A
–Used before a consonant
Example:
1. A dog
2. A lucky man
An
–Used before a vowel
Example:
1. An animal
2. An elephant
However…
–When a word beginning with a silent “h,” use an.
Example:
1. An hour
2. An honest man
–When “u” makes a y-sound or “o” makes a w-sound, use a.
Example:
1. A unicorn
2. A once-in-a-lifetime opportunity
Pay attention to the sound and you’ll be good to go.
Sometimes I still do a Google search just to make sure I’m using the right article.
Honestly, I never thought about it until I had to write the word “unique.” “An unique” sounded weird, but I always just assumed you would use “an” before all words that began with a vowel.
Kris and I ended up discussing it for a long time trying to figure it out before we just went to Google, lol.
I should know by now that all rules, especially with the English language, are always broken at some point or another.
Ah yeah, I assumed that too for a long time. Google saves us. English is such a strange language. I feel like there are always exceptions to rules too.
English is so weird and complicated, lol.
We were having this discussion the other day but with the word usurp. My Microsoft Word gave “an usurper” that blue squiggle and changed it to “a usurper” and it came down to how you pronounce the word usurp. Is it “u-surp” or “er-surp”. We came to no conclusion at the end haha. An insight?
As I read your comment, before I got to the pronunciation at the end, I was pronouncing it “er-surp.” Whether that’s right or not, I have no idea, lol.
I won’t lie I interchange depending on comfort. Sometimes “er-surp” sounds right, sometimes “u-surp” sounds right. Google translate pronounces it “u-surp” which would then have to be “a usurper” like “a university”…
Honestly, I’ve never heard it pronounced “u-surp” before. I may just live under a rock, though. Especially if even Google pronounces it like that, lol.
Lol. Living in a country with 11 official languages… you hear all sorts of pronunciations xD
I’m sure, lol. And I actually do live under a rock, so I’m sure that doesn’t help my case. 😉
I was going to make a Spongebob analogy but Patrick living under a rock isn’t helping the cause xD haha 🙂 Sooooo let’s get you out from under that rock yeah?
I like my rock! 😉
Boo!
😛