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For example, non-conformance is abbreviated as NC.

If I am referring to a non-conformance, I may pronounce the whole word or I may literally say the letters "NC"; in my industry, they are used interchangeably.

So if I am writing it in context, it can be "an NC" or "a NC" depending on whether I orally pronounce it as "NC" or "non-conformance". Is there a rule that dictates whether to use "a" or "an" when written on paper?

Harrison Chu
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  • If you write NC you pronounce it "en-cee", so the sound starts with a vowel. There's no meaning to the idea that sometimes you pronounce NC as "non-conformance" - all you mean is that you couldn't be bothered to write the words out in full at the time, but you're going to ignore that later when you come to read your written text out loud. – FumbleFingers Oct 03 '14 at 21:36
  • @FumbleFingers Equally if you are writing to someone called Anthony Smith, but who is always known as Tony, do you address the letter Mr A. Smith or Mr T. Smith? Answer - you do do whatever feels best. – WS2 Oct 03 '14 at 22:21

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As far as I understand it, acronyms and initialisms should be treated as regular nouns. The words that comprise the abbreviation have no bearing on how it should be treated grammatically.

In your case you would say "An NC".

Dave Magner
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    There is sometimes the complication that some people treat some particular 'XYZ's (eg SQL) as acronyms and others as initialisms. See Jay's comment here. – Edwin Ashworth Oct 03 '14 at 22:46