The English Language Peculiarity: 'An AA Battery' vs. 'A AA Battery'

Language can sometimes be annoying when its changed. The other answers are correct in stating that “an” is used before a vowel. People I know say “an AA battery” and “a triple A battery”. However, someone changed the language about 30 or so years ago in saying “an History project” instead of “a history project”. I don’t know why, and I fail to see a reason for it, as it sounds better the old way. When I hear “an History project” on the news, it annoys me! Maybe someone else has an answer on that!

The Article Before Abbreviations

“An AAA battery” because AAA starts with a vowel, and the article to use before a word that starts with a vowel is ‘an’, for example, ‘an orange’, ‘an apple’, ‘an astronaut’, ‘an opera’, ‘an iron’, ‘an onion’, ‘an iceberg’, and ‘an umbrella’.

Techincal Terminology and Historical Context

To be technical, it is an AAA cell, not a battery, after all, we do say a C cell or a D cell. A battery is formed of more than one cell. I think the term has come from gunnery, where an artillery emplacement with more than one gun is called a battery.

So, the correct article to use before an AAA battery can depend on the regional pronunciation rules. For instance, in the UK, you would usually say “double A” and “triple A”. However, as “AAA” is an abbreviation, the pronunciation can vary. In the USA, “AAA” is most commonly pronounced as “Triple A”, hence it would be preceded with “a” rather than “an”.

English Language Peculiarity: Article Choice and Pronunciation

This is one of those peculiarities of the English language. The choice of articles depends on the pronunciation of the word that follows, not on how the word is spelled or any particular aspect of grammar. The problem, of course, is that there can be different regional pronunciations for different words, especially of abbreviations.

Here is the view from Sarah Madden:

I would never say either “an AAA battery” or “a AAA battery.” I always say “a triple-A battery” for those little batteries AAA and “a double-A battery” for batteries that are slightly larger AA. I do not spell out the letters. For even larger batteries, I would just say “a C battery” or “a D battery.”

The interesting thing is that I would also say “Triple A” for the American Automobile Association as in “Do you have Triple A for your automobile insurance?” Note that both the “T” and the “A” are capped in “Triple A” the company. Below is an image from Wikipedia.

Below are various cells and batteries. Source: Wikipedia.

—Sarah Madden 8252 Written and Copyrighted 15 April 2024