No, Paul,
We were discussing English - Not Cockney.
If you're going to stay with these off topic thread, don't go changing
to a foreign lanquage. ( 'otel indeed!)
:>)
Rick
On Fri, 12 Dec 1997 20:04:26 +0000 Paul Hunt <paul.hunt1@virgin.net>
writes:
>... 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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