a/an and brackets

[Nightmare85]

Hello friends

I already know the rule about a and an.
However, I'm not really sure about brackets.
Example:
An admin answered my question yesterday.
Okay!
And now:
A (female) admin answered my question yesterday.
Let's say I heard the admin is a woman and that's why I add the (female).
Must I use the a, or can I stick with the an because the female is bracketed?
(I guess a is correct, but I would like to know your opinion as well.)



Cheers!

[Linguist__]

Hello friends

I already know the rule about a and an.
However, I'm not really sure about brackets.
Example:
An admin answered my question yesterday.
Okay!
And now:
A (female) admin answered my question yesterday.
Let's say I heard the admin is a woman and that's why I add the (female).
Must I use the a, or can I stick with the an because the female is bracketed?
(I guess a is correct, but I would like to know your opinion as well.)



Cheers!

(Not a teacher)

Do you mean you heard the admin is a woman so you would go back and change the sentence where it was written orginially?

My point is that I don't know why you would put 'female' in parenthesis. If you found out the admin was female, you would add the female without parenthesis. In doing so, you would also need to change the 'an' to 'a'.

[Nightmare85]

In doing so, you would also need to change the 'an' to 'a'.

That's what I wanted to know

Ignore the "story"
I could have written anything else

Thanks.

Cheers!

[sarat_106]

Hello friends

I already know the rule about a and an.
However, I'm not really sure about brackets.
Example:
An admin answered my question yesterday.
Okay!
And now:
A (female) admin answered my question yesterday.
Let's say I heard the admin is a woman and that's why I add the (female).
Must I use the a, or can I stick with the an because the female is bracketed?
(I guess a is correct, but I would like to know your opinion as well.)



Cheers!

Your guess is absolutely right. The information inserted in a bracket is independent of the text. It is always considered as supplementary or additional information that could be omitted without altering the meaning of the text. So as long as it is within the bracket you can not make any corresponding grammatical correction in main text.

[Linguist__]

Your guess is absolutely right. The information inserted in a bracket is independent of the text. It is always considered as supplementary or additional information that could be omitted without altering the meaning of the text. So as long as it is within the bracket you can not make any corresponding grammatical correction in main text.

So, wouldn't that mean the correct word is 'an', not 'a' (which is what he guessed)?

Regarding 'a/an', I think it's more a question of pronunciation than grammar. How you say the sentence reflects which one you use.

To illustrate, I commonly see 'speech and language therapist' written as 'SLT'. In a sentence this would be written as, 'I was referred to an SLT for a language assessment.' That is, the 'a' is used despite the following 'word' beginning with a consonant in the writing.

In speech, there is no such thing as brackets. 'An female admin' and 'An (female) admin' sounds identical in speech. Though, neither sound correct.