A statement by Polycarp in another thread reminded me of this.
I found myself naturally reading this as “an MBE”, because of the initial vowel sound in the letter emm. For whatever reason, “a MBE” just doesn’t gel on my tongue.
[ul][li]So, in cases where the written form begins with a consonant, but the oral form with a vowel, what rule should we use to decide if ‘a’ is appropriate, or ‘an’? [/li]
[li]How about for a semi-vowel consonant like Y? For instance, in the element name Yttrium, the ‘y’ is silent and the word is pronounced ‘itreeyum’, do we say a Yttrium molecule or an Yttrium molecule?[/ul][/li]grammar mavens?
Always thought the better word to use was element, or even metal, but never mind …
As Exapno Mapcase states, it is the oral sound you go for, not whether the first letter is a consonant or not. I do think yttrium has an “an” preceding it, but then there is dispute over the words “history” and “historical”, as well.
Well, yes. Elemental oxygen forms diatomic molecules in it’s native state, just like hydrogen and nitrogen do. But yttrium does not, so you don’t have yttrium molecules.
By definition, a molecule is composed of two or more atoms.
A “monoatomic molecule” is a contradiction in terms.
The “history” and “historical” dispute is a matter of pronunciation, mostly. Some people don’t aspirate the h’s and thus feel more natural saying an historical. (sounds like “an 'istorical” pretty much). Others pronounce it with a clear h, hence “a historical.”
I think these days most stylebooks will tell you to go with the latter, at least in America. It seems to me that governmental texts (or perhaps I’m thinking of some other type of offical text) preserve the older “an” article. That annoys the hell out of me, as it never fails to cause me to trip over the word.
Oops on my part. I always had yttrium in my head as yit-ree-um, which would take an “a”. But my dictionaries confirm that it is it-ree-em, which would indeed take an “an”.
Would it help if I said my last chemistry class was in 1968?
Of course there are regional variances too (even among English speakers) - many Americans seem to pronounce ‘herb’ as ‘urb’ and therefore ‘an herb’ would be appropriate, however many (most I think) Brits pronounce the H and they would write it as ‘a herb’.
