{"id":11112,"date":"2021-01-15T11:25:23","date_gmt":"2021-01-15T16:25:23","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.roshreview.com\/?p=10816"},"modified":"2022-05-03T08:06:56","modified_gmt":"2022-05-03T08:06:56","slug":"when-to-use-a-or-an-before-acronyms","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.roshreview.com\/blog\/when-to-use-a-or-an-before-acronyms\/","title":{"rendered":"When to Use A or An Before Acronyms"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<h6 class=\"wp-block-heading\">Today&#8217;s lesson is a quick tip about how to choose the correct article (a\/an, called &#8220;indefinite articles&#8221;) before an acronym. These articles are occasionally swapped, and it&#8217;s easy to see why! Choosing the article may seem simple based on whether the acronym stars with a consonant or vowel, but usage depends on how the subsequent word is <em>pronounced<\/em>, not spelled.<\/h6>\n\n\n\n<hr class=\"wp-block-separator\"\/>\n\n\n\n<p>What does this mean? <\/p>\n\n\n<p class=\"has-background has-very-light-gray-background-color\"><strong>The patient underwent <span style=\"color: #ff6600;\">a<\/span><\/strong>\/<strong><span style=\"color: #339966;\">an<\/span> MRI scan<\/strong>.<\/p>\n\n\n<p>When we see MRI written, we mentally say each letter\u2014em are eye\u2014rather than \u201cmagnetic resonance imaging.\u201d Which article should it get?<\/p>\n\n\n<p><span>Since the letter M is pronounced starting with a vowel (em), we use the article that goes with vowel sounds: <\/span><span style=\"color: #339966;\"><strong>an<\/strong><\/span><span>. <\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"has-background has-very-light-gray-background-color\"><strong>The patient underwent <span style=\"color: #339966;\">an<\/span> MRI scan<\/strong>.<\/p>\n\n\n<p>And what if we didn&#8217;t use the acronym but wrote the term out?<\/p>\n\n\n<p class=\"has-background has-very-light-gray-background-color\"><strong>The patient underwent <span style=\"color: #000000;\"><span style=\"color: #ff6600;\">a<\/span> magnetic resonance imaging<\/span>&nbsp;scan<\/strong>.<\/p>\n\n\n<p>This time, the subsequent word (magnetic) starts with a consonant sound, so we use &#8220;a.&#8221; Make sense?<\/p>\n\n\n\n<hr class=\"wp-block-separator\"\/>\n\n\n\n<p>Here are some other examples: <\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"has-background has-very-light-gray-background-color\"><strong><span style=\"color: #ff6600;\">a<\/span> nurse practitioner certification exam<\/strong> \/<strong><span style=\"color: #339966;\"> an<\/span> NP certification exam<br><strong><br><\/strong><span style=\"color: #ff6600;\">a<\/span> STEMI <\/strong>\/<strong> <span style=\"color: #339966;\">an<\/span> ST elevation myocardial infarction<\/strong><br><br><strong><span style=\"color: #ff6600;\">a<\/span> nonsteroidal anti-inflammatory drug<\/strong> \/<strong><span style=\"color: #339966;\"> an<\/span> NSAID<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>You get the idea!<\/p>\n\n\n\n<hr class=\"wp-block-separator\"\/>\n\n\n\n<p>If you\u2019re stuck with figuring out what article to use before an acronym (or any word), just say it out loud. Its pronunciation determines which article it receives\u2014nice and straightforward.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Today&#8217;s lesson is a quick tip about how to choose the correct article (a\/an, called &#8220;indefinite articles&#8221;) before an acronym. These articles are occasionally swapped, and it&#8217;s easy to see why! Choosing the article may seem simple based on whether the acronym stars with a consonant or vowel, but usage depends on how the subsequent <a href=\"https:\/\/www.roshreview.com\/blog\/when-to-use-a-or-an-before-acronyms\/\">read more&#8230;<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":40,"featured_media":11203,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"inline_featured_image":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1996,1998],"tags":[2735],"coauthors":[3822],"class_list":["post-11112","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-blogtype","category-lauras-lessons","tag-grammar"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO Premium plugin v21.7 (Yoast SEO v26.6) - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>When to Use A or An Before Acronyms - RoshReview.com<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"When To Use A Or An Before Acronyms Learn in a minute what you should&#039;ve learned in third grade.\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.roshreview.com\/blog\/when-to-use-a-or-an-before-acronyms\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"When to Use A or An Before Acronyms\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"When To Use A Or An Before Acronyms Learn in a minute what you should&#039;ve learned in third grade.\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.roshreview.com\/blog\/when-to-use-a-or-an-before-acronyms\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"RoshReview.com\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2021-01-15T16:25:23+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2022-05-03T08:06:56+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/www.roshreview.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/2\/2021\/04\/LaurasLessons_2021_1200x630.png\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"1200\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"630\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/png\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Laura Wilkinson\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:image\" content=\"https:\/\/www.roshreview.