# Grammar: A vs An? **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [January 24, 2015, 3:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/grammar-a-vs-an/710757 "2015-01-24T15:18:05Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![LSLGuy](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/lslguy/32/5813_2.png) [@LSLGuy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/LSLGuy)\ **Post date:** [January 24, 2015, 10:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/grammar-a-vs-an/710757/21 "2015-01-24T22:00:26Z")
> [@bob\_2](#): > > And I would say ‘an hotel’ whereas you would probably say an hotel. That sentence doesn’t mean what you think it means. 🙂 ---
**Author:** ![terentii](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/terentii/32/212_2.png) [@terentii](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/terentii)\ **Post date:** [January 24, 2015, 10:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/grammar-a-vs-an/710757/22 "2015-01-24T22:30:02Z")
> [@pulykamell](#): > > You don’t really need a separate rule for that. The vowel sound rule covers it. Ah, but not if you’re encountering the word for the first time in written form! It ain’t necessarily obvious. ---
**Author:** ![terentii](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/terentii/32/212_2.png) [@terentii](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/terentii)\ **Post date:** [January 24, 2015, 10:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/grammar-a-vs-an/710757/23 "2015-01-24T22:32:25Z")
> [@bob\_2](#): > > I would always put ‘a’ in front of ‘U’ = yew. A university student. **A Ucla** student. An Uncle. A Uniform. Ah, but are you pronouncing it “U-C-L-A” or “uck-la”? :dubious: ---
**Author:** ![justmeetee](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/898d66/32.png) [@justmeetee](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/justmeetee)\ **Post date:** [January 24, 2015, 10:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/grammar-a-vs-an/710757/24 "2015-01-24T22:42:03Z")
I always just say it out loud and use the one that sounds right to my ear.But then again I failed english most years in school so what do I know. I do try to get it right but then see such terrible things on Facebook and a couple of tech forums I’m on I start to think why bother. ---
**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:** [January 24, 2015, 10:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/grammar-a-vs-an/710757/25 "2015-01-24T22:42:04Z")
> [@terentii](#): > > Ah, but not if you’re encountering the word for the first time in written form! It ain’t necessarily obvious. I’m not sure what this means. If you’re encountering the word for the first time in written form, you don’t know whether the “h” is pronounced or silent, either. ---
**Author:** ![terentii](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/terentii/32/212_2.png) [@terentii](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/terentii)\ **Post date:** [January 24, 2015, 10:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/grammar-a-vs-an/710757/26 "2015-01-24T22:49:06Z")
Another thing that grinds my gears is the business of the naked apostrophe! If a word is already a regular plural (or sounds like it), you can write the plural possessive with or without the additional “s”: “I love Mel Brooks’s movies” or “I love Mel Brooks’ movies.” Both variants are perfectly acceptable, though the second may be bit easier to pronounce. Nowadays, I hear the final “s” dropped a lot of times when it shouldn’t be, the most awful example I can think of being in the case of “Jesus”: “Mark was one of Jesus’ disciples.” WTF is a “Jesus disciple”?!? Clearly, the correct pronunciation is “Jesus-_ez_,” because Jesus neither is nor sounds like a plural form (which in this case would be “Jesuses”: one Jesus, two Jesuses). The only way to write it that makes sense is “Jesus’s.” Some style guides will actually tell you to always write “Jesus’,” for reasons I can’t begin to fathom. You pronounce the final “s,” you write the final “s.” Very simple! How can people not get this? :smack: ---
**Author:** ![terentii](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/terentii/32/212_2.png) [@terentii](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/terentii)\ **Post date:** [January 24, 2015, 10:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/grammar-a-vs-an/710757/27 "2015-01-24T22:52:57Z")
> [@pulykamell](#): > > I’m not sure what this means. If you’re encountering the word for the first time in written form, you don’t know whether the “h” is pronounced or silent, either. Correct. You have to make an educated guess. Which way would you go, for example, with “homage,” assuming you’re seeing it for the first time? ---
**Author:** ![Exapno\_Mapcase](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/exapno_mapcase/32/1051_2.png) [@Exapno\_Mapcase](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Exapno_Mapcase)\ **Post date:** [January 24, 2015, 10:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/grammar-a-vs-an/710757/28 "2015-01-24T22:54:53Z")
> [@dougie\_monty](#): > > FWIW, President Harding didn’t coin the word “normalcy”; he wrote “normality” in his speech but read it as “normalty” and “amused reporters” changed it to "normalcy. " (Francis Russell, _The Shadow of Blooming Grove: Warren G. Harding and His Times,_ etc.) I pulled the book up on Google Books. There were no hits for “normality” or “normalty” but several references to “normalcy.” I did find a similar statement in _Fixing English: Prescriptivism and Language History_, by Anne Curzan, p 107, but the excerpt on Google Books doesn’t give a source. She argues that normality was in the speech but