What an interesting discussion to come up on a tech listserv.  After 16
years of speaking English, as my first language, it wasn't until I was in
Japan as an exchange student that I learned the an/a rule.  It was so
baffling to me to see a written rule for the use of an/a from the aspect of
English as a foreign language.  It was some Japanese students that were
having trouble with this simple grammar structure that asked me which was
right, and when.  I sat there for several minutes running through as many
combinations of a/an that I could think of, and sure enough, the rule of 'a'
before a consonant sound and 'an' before a vowel was true.  I'm sure I
learned the rule somewhere as a young child, but English was so ingrained
that I didn't think of that rule explicitly when forming a sentence.

So, if that's the case, then 'Blink an LED" would be correct when
spelling/sounding out L - E - D
and 'Blink a LED' would be correct when saying 'lead' (Pb) or 'lead' (long e
sound)

I do the long e variation, too many mech-e's around!  GRiN

Keith L. Kovala
klk@ksu.edu
klk@renderedelement.com

> -----Original Message-----
> From: pic microcontroller discussion list
> [mailto:PICLIST@MITVMA.MIT.EDU] On Behalf Of D. Jay Newman
> Sent: Friday, October 24, 2003 9:16 AM
> To: PICLIST@MITVMA.MIT.EDU
> Subject: Re: [OT]:blink programs
>
>
> > I have always wondered if the correct term would be
> >
> > "Blink an LED" or
> >
> > "Blink a LED"
>
> I have that problem also with some acronyms. I would say
> "Blink a LED", though if I were writing officially I might
> say "Blink some LEDs" or "Blink one LED" just to get rid of
> this problem.  :)
> --
> D. Jay Newman           !
> jay@sprucegrove.com     ! Xander: Giles, don't make
> cave-slayer unhappy.
> http://enerd.ws/robots/ !
>
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