Apr 10, 2014 08:18
10 yrs ago
3 viewers *
English term
indefinite article with NICU
English
Medical
Medical (general)
This is a small point, but I'd like to get it right. I'm using the term NICU (neonatal intensive care unit) in a translation, and I'm not sure if it should be "a NICU" or "an NICU".
The former, "a NICU", is more common, and is used, for example, in the Wikipedia page:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Neonatal_intensive_care_unit . But I wonder whether it should be "an NICU".
To my mind, the criterion is how "NICU" is pronounced. For example, you write "an NCO", because you pronounce it EN CEE OH, but "a NATO commander", because it's pronounced NAYTO. If people in the medical world refer to "a NEEKOO", than it will be "a NICU", but if they call it "an EN EYE SEE OH", then in my opinion it should be written "an NICO". I've never heard it pronounced, so I don't know. Can medical colleagues who have heard it give me the benefit of their advice?
Thank you!
The former, "a NICU", is more common, and is used, for example, in the Wikipedia page:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Neonatal_intensive_care_unit . But I wonder whether it should be "an NICU".
To my mind, the criterion is how "NICU" is pronounced. For example, you write "an NCO", because you pronounce it EN CEE OH, but "a NATO commander", because it's pronounced NAYTO. If people in the medical world refer to "a NEEKOO", than it will be "a NICU", but if they call it "an EN EYE SEE OH", then in my opinion it should be written "an NICO". I've never heard it pronounced, so I don't know. Can medical colleagues who have heard it give me the benefit of their advice?
Thank you!
Responses
+1
1 hr
Selected
Yes
Google throws up "[NICU sometimes pronounced Nickyou ]", also ""Nick You" and other variants on that. And it seems unanimous on the "ick" sound.
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Note added at 2 hrs (2014-04-10 10:36:58 GMT)
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Indeed sometimes is not always. I'm mainly relying on https://www.google.fr/search?q="nicu * pronounced" which obviously throws up other senses of "pronounced" and has number of US hits where the practice may differ.
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Note added at 2 hrs (2014-04-10 10:36:58 GMT)
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Indeed sometimes is not always. I'm mainly relying on https://www.google.fr/search?q="nicu * pronounced" which obviously throws up other senses of "pronounced" and has number of US hits where the practice may differ.
Note from asker:
Thanks for looking! You put me to shame. But "sometimes" is not always. Inspired by your find, I've done some searching myself, and found a forum where nurses discuss this very question: "how do <i>you</i> say it?" And the answer seems that people do both: http://allnurses.com/nicu-nursing-neonatal/do-you-say-160158.html . However, there are a number of pages that say "pronounced NICK-YOU", without "sometimes", and I think this is looks like the standard, so your intuition was right, and thank you. |
Peer comment(s):
agree |
Sheri P
: My son spent two weeks in the NICU of a US hospital 15 years ago. I never once heard any of the hospital staff refer to it as the N-I-C-U. They all called it the "nick you."
15 hrs
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Thanks Sheri.
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4 KudoZ points awarded for this answer.
Comment: "Thanks, Donal. Your waters did not deceive you!"
Discussion
‘a Neonatal Intensive Care Unit’ or ‘a Neonatal ICU’. Others call it an ICN for Intensive Care Nursery. Good luck, Charles ...
(By the way, if it is said as a word, it's probably NIGH-KOO rather than NEE-KOO.)
Sure, it can easily be avoided: I can say "infants admitted to NICUs" instead of "infants admitted to a/an NICU". It's just that I'd like to know.
That said, I haven't actually heard it pronounced!
The Google vote is actually very close to 50:50.