Made a HDR (yes 'a' is proper) of my friends room

[Cornerman]

I don't think an "a" is proper. Why would you think that? This would only be true if this were an acronym, and you in your industry say "header." But, from your follow-up post, you don't.

Unless everyone in the universe understand HDR whatever you said, but the common world would say H... D.... R..., in my opinion seeing that it isn't a common acronym. It's an initialism abbreviation. We would read it as an initiial abbreviation and say the letters. Similar to HDTV (initialism abbreviation, not an acronym), I would think the majority would say HDTV as the letters are, not "high defintion television." And therefore, the common world would say "an HDR," with no reason to think otherwise.

In other words, the indefinite article rule is based on the sound (Oxford dictionary definition for indefinite article "a" and "an."). If you expect everyone to read HDR as H... D... R...., then it's an "an." I don't think it's realistic for anyone to say, "header" or "high dynamic range." You mention something about acronyms not coming under the same rules. "HDR" looks like an initial abbreviation, not an acronym. If you say out the words that the acronym represents, then the indefinite article follows the sound of the words. If you say the letters, the indefinite article follows the sound of the letters. It's the sound that you say that matters.

I guess I didnt' read the rest, but if you say the name of the letter "H," then the indefinite article is "an." If you say a word that starts with the letter "h," and that "h" isn't silent, then the indefinite article can be "a."

To say "an historic" is perfectly acceptable because of the lightness of the "h" sound and phoenetically, "an is TOR ic " is a perfectly acceptable sounding term in the English language. In this particular thread, "an HDR" is correct; "A HDR" is not, assuming you don't say "header."

That all being said, I am fully willing to be crushed to wrongness by a true English teacher. Be warned, I grew up with two English professors as parents. This isn't the first time this has come up in my life.

Fred <~~~ IMO, of course (except for the English writing stuff)

 

[Cornerman]

Nostroke:

(Backgrounder: along with my normal "day job thing" of being in I.T. network security, I'm a technical writer by trade.)

Jason's explanation is correct -- acronyms are treated as if the words they stand for are fully spoken out. Also, methinks the whole mistake of using "an" with an acronym beginning with "h," is because of the "aych" sound of pronouncing the letter "h" -- making the person subconsciously apply the rule, "prefix 'an' with a word that begins with the 'a' sound (or any other 'vowel' sound)."
=

I can't help but think that you've gotten yourself mixed up by the Oxford rule for abbreviations and acronyms.

Firstly, this looks like an initialism abbreviation (as opposed to a shortened word abbreviations) not an acronym. For an initial abbreviation, you say the letters, and the indefinite article follows the sound. There is no "treated as if the words they stand for." You either say the letter or you say the acronym. In this case, Jason even said "high definition..." THerefore, it's an initial abbreviation, not an acronym. You say the letters in this style of abbreviation.

E.g., for the *acronym* LASER, one would say "a LASER beam." For the acronym NATO, one would say "a NATO ruling." For the initial *abbreviation* "LPGA," one would say "an LPGA member." Is HDR an initial abbreviation or an acroynm? Jason's response tells me it's an initalism abbreviation and "an" is therefore correct.

If "HDR" was an acronym, you would say "header." But clearly by what Jason said, you aren't saying "header." I think you might be confused by the wording of the rule.

This is wiki, but it follows any known definition and use of indefinite articles that I've ever seen: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/A_and_an

Personally, I've never heard someone prefix a word like "history" with "an."

Maybe not "history," but certainly words with syllable accents on the second or latter syllables like historic or heroic. In English writing it's very common. And it's not hoity toity or uppity. It just is, depending on what part of the country you are and how you say, for example, "an historic event." It's absolutely perfectly acceptable common writing.

Fred

 

[Cornerman]

HDR is an acronym for 'High Dynamic Range'... Acronyms are treated as if they are not abbreviated.. Basically you'd be saying "an high dynamic range photo" instead of "a high dynamic range photo" even though it is simply "HDR." The English language sucks haha.

Okay, this definitely proves you're confused between the terms acronym and initialism abbreviation.

If this is an acronym as you say, then you'd say, "header." But that's not whay you say you'd say. Therefore, it's not an acronym and the rules of acronyms then don't apply.


Fred <~~~ knows it's confusing

 

[JasonS]

Okay, this definitely proves you're confused between the terms acronym and initialism abbreviation.

If this is an acronym as you say, then you'd say, "header." But that's not whay you say you'd say. Therefore, it's not an acronym and the rules of acronyms then don't apply.


Fred <~~~ knows it's confusing

ROFL... this thread went way off topic. From a phonetic standpoint "an HDR" would be great (I really dont want to bust out my linguistics book lol), but from a written standpoint, as far as English goes, I'm pretty sure I've got it... (at least I'm pretty sure HDR is an acronym because I've not seen H.D.R. anywhere). English was my worst subject anyway haha

Not really that important lol

 

[Cornerman]

ROFL... this thread went way off topic. From a phonetic standpoint "an HDR" would be great (I really dont want to bust out my linguistics book lol), but from a written standpoint, as far as English goes, I'm pretty sure I've got it... (at least I'm pretty sure HDR is an acronym because I've not seen H.D.R. anywhere). English was my worst subject anyway haha

Not really that important lol

Consider your thread title. It's on topic to that.

Check any definition of acronym. Then you'll see where you've gone awry. An acronym is an abbreviation of first letters that forms a word that you would say aloud when you read (e.g. laser, NATO, AWOL, Scuba, NASA). An initialism is an abbreviation that you don't say the word but rather you only say the letters (e.g. HDTV, NAACP, CD, DVD). I gather you don't say "header" when you see the abbreviation HDR.

The "a" or "an" is dictated by the first sound of the first spoken syllable. There's no fancy hidden rule. And yes, it's important to point this out given your thread title to the internet.

Fred <~~~ it's not an acronym; it's an initialism

 

[JasonS]

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