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/2\/2021\/04\/LaurasLessons_2021_1012x506.png\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Laura Wilkinson\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"1 minute\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.roshreview.com\/blog\/when-to-use-a-or-an-before-acronyms\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.roshreview.com\/blog\/when-to-use-a-or-an-before-acronyms\/\",\"name\":\"When to Use A or An Before Acronyms - RoshReview.com\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.roshreview.com\/blog\/#website\"},\"primaryImageOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.roshreview.com\/blog\/when-to-use-a-or-an-before-acronyms\/#primaryimage\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.roshreview.com\/blog\/when-to-use-a-or-an-before-acronyms\/#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\/\/www.roshreview.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/2\/2021\/04\/LaurasLessons_2021_1200x600.png\",\"datePublished\":\"2021-01-15T16:25:23+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2022-05-03T08:06:56+00:00\",\"author\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.roshreview.com\/blog\/#\/schema\/person\/0f1ec6aa772888953e299be73336f0a2\"},\"description\":\"When To Use A Or An Before Acronyms Learn in a minute what you should've learned in third grade.\",\"breadcrumb\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.roshreview.com\/blog\/when-to-use-a-or-an-before-acronyms\/#breadcrumb\"},\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/www.roshreview.com\/blog\/when-to-use-a-or-an-before-acronyms\/\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.roshreview.com\/blog\/when-to-use-a-or-an-before-acronyms\/#primaryimage\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.roshreview.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/2\/2021\/04\/LaurasLessons_2021_1200x600.png\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/www.roshreview.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/2\/2021\/04\/LaurasLessons_2021_1200x600.png\",\"width\":1200,\"height\":600,\"caption\":\"Laura's Lessons\"},{\"@type\":\"BreadcrumbList\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.roshreview.com\/blog\/when-to-use-a-or-an-before-acronyms\/#breadcrumb\",\"itemListElement\":[{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":1,\"name\":\"Home\",\"item\":\"https:\/\/www.roshreview.com\/blog\/\"},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":2,\"name\":\"When to Use A or An Before Acronyms\"}]},{\"@type\":\"WebSite\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.roshreview.com\/blog\/#website\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.roshreview.com\/blog\/\",\"name\":\"RoshReview.com\",\"description\":\"Free Powerful Rosh Content - Find content that fits you\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"SearchAction\",\"target\":{\"@type\":\"EntryPoint\",\"urlTemplate\":\"https:\/\/www.roshreview.com\/blog\/?s={search_term_string}\"},\"query-input\":{\"@type\":\"PropertyValueSpecification\",\"valueRequired\":true,\"valueName\":\"search_term_string\"}}],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"},{\"@type\":\"Person\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.roshreview.com\/blog\/#\/schema\/person\/0f1ec6aa772888953e299be73336f0a2\",\"name\":\"Laura Wilkinson\",\"image\":{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.roshreview.com\/blog\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/29a4384340c2ee6fc32f154c32556c65\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/d440cca763e9d5807cd21f93308ffdfbbef44af0f16f38e9b8690d34c677a835?s=96&d=mm&r=g\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/d440cca763e9d5807cd21f93308ffdfbbef44af0f16f38e9b8690d34c677a835?s=96&d=mm&r=g\",\"caption\":\"Laura Wilkinson\"},\"description\":\"Laura is a copyeditor and writer with Rosh Review\/Blueprint Test Prep. She has a background in science and science communication (BS in Zoology, MS in Ecology &amp; Evolutionary Biology, and Certificate for the Professional Sequence in Editing). She's passionate about making difficult concepts easy to understand. Outside of work, she loves to cook, bake, hike, and chase her kiddos around.\",\"sameAs\":[\"https:\/\/www.roshreview.com\",\"https:\/\/www.linkedin.com\/in\/lauracwilkinson\"],\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.roshreview.com\/blog\/author\/lwilkinson-2\/\"}]}<\/script>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO Premium plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"When to Use A or An Before Acronyms - RoshReview.com","description":"When To Use A Or An Before Acronyms Learn in a minute what you should've learned in third grade.","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/www.roshreview.com\/blog\/when-to-use-a-or-an-before-acronyms\/","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"When to Use A or An Before Acronyms","og_description":"When To Use A Or An Before Acronyms Learn in a minute what you should've learned in third grade.","og_url":"https:\/\/www.roshreview.com\/blog\/when-to-use-a-or-an-before-acronyms\/","og_site_name":"RoshReview.com","article_published_time":"2021-01-15T16:25:23+00:00","article_modified_time":"2022-05-03T08:06:56+00:00","og_image":[{"width":1200,"height":630,"url":"https:\/\/www.roshreview.