Make an "halloween composition"

[marcogalletti]

Hello everyone, I'm again here to ask my doubts out. This time I want to know if in english the word "composition" has the same meaning of the italian word. I wanted to referr to a special plate of food with an halloween theme (the chef served the plate with pumpkins and other decorations). I was showing the result by pic to a friend and that's what I said: Look at this, they made an halloween composition. Does it make any sense? My non native friend said that my sentence doesen't make any. I used the word composition with the same meaning of "decoration", like putting something together for a particular theme or event. I hope you can help me, thank you everyone

 

[GoesStation]

You could refer to an artistically-arranged plate of food as a composition, though it's not a typical use of the word.

Write

• a Halloween
• English
• Italian
• non-native.

Use an​ only before a word which is pronounced with an initial vowel sound.

 

[emsr2d2]

Just to clarify GoesStation's post above, the "a" should be used before "Hallowe'en" and "non-native", but not before "English" or "Italian". GS's point was that they need to be capitalised.

 

[Tdol]

Use an​ only before a word which is pronounced with an initial vowel sound.

Heir, honour and hour start with a vowel sound. Some people say historical without aspirating the h, but I have never heard Halloween pronounced without it. It was originally used for words of French origin, though it is declining, but Halloween does not come from French.

 

[marcogalletti]

I think many Italian people use to omit the pronunciation of the "h" saying English words, otherwise some time ago I used to pronounce egg "hegg" because we don't really make any difference and it's up to the person who speaks. In Italian it is a mute letter, that's why I was mistaken. Using this forum is making me more conscious of the English rules, especially about the grammar. Still a lot of work to do but thank you for everything.

 

[GoesStation]

I think many Italian people use to omit the pronunciation of the "h" saying English words, otherwise some time ago I used to pronounce egg "hegg" because we don't really make any difference and it's up to the person who speaks. In Italian it is a mute letter, that's why I was mistaken. Using this forum is making me more conscious of the English rules, especially about the grammar. Still a lot of work to do but thank you for everything.

Francophones often do that, too. In written English you should write an before any word or other text which is pronounced with an initial vowel: an egg, an honest man, an SDS, an 11th-hour decision, etc. There are some cases where pronunciation varies: depending on the regional variety of English, some people will say an herb or an H, while others will say a herb or a H because they pronounce the following word with an "H" sound. (Some people pronounce the name of the letter as "haitch".)

A pronouncing dictionary will tell you whether a word, number, or letter is pronounced with an initial vowel. In spoken English, it may help you pronounce the following word if you know its dictionary pronunciation. It's easy to say an egg if you pronounce it like "an negg". Some AmE dialects don't use an. ​Saying a egg isn't a serious mistake and won't impede comprehension.