"a" animal or "an" animal?

[jfa_gyaana]

Friends,

Should we say,

Man, thou art an animal

or

Man, thou art a animal

?

 

[emsr2d2]

Welcome to the forum. :hi:

Congratulations on giving your thread a relevant title.

In 2015, we wouldn't use "thou art" at all. Use "you are". Have you learnt the rules governing the choice of "a" or "an" for the indefinite article yet?

 

[Tdol]

Animal begins with a vowel sound, so use an. Why are you using the archaic form thou art?

 

[jfa_gyaana]

emsr2d2 and Tdol,

Thanks for the welcome! I picked up this sentence from a 20-year old copy of Wren and Martin English Grammar. I am aware about the "a" and "an" being determined by the vowel sound and not by the initial letter of a noun. Just wanted to confirm as there was a misprint in the solution key.

 

[emsr2d2]

I'm baffled as to why a 20-year-old grammar book would encourage the use of "thou art".

 

[Roman55]

I am not a teacher.

It's an inaccurate quote from 'The Indian Jugglers' by William Hazlitt.

Man, thou art a wonderful animal, and thy ways past finding out! The language before and after this line is much more contemporary, even though it was written in the early 19th century.

How it found itself into a 'modern' grammar book remains a mystery.