# A, E, I, O, U and sometimes Y but ... **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [April 27, 2001, 12:56am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/a-e-i-o-u-and-sometimes-y-but/63471 "2001-04-27T00:56:31Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Fern\_Forest](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/71c47a/32.png) [@Fern\_Forest](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Fern_Forest)\ **Post date:** [April 27, 2001, 12:56am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/a-e-i-o-u-and-sometimes-y-but/63471/1 "2001-04-27T00:56:31Z")
When I speak I will occasionally say something like “I’m going to buy a unicorn.” or “Gee I could never learn to ride a unicycle.” So am I speaking improper English by saying a unicorn instead of an unicorn. Or as I suspect is U sometimes acting like a consonant in occasions like that? ---
**Author:** ![barbitu8](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/839c29/32.png) [@barbitu8](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/barbitu8)\ **Post date:** [April 27, 2001, 1:01am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/a-e-i-o-u-and-sometimes-y-but/63471/2 "2001-04-27T01:01:58Z")
I think “a” is correct with words starting with “u” when the “U” has a “y” sound: unicorn,uniform, unicycle, etc. However, otherwise, “an” is correct: unknown, unusual, etc. ---
**Author:** ![Sofa\_King](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/58956e/32.png) [@Sofa\_King](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sofa_King)\ **Post date:** [April 27, 2001, 1:03am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/a-e-i-o-u-and-sometimes-y-but/63471/3 "2001-04-27T01:03:46Z")
If you’re riding your unicorn or unicycle to the barber shop to get an haircut, you might be in real trouble. Don’t the French and English consider the letter “H” to act as a vowel in those cases, too? (Specifically, I remember an A. C. Clarke short story–parhaps a tale from the White Hart–which uses the term “an haircut.”) ---
**Author:** ![Doobieous](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/da6949/32.png) [@Doobieous](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Doobieous)\ **Post date:** [April 27, 2001, 1:20am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/a-e-i-o-u-and-sometimes-y-but/63471/4 "2001-04-27T01:20:13Z")
In those cases, the u is being pronounced as y, which is a consonantal sound. Going off of the written word is not a good indicator of which form to use, because often, vowels will be used consonantally. ---
**Author:** ![Zarathustra](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/z/898d66/32.png) [@Zarathustra](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Zarathustra)\ **Post date:** [April 27, 2001, 3:09am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/a-e-i-o-u-and-sometimes-y-but/63471/5 "2001-04-27T03:09:05Z")
I was walking up Broadway you know and there’s this incredible looking Swedish girl having a Cappuccino across the street from Lincoln Center. I started talking to her you know - She said her name was Lola. Her English wasn’t too good you know - but we wound up spending about 5 hours together just hanging out you know. So We go back to my place - we get high - we get really into each other man. It was love about to happen…I’m serious. And then all of a sudden she gets up and she says, she says “Hey, I really gotta leave”. Damn. ---
**Author:** ![RealityChuck](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/realitychuck/32/195_2.png) [@RealityChuck](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RealityChuck)\ **Post date:** [April 27, 2001, 3:26am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/a-e-i-o-u-and-sometimes-y-but/63471/6 "2001-04-27T03:26:50Z")
In addition, you sometimes you “an” before a word beginning with a consonant – if the consonant isn’t pronounced: “an hour.” ---
**Author:** ![friedo](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/8edcca/32.png) [@friedo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/friedo)\ **Post date:** [April 27, 2001, 3:29am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/a-e-i-o-u-and-sometimes-y-but/63471/7 "2001-04-27T03:29:56Z")
The rule is very simple. “A” for words that have a consonant _sound_ at the beginning, “an” for words that have a vowel _sound_ at the beginning. Thus: “An hour.” “A house.” “An umbrella.” “A unicorn.” ---
**Author:** ![LifeWillFall](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/46a35a/32.png) [@LifeWillFall](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/LifeWillFall)\ **Post date:** [April 27, 2001, 3:31am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/a-e-i-o-u-and-sometimes-y-but/63471/8 "2001-04-27T03:31:45Z")
I always thought ‘a’ and ‘an’ were interchangeable by what sounded better, isn’t the whole idea of changing a to an so it makes the sentence flow nicely. I say do what you want, screw the rules ---
