Sometimes, it’s the little things that matter the most and this is usually true when it comes to spelling and grammar as well. It’s how you use those little words that can trip you up and words don’t get much smaller than “a” and “an.”
These words typically precede a singular noun of some kind, telling you that there is one of these particular items. You’d say that there is a truck in the parking lot or a man hiding in an igloo. This seems simple enough and it’s something that you do every day.
In school, you were probably taught that you should use “a” when the next word starts with a consonant and you should use “an” when the next word starts with a vowel. Unfortunately, that’s only half truthful. The rule is not whether the next word starts with a consonant or vowel; it’s if the next word starts with a consonant or vowel sound.
The phonetics are what matter in this case. What do I mean? The best way to illustrate this is through some examples:
- a battleship
- an hour
- a hotel
- an apple
- a university
- a one-sided affair
Even though “hour” starts with an consonant, you don’t pronounce the “h” at the beginning of the word. Instead, it starts with a vowel sound (like “our”), so you would use “an” in that instance. In like manner, “university” starts with a vowel, but it is pronounced like “yoo-niversity.” This starts with a consonant sound and, as such, you use “a” in that case.
Many people say that they can’t spell and they have trouble with big words, but we shouldn’t forget about little words too. I see far too many people get little words mixed up and that bugs me even more.
Do you have a suggestion for a future Grammar 101 post? Feel free to let me know through the comment form below.
GrammarGirl had an interesting observation: In British english the word “herb” is pronounced with an audiable ‘h’ sound, so “herb” rather than the American “‘erb”. That got me to thinking: Since we live in Canada and the Queen’s English is our proper language (hence our spelling of “neighbour” rather than “neighbor”), shouldn’t we be writing “an herb” rather than “a herb”?
For more such conundrums check out http://grammar.quickanddirtytips.com/
Great point. I think choosing between an herb and a herb would really just depend on how you want to pronounce it. We *should* be speaking the Queen’s English here, but I’m sure you’ve noticed that American English has clearly infiltrated our daily culture.
Interesting. I always thought “herb” with an “h” was the American pronunciation. I thought the dropped “h” was a European influence.
Anyway, you also have a similar situation with URLs. Some people say “you are el” while others say “earl”. So, the former would need to be written “a URL” while the latter would be “an URL”.
Blows my mind that people get this wrong…