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'a' & 'an'

'a' & 'an'

'a' & 'an'

(OP)
I was always taught that 'a' usually preceded a word beginning with a consonant and 'an' one beginning with a vowel.

I often here phrases such as; "An horiffic... " instead of "A horrific... " uttered by news presenters.

What say you... ?

RE: 'a' & 'an'

That is probably due to the fact that "h" is not pronounced in some words - but I am not so sure about "horrific", the "h" is pronounced in British English.

There are other problems. A Light Emitting Diode is abbreviated "LED", but is it "a LED" or "an LED" and - even more problematic - do you say "an UN spokesman" or "a UN spokesman"?

RE: 'a' & 'an'

It depends if the first letter sounds like a vowel. An LED begins with the word 'el' whereas UN begins with You so it's a UN .... Similarly 'h' is not sounded in some cases, as skogsgurra said, it depends on whether or not you work for the BBC.

corus

RE: 'a' & 'an'

We were taught -as with Kiwikid-  what is called a rule-of-thumb. From my own more recent sources: "...difficulties may arise over abbreviations and words beginning with u and h. In all such cases it's the sound of the letters that determine which form is used, so it is an M.B.E., a union, an umbrella, a hair, an heir. In a few cases, a and an are used almost interchangeably. When h is in an unstressed syllable at the beginning of a word, an is sometimes used (an hotel) but it sounds old-fashioned. In rapid speech, however, the h may be so reduced in strength that the use of an sounds quite natural, so that variation occurs between a habitual worry and an habitual worry."
From another source quoting the Old Testament: "...children are an heritage of the Lord". This happens before a stressed syllable.

RE: 'a' & 'an'

corus: From what I have heard (and I mean first hand), there is no longer anything special about BBC English. But of course, the days when Lord Reith had them wearing dinner jackets (tuxedos) while they read the news on the radio have long since gone. That's what happens when you let standards slip ....

RE: 'a' & 'an'

A union, an onion. Now there's a strange pair.

JMW
www.viscoanalyser.com

RE: 'a' & 'an'

That's what happens when you let standards slip .... you end up talking like an American!





-----------------------------------

Start each new day with a smile.

Get it over with.

RE: 'a' & 'an'

The Belgian's have a saying;   To speak like an American, first you must put a hot potatoe in your mouth.

Jesus is THE life,
Leonard

RE: 'a' & 'an'

metman : you are spelling like an American! There is no "e" on the end of potato, as Dan Quayle discovered, much to his embarrassment.
http://www.capitalcentury.com/1992.html

However, since Americans gave potatoes to the world, I think they should be allowed to have some say in the spelling. (The plural does have a "e" by the way).

RE: 'a' & 'an'

By the way, although this is way off topic, there is something curious about the prevalence of the "potatoe" spelling. This "misspelling" is far more common in the US than in Britain - I have come across it many times in US supermarkets and restaurants, and it should be pointed out that the Quayle incident was primarily the fault of both the teacher who wrote the cards that the VP was reading from, and one of his aids who had previously vetted the cards. All three of them thought potato had an "e" on the end. The only one who actually got it right was the child being questioned, who by some sad irony has since reportedly become a drug addict. All this makes me suspect that in early American times "potatoe" was actually a common spelling, and one internet reference that I discovered claims that George Washington is known to have spelled it that way. There was also apparently a US movement for phonetic spelling at the beginning of the twentieth century that advocated adding an "e". So perhaps we are being unfair to Dan. The following quote reveals Quayle as a visionary who was clearly ahead of his time

"Mars is essentially in the same orbit... Mars is somewhat the same distance from the Sun, which is very important. We have seen pictures where there are canals, we believe, and water. If there is water, that means there is oxygen. If there is oxygen, that means we can breathe." Vice President Dan Quayle, 8/11/89

Whether or not I am kidding, I leave for others to judge.

RE: 'a' & 'an'

From the official Dan Quayle web site:

http://www.xmission.com/~mwalker/DQ/





Dan Quayle on Science and Technology

Those same asteroids which promise material riches can be a threat as well.
-- Vice President Dan Quayle, 5/1/90 (reported in Esquire, 8/92)
[Americans will soon observe the 20th anniversary of] Neil Armstrong and Buzz Lukens' walk on the moon.
-- Vice President Dan Quayle confusing the sexual assaulter/Congressman with Astronaut Buzz Aldrin, 7/15/89 Los Angeles Times (7/16/89)
...Buzz Lukens took that fateful step...
-- Vice President Dan Quayle continuing to confuse the sexual assaulter/Congressman with Astronaut Buzz Aldrin, 7/15/89 (reported in Esquire, 8/92)
We are leaders of the world of the space program. We have been the leaders of the world of our... of the space program and we're not going to continue where we're going to go, not withstanding the Soviet Union's demise and collapse -- the former Soviet Union -- we now have independent republics which used to be called the Soviet Union. Space is the next frontier to be explored. And we're going to explore. Think of all the things we rely upon in space today: communications from... Japan, detection of potential ballistic missile attacks. Ballistic missiles are still here. Other nations do have ballistic missiles. How do you think we were able to detect some of the Scud missiles and things like that? Space, reconnaissance, weather, communications -- you name it. We use space a lot today.
-- Vice President Dan Quayle (from `What a Waste it Is to Lose One's Mind' -- the Unauthorized Autobiography)
For NASA, space is still a high priority.
-- Vice President Dan Quayle, talking to NASA employees, 9/5/90 (reported in Esquire, 8/92)
[It's] time for the human race to enter the solar system.
-- Vice President Dan Quayle on the concept of a manned mission to Mars.

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