telepathboy

This is a response sent to a handful of people who were reviewing a billing memo which was being sent. The response comes from a person in our publications section. I laughed so friggin hard when I read it... but I also learned something. And knowing is half the battle.

Thank you for your comment. I value all comments from the reviewers and appreciate their input. However, in this case, it is proper to leave it as is.

The short explanation is because "an" is proper grammar. If you want to read the long explanation, then see below!

Thanks for you comment!!

Yes, that is government-speak for 'fuck you'

Long Explanation

When you are dealing with an abbreviation, the choice of 'a' or 'an' will depend on whether you pronounce the expression letter by letter or as a word. Abbreviations pronounced letter by letter are called initialisms; abbreviations pronounced as words are called acronyms.

We are dealing with an initialism because HRSA is pronounced letter by letter (at the request of our Secretary). I'm sure there are some people that say, "Hersa," but that is not the accepted practice. Phonetically, the letter 'H' starts with the sound "a." Therefore, you would use "an" as the article. Similarly, FBI, HMO, and NBC are all initialisms. Phonetically, the first letter in each starts with a vowel sound, so you would use 'an.'

Conversely, CPA, BA, and PSAT are all initialisms, but their first letters do not phonetically begin with a vowel. So with these initialisms, you would use the 'a' article.

Hope this makes sense. Thanks!

Yeah, makes sense. Thank you for completely insulting someone's intelligence, telling them to fuck off, and teaching me something all at the same time. You are my new hero.