Nightmare85's "a/an alphabet"

[Nightmare85]

Hello guys,
Many learners have problems with a and an.

General rule (when to use a or an):
Use a when the following word does not start with a spoken vowel.
Example: A uniform.
Use an when the following word starts with a spoken vowel.
Example: An autograph.

Nightmare85's "a/an alphabet".
(Version 1.5)

Whenever you use abbreviations like:
An HTML site, An MPUK admin, A URL, A UFO, An SSE4.1 compatible CPU, An SQL server; you must simply remember that alphabet.
It does not matter how the long version of an abbreviation is!
A UFO -> An unidentified flying object; but not An UFO!!

Give me a letter!
Okay, here we go:
Give me an A! [eɪ] +
Give me a B! [biː] -
Give me a C! [siː] -
Give me a D! [diː] -
Give me an E! [iː]
Give me an F! [ɛf]
Give me a G! [dʒiː] -
Give me an H! [eɪtʃ]
Give me an I! [aɪ] +
Give me a J! [dʒeɪ] -
Give me a K! [keɪ] -
Give me an L! [ɛl]
Give me an M! [ɛm]
Give me an N! [ɛn]
Give me an O! [oʊ]
Give me a P! [piː] -
Give me a Q! [kjuː] -
Give me an R! [ɑr]
Give me an S! [ɛs]
Give me a T! [tiː] -
Give me a U! [juː]
Give me a V! [viː] -
Give me a W! [ˈdʌbəljuː] -
Give me an X! [ɛks]
Give me a Y! [waɪ] -
Give me a Z! [zɛd] -

+ = Any word which starts with such a letter will always require the article an
- = Any word which starts with such a letter will always require the article a

Examples:
Let's pick the letters that have +.
No matter what word you choose, as long as it starts with A or I, its article will always be an.
An audience.
An auto dealer.
An avatar.
An iceberg.
An incredible moment.
An internal error.

Let's pick some letters that have -.
No matter what word you choose, as long as it starts with B, C, T, etc, its article will always be a.
A baby.
A boomer.
A celebration.
A test.
A theory.
A tragic end.

There are certain conditions for all other letters:
A European. - An Emergency.
A fish. - An FTP tool.
A house. - An hour.
A language. - An L.A.P.D. officer.
A machine gun. - An MP3 player.
A one-winged angel. - An oil rig.
A rich person. - An RTL TV show.
A submarine. - An SLR McLaren.
A uniform - An unpleasant moment.
A xylophone. - An Xbox 360.

Only the word, which comes right after the a/an, matters:
An admin. - A good admin. - An excellent admin. - A bad admin.

If you are not sure, you must always ask yourself, "How do I pronounce the first letter?"
"Is it a spoken vowel or not?"

Thanks for reading!

Version 1.1:
- corrected "E" mistake (made +- out of ++)
- added better explanation to the symbols
- added another condition example with E.

Version 1.2:
- moved the explanation regarding the +- closer to the alphabet

Version 1.3:
- explained the symbols better and created better examples

Version 1.4
- corrected the O mistake
- removed all +- symbols in order to make it clearer
- fixed all phonetics
- changed the order of some examples
- added some advice sentences
- reduced font size of the version history

Version 1.5
- added a general rule (when to use a or an)
- removed a redundand intro sentence
- moved and extended the "ask yourself"-sentence
- fixed some minor comma mistakes

Cheers!

 

[emsr2d2]

re: Nightmare85's "a/an alphabet"

I enjoyed your post! I find it quite difficult here in Spain to "spell" the pronunciation of specific letters and words, because how I pronounce a letter differs from how the Spanish naturally pronounce a letter. It's a learning curve.

The only spelling of "h" I usually see is "aitch".

 

[Nightmare85]

re: Nightmare85's "a/an alphabet"

Thank you!

By the way, I've just seen a serious mistake.

Give me an E! [I] ++ -> wrong

A European.

Will be corrected later.
(From ++ to +-)

Cheers!

 

[emsr2d2]

re: Nightmare85's "a/an alphabet"

You're welcome.

By the way, I have absolutely no idea at all what the symbols ++ +- and -- mean. Would you enlighten me?!

 

[Nightmare85]

re: Nightmare85's "a/an alphabet"

++ = always an when a word starts with such a letter
+- = a/an under certain conditions (see more information below)
-- = always a when a word starts with such a letter

Let's pick the A that has ++.

No matter what word you choose, as long as it starts with A, its article will always be an.
An audience.
An auto dealer.

Let's pick the T that has --.
No matter what word you choose, as long as it starts with T, its article will always be a.
A test.
A theory.
A tragic end.



Cheers!

 

[emsr2d2]

re: Nightmare85's "a/an alphabet"

++ = always an when a word starts with such a letter
+- = a/an under certain conditions (see more information below)
-- = always a when a word starts with such a letter

Let's pick the A that has ++.

No matter what word you choose, as long as it starts with A, its article will always be an.
An audience.
An auto dealer.

Let's pick the T that has --.
No matter what word you choose, as long as it starts with T, its article will always be a.
A test.
A theory.
A tragic end.



Cheers!