**Author:** ![padabe](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/919ad9/32.png) [@padabe](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/padabe)\ **Post date:** [April 27, 2001, 4:23am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/a-e-i-o-u-and-sometimes-y-but/63471/9 "2001-04-27T04:23:38Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by Sofa King \* > \*\*If you’re riding your unicorn or unicycle to the barber shop to get an haircut, you might be in real trouble. Don’t the French and English consider the letter “H” to act as a vowel in those cases, too? > > (Specifically, I remember an A. C. Clarke short story–parhaps a tale from the White Hart–which uses the term “an haircut.”) \*\* Wow, that explains something that’s been bothering me for a while - sometimes the paper will refer to something as being “an historic” event. Always bugged me. Thanks. ---
**Author:** ![SmackFu](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/53a042/32.png) [@SmackFu](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/SmackFu)\ **Post date:** [April 27, 2001, 4:45am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/a-e-i-o-u-and-sometimes-y-but/63471/10 "2001-04-27T04:45:11Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by LifeWillFall \* > **I always thought ‘a’ and ‘an’ were interchangeable by what sounded better** But almost always, what sounds better is dictated by the rule **friedo** gave. Can anyone think of a counter-example? ---
**Author:** ![StephenG](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/7feea3/32.png) [@StephenG](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/StephenG)\ **Post date:** [April 27, 2001, 6:38am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/a-e-i-o-u-and-sometimes-y-but/63471/11 "2001-04-27T06:38:50Z")
Unfortunately, spelling is confusing – French and English both. The important part is not how a word is spelt, but how’s it’s pronounced. The initial sound in a word – consonant or vowel – determines which article is used. As was stated earlier, the [y] sound is a consonant sound. This is due to the way the lip and tongue work when pronouncing it, constricting the vocal tract (although to a lesser degree than in other consonants). > [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by Sofa King \* > \*\* Don’t the French and English consider the letter “H” to act as a vowel in those cases, too? > > (Specifically, I remember an A. C. Clarke short story–parhaps a tale from the White Hart–which uses the term “an haircut.”) \*\* The word you’re looking for is “aspirated.” In some French words beginning with an [h], the h is pronounced – aspirated. In other words (and there seems to be no pattern), the h is unaspirated – unpronounced, and the first sound in the word is the vowel sound. A. C. Clarke’s “'aircut” would seem to be like that. (We’ve all seen/'eard Cockney accents where they don’t pronounce the initial [h].) ---
**Author:** ![Mysphyt](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/dbc845/32.png) [@Mysphyt](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mysphyt)\ **Post date:** [April 27, 2001, 6:54am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/a-e-i-o-u-and-sometimes-y-but/63471/12 "2001-04-27T06:54:12Z")
I agree with friedo on general principles, but just to be difficult . . . Isn’t “an historical” correct? ---
**Author:** ![pulykamell](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/pulykamell/32/3166_2.png) [@pulykamell](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/pulykamell)\ **Post date:** [April 27, 2001, 9:33am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/a-e-i-o-u-and-sometimes-y-but/63471/13 "2001-04-27T09:33:25Z")
Well, as Americans (myself included) pronounce it, I’ve always heard is as “a historic event.” However, BBC World is my main source of news now in Hungary (just sick of CNN) and I know for certain that most of their commentators will say “an historic occasion” and pronounce it as “anistoric occasion” with no discernible “h” sound. ---
**Author:** ![friedo](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/8edcca/32.png) [@friedo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/friedo)\ **Post date:** [April 27, 2001, 1:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/a-e-i-o-u-and-sometimes-y-but/63471/14 "2001-04-27T13:59:56Z")
I have observed that the Brits put less effort into their H’s than Americans, making the Brittish H closer to a vowel than a consonent. Thus, many Brits are inclined to say “an historic” wheras most Americans say “a historic.” ---
**Author:** ![Quercus](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/q/7ab992/32.png) [@Quercus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Quercus)\ **Post date:** [April 27, 2001, 2:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/a-e-i-o-u-and-sometimes-y-but/63471/15 "2001-04-27T14:14:30Z")
Just wanted to add a couple interesting examples from the Associated Press (USA) style guide [which is a definitive source for quite a lot of writing]. It lays down the law as "use a before consonant sounds: a historic event, a one-year term (sounds as if it begins with a w), a united stand (sounds like ‘you’). “Use an before vowel sounds: an energy crisis, an honorable man (the h is silent), an NBA record (sounds like it begins with the letter e), an 1890s celebration.” ---