he misspoke and said normalcy and then embraced his mistake because it made for a good term. Nothing about “normalty.” This is suggested by Harding’s own testimony on the subject in the _New York Times_, July 21, 1920. > [@](#): > > The Senator was asked for his definition of the word “normalcy,” which he used in his homecoming speech when he declared for “normal times and a return to normalcy.” > > "I have noticed that word caused considerable newspaper editors to change it to ‘normality,’ he said. “I have looked for ‘normality’ in my dictionary, and I did not find it there. ‘Normalcy,’ however, I did find and it is a good word.” That’s seems to be the exact opposite of what your cite says, and it seems odd that the _Times_ wouldn’t have noted that since they ran a number of articles on the word. However, _The Routledge Historical Atlas of Presidential Elections_, by Yanek Mieczkowski has it that way on p90. Again, footnotes are not available. It all makes me curious to know the source on this. I can’t find a copy of the original speech online. Nor can I find contemporary references to reporters being involved in changing the word. Or later ones except for Routledge, which obviously just draws on secondary sources. Weird. ---
**Author:** ![guizot](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/guizot/32/3636_2.png) [@guizot](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/guizot)\ **Post date:** [January 24, 2015, 11:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/grammar-a-vs-an/710757/29 "2015-01-24T23:08:19Z")
> [@bob\_2](#): > > I would always put ‘a’ in front of ‘U’ = yew. A university student. A Ucla student. **An** Uncle. A Uniform. Always??? You’re not even always doing in this very same post. ---
**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:** [January 24, 2015, 11:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/grammar-a-vs-an/710757/30 "2015-01-24T23:15:59Z")
> [@terentii](#): > > Correct. You have to make an educated guess. Which way would you go, for example, with “homage,” assuming you’re seeing it for the first time? Which is different from the sound rule how? (I would probably guess “a” if I saw “homage” for the first time. Regardless, both “a” or “an” are okay, depending on how you pronounce it.) ---
**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:** [January 24, 2015, 11:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/grammar-a-vs-an/710757/31 "2015-01-24T23:18:50Z")
> [@guizot](#): > > Always??? You’re not even always doing in this very same post. He’s saying–as far as I understand–you always put “A” in front of " ‘U’ = yew," that is, when the initial “u” makes the “yew” sound. In “uncle,” the “u” does not make a “yew” sound. ---
**Author:** ![terentii](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/terentii/32/212_2.png) [@terentii](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/terentii)\ **Post date:** [January 24, 2015, 11:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/grammar-a-vs-an/710757/32 "2015-01-24T23:23:17Z")
> [@pulykamell](#): > > He’s saying–as far as I understand–you always put “A” in front of " ‘U’ = yew," that is, when the initial “u” makes the “yew” sound. In “uncle,” the “u” does not make a “yew” sound. If you’re using the Phoenemic Alphabet, that sound is written /ju:/ and is referred to as a “jotated” vowel, the “J” being pronounced as it is in German (like “Y”). ---
**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:** [January 24, 2015, 11:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/grammar-a-vs-an/710757/33 "2015-01-24T23:28:54Z")
> [@terentii](#): > > If you’re using the Phoenemic Alphabet, that sound is written /ju:/ and is referred to as a “jotated” vowel, the “J” being pronounced as it is in German (like “Y”). Yes, /ju/ or /ju:/ in IPA. ---
**Author:** ![Gretchion](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/8edcca/32.png) [@Gretchion](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Gretchion)\ **Post date:** [January 24, 2015, 11:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/grammar-a-vs-an/710757/34 "2015-01-24T23:34:20Z")
> [@RiCu](#): > > It’s true. We definitely say Herb garden, rather than the ridiculous (to our ears) 'Erb garden. > > Why different? No idea. That’s fine. Likewise it sounds ridiculous to our American ears when you say 'ello and other words that you drop the H from. ---
**Author:** ![guizot](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/guizot/32/3636_2.png) [@guizot](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/guizot)\ **Post date:** [January 25, 2015, 12:22am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/grammar-a-vs-an/710757/35 "2015-01-25T00:22:34Z")
> [@pulykamell](#): > > He’s saying–as far as I understand–you always put “A” in front of " ‘U’ = yew," that is, when the initial “u” makes the “yew” sound. In “uncle,” the “u” does not make a “yew” sound. I see. But that’s missing the point. As **terentii** indicates above, we all know how people pronounce “UCLA”–as an initialism–so that’s easy. But what if you’re writing about something less known, like the Football Association of Wales (FAW). And let’s say you don’t know how people pronounce it there. It’s possible that everyone in Wales pronounces it as /fa/, so they say, “It’s a FAW team.” But you might assume that it’s an initialism (not an acronym), and write, “It’s an FAW team.” You might do this because you never hear people talking about it–you only read about it, and you have never happened to come across the name “FAW” preceded by the indefinite article in your readings. Acronyms beginning with the letter “U” are not a good example, and I shouldn’t have used it, because the preferred pronunciation in English for such acronyms is almost always with /yu/, even though English orthography could go either way. People say, /yunesko/, not /unesko/, etc. ---
