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Comment by geuis | Hacker News Reader

"a FOIA".

We detached this subthread from https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=13007469 and marked it off-topic.

Depends on how you're reading it in your head. If you read "Freedom of Information Act", then it's "a FOIA" but if you read "Eff Oo Aai Aay", it's "an FOIA"

That's why you get "an X-Ray"

I've always read it "faw-ya".

Actually a matter of debate. Different house styles suggest different approaches in this situation

Depends if you pronounce it as one word, or as 'Ef Oh Ai Ey', I suppose.

"an FOIA".

See http://www.englishpage.com/articles/a-vs-an.htm (USE 6)

For the abbreviation,"an FOIA" is correct. For the term "a Freedom of Information act" is correct. Its based on the sounds, not the word being abbreviated.

"a FOIA" is correct if you pronounce it "foya".

I believe the reason for "a FOIA" is "FOIA" is being pronounced as a word like "foya" instead of the individual letters "F-O-I-A".

maybe they're reading "a foy-uh"

Got any references to anyone speaking a foy-uh out loud? Ive only ever know it to be 4 letters, said discretely, and not as a word like SQL.

I've only heard "foya", and I find "sequel" for "SQL" to grate like nails on a chalkboard. YMMV!

I'm now imagining that's pronounced Yim-Vee!

I don't have a citation, but am sure I've heard people say "foya requests" out loud, probably lawyers at hacker conferences.

I work with government people and contractors a lot and I've never heard it not pronounced "foya."

I would cringe when I would hear pronounced acronyms like "sequel" and "scuzzy" (SQL and SCSI) back in college; some acronyms simply aren't meant to be pronounced as words, especially if the pronounced word gave an uninformed listener the wrong impression. "Eww, why does my computer need to be scuzzy??"

Though note that:

> It was initially called “Structured English Query Language” (SEQUEL) and pronounced “sequel”, though it later had to have its name shortened to “Structured Query Language” (SQL) due to trademark issues.

I don't think, even in its heyday, I ever heard "SCSI" pronounced as anything but "scuzzy". Much more efficient and universally understood.

Ie: an F.

Ie: a friend.

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