[themartorana]

Yes - exactly my point. It is interesting to learn, as another commented somewhere in this thread, that my brain just invokes the appropriate "sequel" vs. S.Q.L. just from whether or not someone includes the ever-so-important "n."

[kremlin]

It's not automatic for me, which is why I found it annoying enough to ask. If a writer writes 'an SQL query', that doesn't bother me at all, but if a writer writes 'a SQL query', it takes me a while before I start hearing it in my head as 'a sequel query' -- until then, it just sounds wrong.

Worse is that some writers seem to mix it up, use both periodically.