**Author:** ![Arken](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/dfb087/32.png) [@Arken](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Arken)\ **Post date:** [April 27, 2001, 2:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/a-e-i-o-u-and-sometimes-y-but/63471/16 "2001-04-27T14:43:24Z")
> [@](#): > > "use a before consonant sounds: a historic event, a one-year term (sounds as if it begins with a w), a united stand I believe that would be AN historic event… ---
**Author:** ![Johanna](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/johanna/32/8318_2.png) [@Johanna](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Johanna)\ **Post date:** [April 27, 2001, 2:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/a-e-i-o-u-and-sometimes-y-but/63471/17 "2001-04-27T14:44:06Z")
\*What the French call “_h aspiré_” isn’t _really_ aspirated. They just call it that. The reason is that such words beginning with _h-_ (like _haricot_, _haine_, _Halles_ are of Frankish origin. When they first entered the language, the /h/ sound was still being pronounced by the Germanic Franks. The _h-_ inherited from Latin words had stopped being pronounced centuries earlier in Vulgar Latin, perhaps as early as the first century BC. So when the aspirated Frankish /h/ appeared in some loanwords, it was different enough for the theoretical distinction to be maintained until now, even though the French stopped pronouncing it many centuries ago. The only distinction is that articles are not elided (_le haricot_ versus _l’honneur_). The break between the vowels in _le haricot_ is not an /h/ sound but a mild glottal stop or hamzah. You can’t say that “silent h” is a vowel. It’s followed by a vowel. The silent h itself is a **zero** , which is the word used by phoneticists to mean ‘nonexistent’. Using “an” before a real pronounced /h/ sound is a remnant of Elizabethan English. 500 years ago, they said “an” before _all_ initial _h_s, pronounced or not. In the King James Bible, you can see “an house,” “an harlot,” etc. This practice has been long dying out, and the last vestige is for some old British fogeys to say “an” when the initial /h/ sound is in an unstressed syllable. Thus: “a history” but “an historian.” (But then **why** don’t they say “an Hungarian”???) When Robert Browning used the phrase “such an one” he was being deliberately archaic. In Middle English, _one_ didn’t start with a /w/ sound but a vowel sound, so “an one” was acceptable Middle English. In the 19th century, of course, you could only get away with that in poetry, where archaisms could persist many centuries after they’d become obsolete in prose. ---
**Author:** ![Johanna](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/johanna/32/8318_2.png) [@Johanna](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Johanna)\ **Post date:** [April 27, 2001, 2:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/a-e-i-o-u-and-sometimes-y-but/63471/18 "2001-04-27T14:51:18Z")
In James Joyce’s _Ulysses_, one of the characters is a real-life Irish author named George Russell. He went by the pen name of **AE**. In _Ulysses_, the poet Stephen Dedalus (Joyce himself, fictionalized) borrows a five-pound note from George Russell. And then he says: \ ***A E I O U** ---
**Author:** ![jmonster](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/dbc845/32.png) [@jmonster](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/jmonster)\ **Post date:** [April 27, 2001, 4:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/a-e-i-o-u-and-sometimes-y-but/63471/19 "2001-04-27T16:35:59Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by Arken \* > \*\* > > > [@](#): > > > > "use a before consonant sounds: a historic event, a one-year term (sounds as if it begins with a w), a united stand > > I believe that would be AN historic event… \*\* The point was that this came from an American style guide. As a speaker of American English, I can imagine myself saying “historic” in way that requires an “a” or in a way that requires an “an”. The difference is very subtle. ---
**Author:** ![lissener](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/lissener/32/6139_2.png) [@lissener](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/lissener)\ **Post date:** [April 27, 2001, 10:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/a-e-i-o-u-and-sometimes-y-but/63471/20 "2001-04-27T22:57:47Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by Zarathustra \* > \*\*I was walking up Broadway you know and there’s this incredible looking Swedish girl having a Cappuccino across the street from Lincoln Center. I started talking to her you know - She said her name was Lola. Her English wasn’t too good you know - but we wound up spending about 5 hours together just hanging out you know. So We go back to my place - we get high - we get really into each other man. It was love about to happen…I’m serious. And then all of a sudden she gets up and she says, she says “Hey, I really gotta leave”. > > Damn. > \*\* But you know I was really flipped out you know and she asked me if I’m angry or something I said of course I’m angry man this isn’t high school or anything you know so I’m feeling really cavalier and I say ah…call me if you want to…huh, yeah…call me if you want to So she rang me up and she says, “Hey! Do you wanna go out?” Huh, Do I wanna go out [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/a-e-i-o-u-and-sometimes-y-but/63471.md?page=2)