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/2\/2021\/04\/LaurasLessons_2021_1200x630.png","type":"image\/png"}],"author":"Laura Wilkinson","twitter_card":"summary_large_image","twitter_image":"https:\/\/www.roshreview.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/2\/2021\/04\/LaurasLessons_2021_1012x506.png","twitter_misc":{"Written by":"Laura Wilkinson","Est. reading time":"1 minute"},"schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/www.roshreview.com\/blog\/when-to-use-a-or-an-before-acronyms\/","url":"https:\/\/www.roshreview.com\/blog\/when-to-use-a-or-an-before-acronyms\/","name":"When to Use A or An Before Acronyms - RoshReview.com","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.roshreview.com\/blog\/#website"},"primaryImageOfPage":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.roshreview.com\/blog\/when-to-use-a-or-an-before-acronyms\/#primaryimage"},"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.roshreview.com\/blog\/when-to-use-a-or-an-before-acronyms\/#primaryimage"},"thumbnailUrl":"https:\/\/www.roshreview.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/2\/2021\/04\/LaurasLessons_2021_1200x600.png","datePublished":"2021-01-15T16:25:23+00:00","dateModified":"2022-05-03T08:06:56+00:00","author":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.roshreview.com\/blog\/#\/schema\/person\/0f1ec6aa772888953e299be73336f0a2"},"description":"When To Use A Or An Before Acronyms Learn in a minute what you should've learned in third grade.","breadcrumb":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.roshreview.com\/blog\/when-to-use-a-or-an-before-acronyms\/#breadcrumb"},"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["https:\/\/www.roshreview.com\/blog\/when-to-use-a-or-an-before-acronyms\/"]}]},{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/www.roshreview.com\/blog\/when-to-use-a-or-an-before-acronyms\/#primaryimage","url":"https:\/\/www.roshreview.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/2\/2021\/04\/LaurasLessons_2021_1200x600.png","contentUrl":"https:\/\/www.roshreview.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/2\/2021\/04\/LaurasLessons_2021_1200x600.png","width":1200,"height":600,"caption":"Laura's Lessons"},{"@type":"BreadcrumbList","@id":"https:\/\/www.roshreview.com\/blog\/when-to-use-a-or-an-before-acronyms\/#breadcrumb","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Home","item":"https:\/\/www.roshreview.com\/blog\/"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"When to Use A or An Before Acronyms"}]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https:\/\/www.roshreview.com\/blog\/#website","url":"https:\/\/www.roshreview.com\/blog\/","name":"RoshReview.com","description":"Free Powerful Rosh Content - Find content that fits you","potentialAction":[{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https:\/\/www.roshreview.com\/blog\/?s={search_term_string}"},"query-input":{"@type":"PropertyValueSpecification","valueRequired":true,"valueName":"search_term_string"}}],"inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":"Person","@id":"https:\/\/www.roshreview.com\/blog\/#\/schema\/person\/0f1ec6aa772888953e299be73336f0a2","name":"Laura Wilkinson","image":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/www.roshreview.com\/blog\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/29a4384340c2ee6fc32f154c32556c65","url":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/d440cca763e9d5807cd21f93308ffdfbbef44af0f16f38e9b8690d34c677a835?s=96&d=mm&r=g","contentUrl":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/d440cca763e9d5807cd21f93308ffdfbbef44af0f16f38e9b8690d34c677a835?s=96&d=mm&r=g","caption":"Laura Wilkinson"},"description":"Laura is a copyeditor and writer with Rosh Review\/Blueprint Test Prep. She has a background in science and science communication (BS in Zoology, MS in Ecology &amp; Evolutionary Biology, and Certificate for the Professional Sequence in Editing). She's passionate about making difficult concepts easy to understand. Outside of work, she loves to cook, bake, hike, and chase her kiddos around.","sameAs":["https:\/\/www.roshreview.com","https:\/\/www.linkedin.com\/in\/lauracwilkinson"],"url":"https:\/\/www.roshreview.com\/blog\/author\/lwilkinson-2\/"}]}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.roshreview.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11112","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.roshreview.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.roshreview.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.roshreview.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/40"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.roshreview.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=11112"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.roshreview.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11112\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.roshreview.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/11203"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.roshreview.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=11112"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.roshreview.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=11112"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.roshreview.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=11112"},{"taxonomy":"author","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.roshreview.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/coauthors?post=11112"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}