Forum: english.stackexchange.com
Tags: <indefinite-articles>
Title: Does one use 'a' or 'an' before the word X-Ray?
Question: I was asking this question on Area 51: "How do I tell if an airport scanner is a X-ray scanner?", but I keep wanting to put an 'an' in front of X-ray because it starts with the 'eh' sound.  So is it 'a' or 'an'?

Answers:
sents: text: Definitely "an".
text: The word X-ray is never pronounced any way other than "exray", and as has been discussed before, the choice of a or an is based solely on pronunciation, regardless of spelling.
text: Since X-ray is pronounced beginning with a vowel, it must be preceded by an .
answer_details: author: english.stackexchange.com/users/48/JSBձոգչ
score: 44
sents: text: 'an', because how it sounds is what matters.
text: An interesting example is an hour , et.
text: al.
text: The fact that h is not considered a vowel from the article point of view says a lot about English pronunciation.
text: Another interesting example of article form leaking unusual information, from Life, the Universe and Everything : "I think," said Ford in a tone of voice which Arthur by now recognized as one which presaged something utterly unintelligible, "that there's an SEP over there.
text: "
text: It means that the author meant that SEP achronym is to be pronounced 'es ee pee' and never 'sep'.
answer_details: author: english.stackexchange.com/users/188/Pavel Radzivilovsky
score: 30
sents: text: In this situation you use "an", because phonetically the sound you are making (the X) starts with an "E": you hear "Ex - ray".
text: This is true of any letter that, when pronounced, sounds like it starts with a vowel, and often you will need to adapt your use of "a" or "an" even for the same letter.
text: For example: A Nasty cold was going around the office vs
text: An NHS doctor was the first to diagnose the bug
text: Phonetically you say "EN AITCH ESS", so you use "An NHS".
text: Likewise, as you say "EX-RAY", you say, "An X-Ray".
text: The way the word is pronounced is the key factor here, rather than the spelling.
text: Edit
text: : Looks like JSBangs beat me to it :)
answer_details: author: english.stackexchange.com/users/3320/Andy F
score: 11
sents: text: "An X" is correct, as the pronunciation of the letter X has an initial vowel sound.
answer_details: author: english.stackexchange.com/users/1442/xdumaine
score: 5
sents: text: The choice of the indefinite article in English is purely phonetically based.
text: Since the pronunciation of the letter X is headed by a vowel, an is the natural choice.
answer_details: author: english.stackexchange.com/users/13637/deutschZuid
score: 2

Summary of the answers:
The article used before a word is based on pronunciation, regardless of spelling. As a result, the article used in front of X-Ray should be "an".
The word  X-ray  is never pronounced any way other than "exray", and as has been discussed before, the choice of  a  or  an  is based solely on pronunciation, regardless of spelling.Since  X-ray  is pronounced beginning with a vowel, it must be preceded by "an". The choice of the indefinite article in English is purely phonetically based.Since the pronunciation of the letter X is headed by a vowel, " an" is the natural choice.  
The article used before a word is based on pronunciation, regardless of spelling. As a result, the article used in front of X-Ray should be "an".
An X-Ray because X is pronounced as a vowel. 
Since  the pronounciation of X-ray  begins with a vowel sound, it must be preceded by  "an".
"An" is the correct choice here because the pronunciation of "X-ray" starts with an initial vowel sound.