**Author:** ![Senegoid](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/senegoid/32/6606_2.png) [@Senegoid](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Senegoid)\ **Post date:** [January 25, 2015, 12:34am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/grammar-a-vs-an/710757/36 "2015-01-25T00:34:28Z")
> [@LSLGuy](#): > > That sentence doesn’t mean what you think it means. 🙂 No, he’s just demonstrating one way that two different people probably wouldn’t say it. 🙂 ---
**Author:** ![Hail\_Ants](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/dc4da7/32.png) [@Hail\_Ants](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Hail_Ants)\ **Post date:** [January 25, 2015, 12:34am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/grammar-a-vs-an/710757/37 "2015-01-25T00:34:40Z")
> [@RiCu](#): > > It’s true. We definitely say Herb garden, rather than the ridiculous (to our ears) 'Erb garden. > > Why different? No idea. For what it’s worth: To an American, pronouncing the ‘H’ and saying ‘herb garden’ sounds equally ridiculous because here the word ‘Herb’ is only used as a proper noun (short for Herbert). Add to that the notion that Herb & Herbert are not especially popular names anymore and, in a modern pop-culture sense, the name Herb has a ‘goofy sitcom neighbor’ vibe to it (no offense 😃 ). > [@dougie\_monty](#): > > Some work of literature contains the sentence “The law is a idiot, a ass.” Something else I don’t think has been mentioned: Whether & when you pronounce the indefinite article ‘a’ as the long or short vowel sound. IMO using the long sound (i.e. as in the letter ‘A’) makes it sound more formal and, well, less wrong to use it in front of a vowel sound-beginning word. Saying “A army” rather than “uh army”. Not sure if the long or short is more prevalent in the UK, but it seems to be about 50/50 here in the US… ---
**Author:** ![Senegoid](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/senegoid/32/6606_2.png) [@Senegoid](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Senegoid)\ **Post date:** [January 25, 2015, 12:36am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/grammar-a-vs-an/710757/38 "2015-01-25T00:36:20Z")
> [@terentii](#): > > Ah, but are you pronouncing it “U-C-L-A” or “uck-la”? :dubious: All’s I’ve ever heard is You See Ell A (Em Oh You Ess Eeeee). ---
**Author:** ![Slow\_Moving\_Vehicle](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/slow_moving_vehicle/32/291_2.png) [@Slow\_Moving\_Vehicle](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Slow_Moving_Vehicle)\ **Post date:** [January 25, 2015, 12:44am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/grammar-a-vs-an/710757/39 "2015-01-25T00:44:07Z")
> [@Exapno\_Mapcase](#): > > I pulled the book up on Google Books. There were no hits for “normality” or “normalty” but several references to “normalcy.” > > I did find a similar statement in _Fixing English: Prescriptivism and Language History_, by Anne Curzan, p 107, but the excerpt on Google Books doesn’t give a source. She argues that normality was in the speech but he misspoke and said normalcy and then embraced his mistake because it made for a good term. Nothing about “normalty.” > > This is suggested by Harding’s own testimony on the subject in the _New York Times_, July 21, 1920. > That’s seems to be the exact opposite of what your cite says, and it seems odd that the _Times_ wouldn’t have noted that since they ran a number of articles on the word. > > However, _The Routledge Historical Atlas of Presidential Elections_, by Yanek Mieczkowski has it that way on p90. Again, footnotes are not available. > > It all makes me curious to know the source on this. I can’t find a copy of the original speech online. Nor can I find contemporary references to reporters being involved in changing the word. Or later ones except for Routledge, which obviously just draws on secondary sources. Weird. In _Notes From A Small Island_, Bill Bryson claimed _normalcy_ was coined in Britain. He didn’t provide any sources, though. > [@leahcim](#): > > According to [this](http://www.glossophilia.org/?p=3977), it’s not so uncommon for words borrowed from French to be more anglicized in British English than American English. See also “fillet”. Also _café_, _buffet_ and _garage_. But this only applies to relatively recent borrowings. French loanwords that have been in English for a long time - _chowder_, for example - we anglicize just as the Brits do. ---
**Author:** ![terentii](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/terentii/32/212_2.png) [@terentii](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/terentii)\ **Post date:** [January 25, 2015, 12:45am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/grammar-a-vs-an/710757/40 "2015-01-25T00:45:44Z")
> [@pulykamell](#): > > Which is different from the sound rule how? (I would probably guess “a” if I saw “homage” for the first time. Regardless, both “a” or “an” are okay, depending on how you pronounce it.) If you know the difference, you should never confuse the two, but I hear things like “He’s an historian” all the time on TV from people who ought to know better. I can’t think of specific examples right offhand, but I’m referring to newscasters, politicians, History Channel presenters, and the like (and yes, they pronounce the “H”). Just like I’ve heard some TV evangelists say “Jesus disciples” instead of “Jesus’s disciples.” [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/grammar-a-vs-an/710757.md?page=1) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/grammar-a-vs-an/710757.md?page=3)