awant <an> ACC in my car / <an> ABS

[meijin]

Hi, I don't know if an acronym that is not very common should be used as a countable noun or not, and if the usage differs between everyday speech and formal writing, etc.

Please take a look at these examples:

I want an ACC in my new car.
Most consumers want an ABS in their new car.

(ACC=Active Cruise Control, ABS=Antilock Braking System)

Thanks!

 

[AmaryllisBunny]

I want ACC in my new car. Most consumers want ABS in their new car.

 

[perpend]

I want A/C in my car means air-conditioning, as far as I know.

 

[meijin]

Thank you both. Is the reason why you don't add an article there is that they are uncommon acronyms? (But A/C is common, isn't it?)

For example, you wouldn't say, "I was listening to CD this morning," would you?

 

[perpend]

You don't need an article for most acronyms, meijin.

I would say AmaryllisBunny is right (see #2).

I got the acronym wrong.

EDIT: That said, "car-speak" can be different, as far as acronyms go. And ... you are from Japan ... .

In "regular-speak" I don't know whether the "the" is most common. I think it depends on the context.

 

[meijin]

You don't need an article for most acronyms, meijin.

Simple as that?
I guess I need to look into the threads on usage of acronyms with/without an article.

 

[meijin]

I was mistaken. Strictly speaking, neither ACC or ABS is an acronym. They are initialisms. And, according to a thread in another forum, an initialism usually needs an article when its expanded version (Antilock Braking System, in the above example) needs an article.
I guess the reason why you don't add an article to neither ACC or ABS is that you treat these initialisms as acronyms, or names, which usually don't need an article. I hope I'm right.

 

[perpend]

What would you like to say? Can you offer another "analogy", i.e, a different example? Cheers

 

[AmaryllisBunny]

I want A/C in my car means air-conditioning, as far as I know.

He wasn't talking about air-conditioning. He was referring to ACC, Active Cruise Control...

 

[meijin]

What would you like to say? Can you offer another "analogy", i.e, a different example? Cheers

I want Kitty in my car. (Kitty here is a name of a stuffed animal)
I want ABS in my car. (ABS here is no longer an initialism, it's more like a name of a system)
I want CDs in my car. (CD can never be a name, because it's not a unique existence. CDs are just compact discs.)

 

[perpend]

... is that you treat these initialisms as acronyms, or names, which usually don't need an article. I hope I'm right.

Yep. That's right.

 

[perpend]

The #10 examples are correct, meijin.

 

[meijin]

Thank you!

 

[AmaryllisBunny]

Some acronyms do take "a/an" though... for example: I just uploaded a GIF. (JPG, GIF, etc).

 

[sdgraham]

I was mistaken. Strictly speaking, neither ACC or ABS is an acronym. They are initialisms. And, according to a thread in another forum, an initialism usually needs an article when its expanded version (Antilock Braking System, in the above example) needs an article.
I guess the reason why you don't add an article to neither ACC or ABS is that you treat these initialisms as acronyms, or names, which usually don't need an article. I hope I'm right.

You are correct, meijin that ACC and ABS are initialisms and not acronyms. Unfortunately, however, that distinction has been lost to a distressingly large number of English speakers, as you can see below regarding jpg.

Some acronyms do take "a/an" though... for example: I just uploaded a GIF. (JPG, GIF, etc).

 

[AmaryllisBunny]

Bah, after your post sdgraham, I had to find an initialism that takes an article or determiner of sorts... I played an MMORPG the other day. I have a TV...

MMORPG takes an article as does TV.