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Summation of answers and comments:

Use "an" before a word that begins with a vowel sound,
otherwise, use "a".

Still not clear on which to use before acronyms that can be read as letter-by-letter or as the words they represent.

Side note: In the future, I'll only use acronyms where there is no need for "a" or "an" before them. If an "a" or an "an" is needed, I'll write the words of the acronym.

I'd use: "Nightmare of an operator of N.Y.C.'s subway/Subway..."

Simpler sentence:
Instead of "An NYU student" or "A New York University student",
"A student of NYU" or "A student of New York University".

Original Question:

I'm pretty sure I use the correct "a"/"an".
Something like: if the next word (expanded from acronym, if exists) starts with "a"/"e"/"i"/"o"/"u"(/"y"?) => use "an", otherwise => use "a".

A (bad?) example from "The New Yorker"(!) on YouTube:
"An N.Y.C. Subway Operator's..."

What are the "official" rules?

iAmOren
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  • "y" is not a vowel. However some specific words may use an, though I have never encountered one. It will be helpful if someone provides an example of the same. – Dhanishtha Ghosh Oct 01 '20 at 11:06
  • In a word like "yclept" (which, however, is an archaism), "y" makes a vowel sound and therefore would be preceded by "an" if there were a valid sentence where it could come directly after an indefinite article. There may be a better example. "Y" also produces a vowel sound in "many" and many other words, but that's irrelevant as it's not the initial sound. – rjpond Oct 01 '20 at 11:49
  • If you were referring to the Swedish city of Ystad, you'd say "an Ystad resident". – rjpond Oct 01 '20 at 11:50
  • @rjpond, How is "Ystad" pronounced? "yis-tad" -> "a Ystad", "is-tad" -> "an Ystad" = What sounds right to me and as a comment/answer about vowel-sounding words. – iAmOren Oct 01 '20 at 13:16
  • Swedish y doesn't exist in the English language but the correct approximation would be eestahd or isstahd, not yistad. But if you did want to pronounce it yistad then it would take "a". – rjpond Oct 01 '20 at 14:10
  • a, e, i, o, u are not vowels. They're 'letters'. We use these 'letters' to represent 'vowels'. Whenever a word starts with a vowel, use 'an', otherwise use 'a'. If NYC is pronounced New York City, use 'a'. If it's pronounced EN-WAI-SEE, use 'an' because the first sound is a vowel. – Void Oct 01 '20 at 14:45
  • There are so many duplicates: first /// second /// third /// There may be more ... – Void Oct 01 '20 at 14:51
  • @Wistful, thank you. What do you recommend using before "NYC" if you don't know how the reader will pronounce it? – iAmOren Oct 01 '20 at 14:57
  • @iAmOren: I would use 'an'. Another example: what would you use with 'NPHG'; a or an? – Void Oct 01 '20 at 15:02
  • @Wistful, "NPHG" presents the same problem. Is this a company/organization you work for/own/etc. (had to search)? – iAmOren Oct 01 '20 at 15:08
  • No, I made it up. I said "I'd use 'an'" because it's an abbreviation and starts with the letter N, which is pronounced ENN (i.e. a vowel). – Void Oct 01 '20 at 15:10
  • @Wistful, we're going around in circles. The cause of the problem is using acronyms where the writer has no control/knowledge/wrong "truth" of how the reader will read the acronym. Spell it out, or reformat the sentence... :) – iAmOren Oct 01 '20 at 15:14
  • Actually, we should base our pronunciation on what the writer has written. So if we see "An NYC" then we should pronounce "an en-why-see", and if we see "a NYC" then we should pronounce "a New York City". That said, "en-why-see" is my usual habit. I pronounce initialisms as initials unless there's a clue that this wasn't the authorial intention. "UN" as yoo-en, not United Nations. – rjpond Oct 01 '20 at 18:30

1 Answers1

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You use an when the next word starts with a vowel sound. There is no hard rule as to what letter follows a/an in writing - it's dependent on pronunciation:

an hour ("h" is silent, so the word starts with the sound /a/)

a hit ("h" is not silent in this case, so the word starts with /h/).

