A or An?

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5jj

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I think the poll should be changed/fixed whatever.
It only confuses new members because the wrong answer has more votes...

Cheers!

I agree. And perhaps this thread should be locked.


Sooris gave the correct answer here four years ago. Since then it has been confirmed by: BobK, Avalon, Vijajyjakhar, Tei, John007, sunnyrauf, quantumphyser. Beccky Jo Linton, Ronbee, okht-muslima, be real, arakolay, eslkorea, Clark, Tdol, marif0915, xpert. Nightmare85, isedehi and Amal-30.

And yet some people are still repeating the question; others are still repeating the wrong answer.
 

Katsumoto

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I believe that it's "a" because we read URL like abbreviation of "Uniform Resource Locator" like /ju:ˌɑ:rˌəl/ here we've to say like a URL, but if we read it like one word like /ʌrl/, here we have to read it like an url. the rule of a, an is according to sounds not letters.

a university. /ˌjuːnɪˈvɜːsəti/

an umbrella, /ʌmˈbrelə/

 

prattsishunk

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Hello Everyone,
I'm confused between 'An Answer' or 'The Answer' ?

Can anyone pls help me out with this ?
 

tomolonight

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A / AN : If you are not sure of the thing.
The : You want to mention something specifically.

This is a story book, which I like to read. The book is "Home".
 

5jj

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A / AN : If you are not sure of the thing.
The : You want to mention something specifically.

This is a story book, which I like to read. The book is "Home".

Pratsishunk was hoping for an answer to his question.

Tomolight gave him an answer; it was a good answer. It was the answer tomolight was hoping for.
 

paseem

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hi I'm a new member here


need moooore help to learn english perfect
 

santrimedia

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A is used for noun that begins with consonant
An is used for noun that begins with vowel

this example begins with vowel, but pronounced 'consonant' -'y'.
 

Rocky

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Go A, A is winning woohoooooo :up:
lol.
 

dustin2010

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hmmmmm, i'll add a few examples too :D

when using 'a,' the word that follows usually starts with a consonant, and it's singular.

A mountain.
A piece of cake.
There is a glass of water.
The cat drank from a bowl of milk

When using 'an' the word that follows usually begins with a vowel or begins with a vowel sound, and it's singular.

An hour after the game.
There is an apple on the table.
We found an acorn under the tree.


Practice Copy/paste: Use a or an

I ate ___ piece of pineapple.
She found ___ bug on the floor.
There was ___ owl in the tree.
The Soccer game was ___ hour after the baseball game.
She went swimming in ___ pool.
There is ___ cup of soda on the table.
The squirrel was eating ___ walnut.
The ran for ___ long time.
That cat played with ___ strand of yarn.
___ yellow bird is flying to its nest.
You will find that there is ___ universe beyond the stars.
The dog chased ___ cat acrossed the field.
He ate ___ sandwich and ___ apple for lunch.

Careful with some of them,
*hint: if the noun starts with a vowel, it doesn't always mean it's going to be an
Hope this helps,
dustin
 
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Nightmare85

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They ran for ___ long time.
*Hint: [STRIKE]the[/STRIKE] If the noun starts with a vowel, it doesn't always mean it's going to be an.
Hope this helps,
dustin

I hope you didn't mean, "If the noun starts with the vowel a, it doesn't always mean it's going to be an".
Like:
An audience.
An auto dealer.
An avatar.
I guess you wanted to highlight the word vowel, not the a. :)
Of course you're right if you're talking about other vowels like e, o or u. :up:

Check out my thread for more information:
https://www.usingenglish.com/forum/frequently-asked-questions/123560-nightmare85s-alphabet.html

Cheers!
 

mehdihas

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Dear Tdol,
I chose "a" because the "j" sound takes "a" like in the word university. We say "a university" and not "an university".
 

lichunsoe

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I firmly believe that this is A universal resource locator
 

aggelos

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When selecting between 'a' and 'an' to put before a word, what counts is the sound that you hear first when you pronounce the word, not necessarily the first written letter of the word. So, say the word (aloud or in your mind) and decide if its first sound is a consonant sound or a vowel sound. If it's a consonant sound, put 'a'; if it's a vowel sound, put 'an'. And don't forget that there are some words in which the first letter you see is not pronounced.

As a little test, decide if you would put 'a' or 'an' before the following words:

book, evening, hour, honor, hat, union, URL, urn

I'll provide the correct answers in a new post, after some people (hopefully) have taken the test.
 

KarelVarhanik

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When selecting between 'a' and 'an' to put before a word, what counts is the sound that you hear first when you pronounce the word, not necessarily the first written letter of the word. So, say the word (aloud or in your mind) and decide if its first sound is a consonant sound or a vowel sound. If it's a consonant sound, put 'a'; if it's a vowel sound, put 'an'. And don't forget that there are some words in which the first letter you see is not pronounced.

As a little test, decide if you would put 'a' or 'an' before the following words:

book, evening, hour, honor, hat, union, URL, urn

I'll provide the correct answers in a new post, after some people (hopefully) have taken the test.

Thanks for the test, aggelos. My solution:

a book, an evening, an hour, an honour (Do you prefer the US spelling?), a hat, a union, a URL, and an urn.

Kind regards,

KarelVarhanik ;-)
 

Tdol

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nourline

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hallow how r u all:

I chose an, and I will explain my point of view in this excerpt:


Indefinite Articles in the English language to"a, an" - two tools are called indefinite articles

Added when the first letter of the name "a" is that: "an" and "a" - the
difference between the two instruments of indefinite articles

Added when the first letter of the name, character voice, but there are also some irregular words depends on the method according to pronounce the word. Such as:
an hour, a university, an honest
 
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5jj

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hallow how r u all:
Please use a smaller font.
Large fonts are quite difficult to read after a short time - and they make the posts spread out over a lot of space.

Thank you.
 
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