Why you should know: The ‘a’ vs ‘an’ conundrum is not about what letter actually begins the word, but instead about how the sound of the word starts.
For example, the ‘h’ in ‘hour’ is silent, so you would say ‘an hour’ and not ‘a hour’. A trickier example is Ukraine: because the ‘U’ is pronounced as ‘You’, and in this case the ‘y’ is a consonant, you would say “a Ukraine” and not “an Ukraine”.
Tip: when in doubt, sound it out(loud).
Thank you for coming to my TED talk.
Trolling is a art
I can’t believe you would make such a simple and obvious mistake. The correct way to say it is “Trolling are a art”, ffs.
No, no, it’s, “Trolling doth be…”
A elephant?
Sound it out. The first sound is a vowel sound so “an elephant”.
But it’s L.
Please tell me you are joking.
Ha ha yes But no. That’s not how an E sounds.
How would you pronounce:
Al, as in Allen?
La, as in Law?
El, as in Elope?
Le, as in Level?
Ill, as in… Ill?
Li, as in Lick?
Ol, as in Oligarchy?
Lo, as in Logistics?
Ul, as in Ultimate?
Lu, as in Luminate?
Just because the letter ‘L’ is generally pronounced ‘el’ on its own does not mean the ‘e’ sound is not a vowel.
Its ‘an elephant’ because ‘e’ is a vowel, and that’s the first pronounced sound.
Its ‘a lever’, because ‘l’ is a consonant, and that’s the first pronounced sound.
… Is English not your first language, or have you not graduated middle school yet?
Nah, i use whichever i feel like in the moment. Sometimes a double vowel sound sounds better.
Y is a consonant ? what ?
Y can act as a consonant or a vowel, depending on the position in the word.
Definitely a vowel: Baby
Part of a vowel sound: Play
Not a vowel at all: Yes, lawyer
When a Y starts a syllable, it typically doesn’t take a vowel sound, closer to a “soft j” sound.
a soft J ? in english ? this is the first time I hear of this, are you sure ?
Yeezus/Jesus Yawn/Jawn Yoke/Joke
I don’t know phonetics (or whatever the right term is for “mouth noises for speaking” is) enough to say if y- consonant/soft-j is the closest pairing. As I sit here like a weirdo going “yo-yo-yo” and “jo-jo-jo”, they have a similar starting position, but soft-j definitely has that “ch”. I think maybe it’s closer to an r, like you/rue.
A Ukraine? Really? Why couldn’t you use something practical like a university.
perhaps because russia initiated a ukranian invasion on february 24 2022.
Don’t forget that ‘h’ is an exception and counts as a vowel: “a hat”
Give me an hour and I’m sure I could find a counter-example
don’t even need an hour. “herb” has multiple regional pronunciations and so can receive both treatments depending on the context.
also my original comment was just wrong i don’t even know how i got to the point of writing that. “an hour” is the standard treatment of words starting with vowel sounds—the letters themselves don’t matter.
but “h” is treated as a consonant. which it is. duh. i feel so dumb lol.
There are several people who will say “an historic” while fully pronouncing the H and acting all smug and proper about it.
This edit made me laugh
Don’t worry we’ve all been there
i think my blood sugar was low or sumthin lmao
Pretty simple enough for us Deaf folks.
Cant you just memorize the letter? Aeiou?
I was referring to how words sound out…
How am I supposed to know stuff like ‘h’ in hour is silent.
Does spellcheck work?
Really, we’re covering basic grammar now?
Only when it’s needed.
With literacy rates in America “hold my beer” low and getting lower, maybe there’s a need.
Example: if people pluralize “email” different from “mail”, they may need to review.
I like how you tried to be a grammar snob and couldn’t even get your example right.
You know there are english speaking folks outside of the US/UK.
Mindblowing, I know.not everyone (thankfully) are american or british.
Yep, including me.
True, but this is really basic stuff. I think I learned this for English as 2nd language in primary school. We trust that people here know English well enough to understand the server rules, why then assume they don’t know basic grammar?
What makes this different from SVO word order? YSK how to use participles? Did you know about the order of adjective (That one is actually pretty interesting, but i’s not basic grammar so it gets to pass). At some point it is ridiculous to try to teach some grammar rules of English in English, and I believe this is well past that point. Even if one doesn’t speak the language naturally or have a formal education in it.
Still can’t get things like contractions, apostrophes, too/to, “should of” sorted out. Still plenty of need for reminders.
I’m a native English speaker, not fluent in any other languages, and I still fuck up it’s / its on a regular basis.
I’m under the impression that mistakes like it’s/its tend to be more common among native speakers than among people who learn the language as teenagers/grown-ups. I might be wrong, though, it’s not like I have any data on the subject.
Except all the time from this doesn’t apply, cuz English is fucking nuts.
English is definitely nuts, but can you give an example of where this particular rule doesn’t apply?
Did you not read any of the other comments of the thread? Like a dozen people already gave a great examples.
All of the examples relate to differences in pronunciation, so the guidance in the OP is good - use your personal pronunciation. I would imagine this would be harder for non-native speakers, but fortunately there aren’t many words (that I’m aware of) that are commonly pronounced with a leading vowel sound or leading consonant sound depending of dialect.
The only example cited in this thread that most people will experience is “herb” which has large populations that pronounce it with and without a silent “h.” “History” and related words are not commonly pronounced with a silent h outside of regional dialects.
I’ve seen a good 15 minute essay-video about this:
TLDW: English speakers increasingly use the consonant versions of “a(n)”, “the” and “to” for anything in casual conversation, just with a glottal stop to separate vowel sounds. This is then found more and more in written and formal language.
just with a glottal stop to separate vowel sounds.
You may say ‘dialect’, I’ll say ‘failed student’, potato, potato.
Our mouths really want to flow vowel->>consonant->> vowel->>consonant->> and various languages all have their ways of helping that happen.
The problem is not the rule, but that the many exceptions apply to the written word, whereas they are based on phonological reasons and the same letter can have several pronunciations in English.
yeah… like “a house” vs. “an honor” It’s easy: the +n is a binding sound to avoid a hard stop between two words when the first ends in a vowel and the second begins with one. A hard stop only applies to spoken language, so the +n should be applied where the spoken next sound is a vowel.
For example: “A “large hadron collider”-like setup”, vs. “An LHC-like setup”
How about the the?
Why not then end? Instead of the /dee/ end?Why would you use Ukraine as the example word instead of uniform?
I’m pretty sure I’ve heard “the Ukraine” been pronounced both ways often enough.
US ambassador William Taylor said that using “the Ukraine” implies disregard for Ukrainian sovereignty.[25] The official Ukrainian position is that “the Ukraine” is both grammatically and politically incorrect.
