[Amarok] English++

[Jeff Mitchell]

Casey Link wrote:
>>> Actually, you're both half right. The correct sentence is:
>>>
>>> "An HTML page was received. Expected a RSS 2.0 feed."
>> Definitely not :). Not even a gap between en_US and en_GB :)
> 
> I agree with the auzzie ;-)
> 
> The rule is: You use "an" when the following word begins with a vowel *sound.*

The fact that something is popular doesn't mean it's right. While I
originally agreed with you, I did actually look it up before writing
that above, which changed my mind:

The writing lab at Purdue University:
http://owl.english.purdue.edu/owl/resource/591/01/

EFLnet (EFL = English as a Foreign Language):
http://www.eflnet.com/tutorials/avsan.php

The web page about RSS 2.0 at Harvard Law uses "an RSS" once and "a RSS"
twice, which suggests that the latter is more proper:
http://cyber.law.harvard.edu/rss/rss.html

The first two resources both note that it's based off the phonetic
sound; it's used to prevent a glottal stop. In my reading of the third
article I found it just as easy to roll "a RSS" off the tongue when
reading the sentences aloud as the sentence with "an RSS"; I didn't
experience a glottal stop when reading either way. (Contrast the
following sentences: "This morning I created a RSS feed" with "This
morning I cooked a egg", or even "This morning I made a HTML page".) So
if there isn't a glottal stop either way, then it seems more proper to
use "a RSS".

To sum up: it probably doesn't matter whether "a RSS" or "an RSS" is
used. But it's definitely not "a HTML page".

--Jeff

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