English
日本語
한국어
简体中文
繁體中文
Italiano
español
Deutsch
Русский
As you probably know, English uses articles before nouns most of the time (unless the noun is plural or uncountable or discussed in a general sense e.g. "Air is necessary for people"). Here, I would like to give you some quick tips for deciding which version of the indefinite article ("a" or "an") to use. It is often said that you should use "a" when the noun starts with a consonant and "an" when the noun starts with a vowel, but this is not entirely accurate. In reality, the choice between "a" and "an" depends on the sound of the noun and not the spelling - consider the following examples.
"She wanted to recruit me into an MLM"
Here "an" is used because MLM, while starting with a consonant, is pronounced "em-ell-em" and thus starts with a vowel sound.
"A university"
Here "a" is used, because while the word “university” starts with a vowel, the first sound /j/ sounds like a consonant sound.
"A one-time event"
Here "a" is used, because while the word “one” starts with a vowel the first sound is a “w” sound, which is a consonant sound.
응답 (0)