an N.Y.C. ("N.Y.C." is pronounced as individual letters, so it starts with /ɛn/ - the first sound is /ɛ/, which is a vowel sound)

Maciej Stachowski
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  • Thank you. Hmmm... I see, now, why "An N.Y.C" is correct... In my mind I read "An New York City"... How to avoid that - from the perspective of the writer? Simply: "N.Y.C. Subway....."? – iAmOren Oct 01 '20 at 11:08
  • @iAmOren The use of a/an is warranted in this particular headline ("An N.Y.C. Subway Operator's Worst Nightmare") as it doesn't refer to any specific operator (so you can't use the). You could maybe get away with no article since headlines occasionally omit those, but an sounds more natural and proper here. – Maciej Stachowski Oct 01 '20 at 11:16
  • Thank you. In the back of my mind, another thing bothered me: "news" "reporters" repeated fabrications of "facts": How do they "know" what an N.Y.C etc.'s "worst nightmare" is, if they all have that particular nightmare, any, if they dream at all, etc...? – iAmOren Oct 01 '20 at 11:25
  • @MaciejStachowski - I disagree; I would read that as "A N[ew] Y[ork] C[ity] Subway Operator's ...", fully expanding the initialism - it's not the "en why see subway", it's the "new york city subway" when it's not the "em tee ay". – Jeff Zeitlin Oct 01 '20 at 11:26
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    @iAmOren "X's worst nightmare" is an idiom/rhetorical figure and isn't supposed to be understood in a literal way - no reader would read that headline and think "this clip will show what dreams subway operators have". – Maciej Stachowski Oct 01 '20 at 11:29
  • @JeffZeitlin, exactly how I read that! Use of acronyms drives me mad! And shortenings - example: "info" instead of "information". And "Americans" when actually referring to "United States of America Citizen/Resident" - What about Canadians and Mexicans, and all they countries in South America? But, I digress... :) – iAmOren Oct 01 '20 at 11:29
  • @JeffZeitlin I probably would prefer that reading as well, but since the headline used an, it signifies that the writer expected the initialism to be read out as individual letters. – Maciej Stachowski Oct 01 '20 at 11:30
  • Can we do away with "idioms/rhetorical figures" - they are sort of a lie, at minimum - menstruous exaggeration... – iAmOren Oct 01 '20 at 11:31
  • That's exactly the problem: "the (presumptuous) "writer" expected"... – iAmOren Oct 01 '20 at 11:32
  • @iAmOren a language that's 100 percent literal with no room for licentia poetica would be a rather boring one. – Maciej Stachowski Oct 01 '20 at 11:33
  • A good writer would not use acronyms... – iAmOren Oct 01 '20 at 11:34
  • @MaciejStachowski - that doesn't make it correct; the city is never actually referred to locally as "en why see". It's "the city", "New York", or "New York City", the last when we need to distinguish city from state. – Jeff Zeitlin Oct 01 '20 at 11:34
  • "licentia poetica" means that the "writer" proclaims he/she/it is an artist. Primarily, they should be a reporter of facts, or have that article under fiction or "art". – iAmOren Oct 01 '20 at 11:36
  • "the city is never actually referred to locally" - locals are not the entire universe = ALL possible readers must be taken into consideration. Reminds me that I saw somewhere: Never use jargon in a non-targeted audience (paraphrasing). – iAmOren Oct 01 '20 at 11:37
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    There are occasional differences between British and American English, e.g. "a herb" (most BrE speakers) v "an herb" (most AmE speakers - because they don't pronounce the "h"). – rjpond Oct 01 '20 at 11:52
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    @iAmOren - "menstruous exaggeration" - does that happen once a bloody month? – Michael Harvey Oct 01 '20 at 12:14
  • @MichaelHarvey, oops! I meant "monstrous" and I clicked the wrong "auto-dyselect" suggestion... :) – iAmOren Oct 01 '20 at 13:20
  • @rjpond - and the rather old fashioned non-Cockney, educated English speakers who say 'an hotel' and 'an historic event', not pronouncing the 'h'. – Michael Harvey Oct 01 '20 at 14:23