct way to say and write it is "a FPS", and same goes for "a RPG". Works better if 'a' is pronounced 'u', as in Queen's English.
English = weird.

I would argue that the rules break down a bit in the face of acronyms.

 

[ArcWinter]

an fps because of the vowel sound, not the consonant sound.

Letters don't matter, it's the phonetics.

 

[quack35]

I use "an" FPS.

 

[Kenjitsuka]

You use 'an' before.... oh god what's the term.... errr.... having a mind blank right here, but things like 'fps' 'rts' 'nasa' 'kgb' etc.

Acronym? Though wouldn't you say "a NASA" as opposed to to "an NASA", seeing that NASA starts with an N? Though really, as there is only one NASA, neither are really appropriate...

Yeh, I'm done nitpicking for now.

I'm not an English native (please forgive me ), but doesn't NASA always go WITHOUT ether a or an? You say stuff like "NASA invented a new rocket" or "I was at NASA yesterday", when would you feel the need to say "I saw an NASA yesterday"?

This because there is only ONE NASA. Like there is only one USA. Or is it an USA?

 

[Psycho-Boy-Jack]

You use 'an' before.... oh god what's the term.... errr.... having a mind blank right here, but things like 'fps' 'rts' 'nasa' 'kgb' etc.

Pretty much what he said *whistles off*

 

[FightThePower]

Yeah weirdly 'an fps' sounds right but it should be 'a fps'. You say 'a first person shooter' after all, not 'an first person shooter.'

EDIT: Never mind, proved wrong.

 

[Vim-Hogar]

You use 'an' before.... oh god what's the term.... errr.... having a mind blank right here, but things like 'fps' 'rts' 'nasa' 'kgb' etc.

Acronym? Though wouldn't you say "a NASA" as opposed to to "an NASA", seeing that NASA starts with an N? Though really, as there is only one NASA, neither are really appropriate...

Yeh, I'm done nitpicking for now.

I'm not an English native (please forgive me ), but doesn't NASA always go WITHOUT ether a or an? You say stuff like "NASA invented a new rocket" or "I was at NASA yesterday", when would you feel the need to say "I saw an NASA yesterday"?

This because there is only ONE NASA. Like there is only one USA. Or is it an USA?

Yup, you're right. I'm not sure if it's because of their being only one, but that is the correct way to use it.

You use 'an' before.... oh god what's the term.... errr.... having a mind blank right here, but things like 'fps' 'rts' 'nasa' 'kgb' etc.

Pretty much what he said *whistles off*

Too bad he was wrong, then.

Yeah weirdly 'an fps' sounds right but it should be 'a fps'. You say 'a first person shooter' after all, not 'an first person shooter.'

You're overthinking it. The rule for picking whether it's 'a' or 'an' is to pick whichever sounds right -- that is, it's 'a' unless the next word starts with a vowel sound. It doesn't matter what the acronym expands to, because it's based on sound, not meaning.

Edit: I see your edit, FightThePower, but I'll just leave this in case anyone else is confused.

 

[NezumiiroKitsune]

I've used both, but I sympathise with your dilemma. Both indefinate articles mean the same thing, however if we accept the defintion of the indefinate article an we learn, "An - the form of a before an initial vowel sound (an arch; an honor) and sometimes, esp. in British English, before an initial unstressed syllable beginning with a silent or weakly pronounced h: an historian".

In this case the term an FPS would be grammatically incorrect and the misuse of an would rupture the space time continuum. So a FPS.

 

[Psycho-Boy-Jack]

Mr. Hogar,
Its a shame really...
Yours sincerely,
Wasting Away.

I would quote to get your attention, but TOO much to bother with.

 

[AceDiamond]

seeing as how "an" goes before vowel sounds and "a" before consonant, it's "an" FPS, but "a" KGB (agent)

 

[MarsProbe]

I'm not an English native (please forgive me ), but doesn't NASA always go WITHOUT ether a or an? You say stuff like "NASA invented a new rocket" or "I was at NASA yesterday", when would you feel the need to say "I saw an NASA yesterday"?

This because there is only ONE NASA. Like there is only one USA. Or is it an USA?

Yeh, you're right is just NASA (though I thought I already said that...). You know, that reminds how surprised when I was a kid to discover that NASA did not actually stand for North American Space Agency. Especially as you think America would jump at the chance, really...

 

[Kenjitsuka]

Yeh, you're right is just NASA (though I thought I already said that...). You know, that reminds how surprised when I was a kid to discover that NASA did not actually stand for North American Space Agency. Especially as you think America would jump at the chance, really...

Yup, it's National Aeronautics and Space Administration. That surprised me too, as the US goverment would be right (and proud of course) to call it North American Space Agency. But with that name it *could* be implied Canada had something to do with it! "What's this rocket business all aboot?!" Doubt the USA finds that cool...

(Sorry if you're Canadian and easily offended. I think Canada is a good stable country with a nice population. I just watch too much Southpark, reall...)

 

[runtheplacered]

I've used both, but I sympathise with your dilemma. Both indefinate articles mean the same thing, however if we accept the defintion of the indefinate article an we learn, "An - the form of a before an initial vowel sound (an arch; an honor) and sometimes, esp. in British English, before an initial unstressed syllable beginning with a silent or weakly pronounced h: an historian".

In this case the term an FPS would be grammatically incorrect and the misuse of an would rupture the space time continuum. So a FPS.

Except, you're forgetting about the rule of acronym's and "an". It's A first person shooter. But it's an FPS. "An" really is proper here.

However, in the case of NASA.. because of the fact that you phonetically say NASA and not N-A-S-A as individual letters, that gets "A". Example: A Nasa experiment.

Also, it's not just vowels, but silent H's also get them. Example: An hour from now.

 

[runtheplacered]

You use 'an' before.... oh god what's the term.... errr.... having a mind blank right here, but things like 'fps' 'rts' 'nasa' 'kgb' etc.

Acronym? Though wouldn't you say "a NASA" as opposed to to "an NASA", seeing that NASA starts with an N? Though really, as there is only one NASA, neither are really appropriate...

Yeh, I'm done nitpicking for now.

I'm not an English native (please forgive me ), but doesn't NASA always go WITHOUT ether a or an? You say stuff like "NASA invented a new rocket" or "I was at NASA yesterday", when would you feel the need to say "I saw an NASA yesterday"?

This because there is only ONE NASA. Like there is only one USA. Or is it an USA?

Two people agreed with you so far, and I didn't even read your post, and happen to give an example of where you're all forgetting something. Although there's only one NASA, there's definitely times when you use A. Such as "A NASA experiment." Example: "A NASA experiment earlier today proved the theory of gravity to be false."

However, for the reason why you use A and not "An" in this acronym read my post that's directly above this one.

 

[PauL o_O]

In literal terms, FPS would be EFF PEE ESS, so properly, it's an FPS