Using "a" or "an"

Yesterday, I was checking out some info on how to decide whether you should use "a" or "an" in a sentence. Believe it or not, sometimes the proper use of these articles can trip things up. For the longest time, I thought it was appropriate to say "a SASE" because, in my head, I broke down the acronym and it sounded right to say "I have enclosed a self-addressed stamped envelope" instead of "I have enclosed an self-addressed stamped envelope."

Then I started seeing writers note how it's actually correct to use "an" before "SASE." Of course, in my mind, I STILL broke down that acronym, so using "an" didn't sound right. I had to force myself to mentally read it as "an S-A-S-E" instead of the words those letters stood for.

Now, I address this confusion in my Revisions book. But the problem is that, during the hours spent researching these chapters on grammar, I forgot to tackle the whole "a" vs. "an" debacle.

My next choice was to hit the 'Net to see what I could find out.

The site English-Zone told me that you are supposed to use "a" if the word following it starts with a consonant, and "an" if the next word starts with a vowel.

"A car."

"An envelope."

Source: Using Articles - A/An

However, after some thought and after I wrote up that part of the chapter, I realized something. There had to be a mistake. You wouldn't say "I just saw an UFO." You'd say "I just saw a UFO." The "u" is a vowel, but using "an" would not work here! What about that??

So I did some more research on this. I finally came to a site that cleared up this confusion:

Use an in place of a when it precedes a vowel sound, not just a vowel. That means it's "an honor" (the h is silent), but "a UFO" (because it's pronounced yoo eff oh).

Most of the confusion with a or an arises from acronyms and other abbreviations: some people think it's wrong to use an in front of an abbreviation like "MRI" because "an" can only go before vowels. Not so: the sound, not the letter, is what matters. Because you pronounce it "em ar eye," it's "an MRI."

Source: Guide to Grammar and Style - A

So there you have it, folks. Rely on how the words sound together and not so much on what letters are following the "a" or "an" in a sentence.

Better make a note of that in my book, while I'm at it.

And now for today's grammar goof that I caught:

"Gay's in the military."

Sadly, this is from a writer doing an article for the Philadelphia Tribune. I'm becoming convinced that the only way for me to break into the big leagues is to include grammatical errors in my work.