Ah, thanks for the explanation although you didn't give an example of +-
However, may I take a guess? I'm assuming that "s" is one because before an actual word starting with "s", it takes "a", but before the initial "S", we say "an". Yes?

 

[Nightmare85]

re: Nightmare85's "a/an alphabet"

You're welcome

I made some explanations regarding the +-, but I will move them a bit.

A submarine. - An SLR McLaren [ES-EL-AR].

Yes, anything like swim suit, shop etc needs an a.

Edit
I've just made a huge update!

Cheers!

 

[Jaskin]

re: Nightmare85's "a/an alphabet"

hi,
Please note I'm not a teacher nor a native speaker.

I just want t add a bit about the spelling of the alphabet. At the beginning I used to spell it in my native language.
Your "system" seems to be influenced by your mother tongue i.e. Z! [Set].

Could you say how did you come up with that particular way of spelling ?
I'd say is inconsistent at times.

There is the a few notation for the alphabet I'll look for it.

Cheers

 

[Nightmare85]

re: Nightmare85's "a/an alphabet"

Hey,
I just learned it in school (many years ago).

I found this table here:
Englisches Alphabet ? Wikipedia

Not sure if I should take the "IPA" entries.

Cheers!

 

[Raymott]

re: Nightmare85's "a/an alphabet"

The idea's good.
I think it's overly complicated. If something is ++ or --, then it's invariant, so why bother with the notation? You already have that covered with the preceding 'a' or 'an'.
Also you need to do serious work on the spelling of the letter spellings for non-Germans.

Isn't this much easier?

Give me an A! [[FONT=&quot]eɪ[/FONT]]
Give me a B! [bi]
Give me a C! [si]
Give me a D! [di]
Give me an E! *

Let's pick the letters that have no asterisk
They always take the form given.

 

[emsr2d2]

re: Nightmare85's "a/an alphabet"

I agree about the spellings of the letters and for it to be truly international, it would have to use the phonetic symbols.

Having said that, I can't decipher the phonetic symbols and none of my students use them. Consequently, here in Spain, my students and I write pronunciations of words/letters which make sense to them, using Spanish pronunciation. I realise that would be no use for a student from another country!

 

[Raymott]

re: Nightmare85's "a/an alphabet"

I agree about the spellings of the letters and for it to be truly international, it would have to use the phonetic symbols.

Having said that, I can't decipher the phonetic symbols and none of my students use them. Consequently, here in Spain, my students and I write pronunciations of words/letters which make sense to them, using Spanish pronunciation. I realise that would be no use for a student from another country!

Most of the letters are spelled in IPA as they would be in Spanish anyhow. [FONT=&quot]eɪ, bi, si,[/FONT]di, i ...
The only problems you're likely to have are:
g, h, j, o, q, u, w, y.

[FONT=&quot]g /ʤi/
[/FONT]
[FONT=&quot]h /eɪʧ/
[/FONT]
[FONT=&quot]j /ʤeɪ/
[/FONT]
[FONT=&quot]o /əʊ/oʊ/
[/FONT]
[FONT=&quot]q /kju/
[/FONT]
[FONT=&quot]u /ju/
[/FONT]
[FONT=&quot]w /dʌbl ju/ [/FONT]
y /w[FONT=&quot]aɪ /[/FONT]

Anyhow, it would take you only an hour or two to master the consonants necessary for English, and perhaps another two hours for the vowels and diphthongs. It looks more complicated than it actually is. (Except for when you're trying to type them nicely on this bless[FONT=&quot]è[/FONT]d software!)

 

[Nightmare85]

re: Nightmare85's "a/an alphabet"

Hello guys and thanks for your advice. :up:
I made some new changes, I hope you like them.

Version 1.4
- corrected the O mistake
- removed all +- symbols in order to make it clearer
- fixed all phonetics
- changed the order of some examples
- added some advice sentences
- reduced font size of the version history

Maybe this thread could be moved to the FAQ section: "A or an?" some day

I think I will also try to explain things like:
A European. - An Emergency.
A house. - An hour.
A one-winged angel. - An oil rig.
A uniform - An unpleasant moment.

Currently, readers don't see the reason why to use a/an here.
(It neither matches the alphabet logic nor gets explained.)

Cheers!

 

[mmasny]

The only spelling of "h" I usually see is "aitch".

Is it? I also see "haitch" sometimes and my Irish teacher (gosh, how long ago it was!) would even say "hitch" (I never saw her write it though).

 

[Nightmare85]

mmasny, you're right, but I did not include it since it might have confused members.
The one site, where I took my information from, says:
Sometimes pronounced [heɪtʃ] in Irish and Australian English.

There are some exceptions anyway.
Historic can be pronounced both [historic] and [istoric], which would mean both a and an can be right - probably depending on the location/place (where you are).

By the way, I updated the main thread some hours ago.

Version 1.5
- added a general rule (when to use a or an)
- removed a redundand intro sentence
- moved and extended the "ask yourself"-sentence
- fixed some minor comma mistakes
:up:

Cheers!

 

[Neil McCauley]

This is a good and fairly complete guide. Thanks.