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I've always disagreed with the grammar rule in this situation. "An Nvidia engineer" just sounds and flows better than "A Nvidia engineer"
by fractal618 6y ago
I've always disagreed with the grammar rule in this situation. "An Nvidia engineer" just sounds and flows better than "A Nvidia engineer"
- eganist 6y agoThe ppronunciation is "en-vidia", so yes, "an Nvidia" would be correct. If the company was pronounced ni-vidia (or any other vowel in place of that first `i` vowel, then "a Nvidia" would've been correct.
- iforgotpassword 6y agoJust like it's "a user" not "an".
- FPGAhacker 6y agoor 'an uber' instead of 'a uber.'
- ngcc_hk 6y agoThought it is a Uber as you say yu-ber in English. It sounds different if in German?
- devbat8712 6y agoYou absolutely do not say you-ber in english
- blahbhthrow3748 6y agoI'm pretty sure "an NVidia" is grammatical here.
- MHordecki 6y agoWhat is the grammar rule? I've always assumed that you use "an" whenever a noun starts with a vowel sound, which "Nvidia" does ("n" being pronounced as "en"), thus making "an Nvidia" the grammatically correct one.
- foobiekr 6y agoThis is actually a deeper issue about the confusion between the language itself (english phonology requires what you're describing) and the written form. No english speaker in the world, unexposed to the written form of "Nvidia" would ever say "A Nvidia."
- IshKebab 6y agoThe rule is just "which one is easier to say? use that one". "A nvidia" is just wrong.
- sangnoir 6y agoThat entirely depends on how you pronounce "nvidia" in your head. I can imagine someone who has never heard the name spoken out loud think of it as "ni-vidia" (I have done worse) and "a Nividia" is easier than "an Nividia"
- j4ah4n 6y agoI think I learned something new here. I've always thought the rule was "use `an` if it _is_ a vowel, else use `a`". If I understand this correctly now, it's "use `an` if it makes a vowel _sound_, else use `a`".
- maxton 6y agoIt’s definitely about vowel sounds, because we don’t say “a hour” or “a herb”.
- the_pwner224 6y agodeleted; i misread the parent comment
- DavidVoid 6y ago"hour" starts with an 'o'-sound, since the 'h' is (mostly) silent, so "an hour" is correct.
- deleted 6y ago[deleted]
- beojan 6y ago> a herb I do, but that's because I pronounce the 'h' in 'herb'.
- DonaldFisk 6y ago> It’s definitely about vowel sounds Exactly, and Nvidia begins with an e sound. And we say "a union" because it begins with a y sound and not because it begins with the letter u. In the UK, people do say "a herb", but that's because we pronounce the h: https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/herb#Pronunciation https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/herb#Pronunciation
- np_tedious 6y agoAn historic day!
- DavidVoid 6y ago"An Nvidia engineer" would actually be grammatically correct here, since the pronunciation of "Nvidia" starts with a vowel sound and not a consonant one. It's the pronunciation of the word that matters for a/an, not the spelling. In case anybody was wondering, the official pronunciation of the word "Nvidia" is apparently "en-VID-eeyah" [1]. [1] http://international.download.nvidia.com/partnerforce-us/Brand-Guidelines/NVIDIA_LogoGuidelines.pdf http://international.download.nvidia.com/partnerforce-us/Bra...
- bootloop 6y agoI didn't know that, I always got told it depends on the first letter (and it didn't make sense for me for some words).. (Obviously not a native speaker)
- deleted 6y ago[deleted]
- diamondlovesyou 6y agoDon't worry too much: I am a native speaker and I was taught the same in elementary school!
- skykooler 6y agoNope, it's based on the first sound. (Hence "an hour" rather than "a hour").
- kevin_thibedeau 6y agoDon't tell the knuckle draggers still pretending that "history" has a silent-H.
- deleted 6y ago[deleted]
- adrianmonk 6y agoThat's an accent thing. In some places the "h" is silent, and in other places it's not.
- momokoko 6y agoI certainly would have preferred “an engineer that currently works with Nvidia” The way it is written currently makes it sound as though Nvidia owns this person.
- messe 6y ago> The way it is written currently makes it sound as though Nvidia owns this person. Not to anyone with a shred of common sense. That's a pretty common way of putting it that's far less clunky than the way you wrote it.
- miked85 6y ago> The way it is written currently makes it sound as though Nvidia owns this person. You can't be serious.
- sgt 6y agoAnd now they own his home office as well!
- aspenmayer 6y agoTitles with character length limitations do create tension that pulls sentence construction toward concise information density over strict readability, but avoiding unintended implicit statements in titles is a concern of mine. This usage is acceptable because if you simply delete the word nvidia, we lose valuable context which tells us why we should pay attention to this post over any other engineer’s post with analogous drivers for this use case: the pedigree of the engineer suggests that the driver will be performant and of a similar quality as those other drivers produced by the engineer’s company.
- KC8ZKF 6y agoThe English word “apron” comes from the French “napron.” “A napron” became “an apron.”
- glandium 6y agoThe French word is napperon.
- soylentgraham 6y agoIsnt "an orange" also supposed to have come this way?
- ksaj 6y agoThere is a Canadian joke that is related to this very thing: Where did the Québécois get that H sound for Ottawa? They took it out of here. When speaking with a French Canadian accent, Ottawa sounds like Hottawa, and Here sounds like Ear. There is a similar more adult-oriented joke about the word Happiness. It is utterly baffling to Anglophones, especially since whatever rule they are following doesn't apply to the word Ontario, which pretty much sounds the same as in English. If you've never heard Quebec French, imagine Celine Dion telling the joke and you'll get it.
- rogual 6y agoMaybe it's based on emphasis? 'Ott.a.wa vs on'ta.ri.o
- ksaj 6y agoThe Happiness joke is based both on the missing H and the different emphasis on syllables, so you are probably right or at least close. The subtraction of H in words like Here and Happiness seems like a different rule than its addition on hard vs soft initial-O words, though.
- k_sze 6y agoWhat Happiness joke? I’ve lived in Montreal for 15 years and never heard it.
- ksaj 6y agoIt sounds like "a penis" to Anglos unaccustomed to hearing the French language rhythm, plus the unpronounced H.
- aj7 6y agoThat IS the right grammar. A Nvidia is wrong.