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"a user" or "an user"? [#permalink]
 27 Mar 2011, 19:41
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Hello folks, While writing a document today morning; when I typed in "an user", MS Word showed me a grammatical error and changed it to "a user". I was baffled and shaken as I sucked at a very basic grammar rule. Somebody please enlighten. ~Nilay.
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Re: "a user" or "an user"? [#permalink]
27 Mar 2011, 21:42
Use of a or an are not determined by spelling, but pronunciation. any word which sounds like it begins with a viwel (may or may not actually begin with a vowel) will take an. and any word whihc begins with sound of a consonant will take 'a' as preceding article.
E.g.
user,university both begin with sound of 'yu..' Hence, 'a' is the article used for them.
hour begins with a consonant, but we always say 'an hour' why? because the first sound when the word hour is pronounced is 'aww.' sound of a vowel.
I hope this makes it clear.. you can consider many other examples.. 'a one-day match' is correct, not 'an one-day match', reason being while one begins with a vowel, the sound is that of a consonant - w.
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Manager
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Re: "a user" or "an user"? [#permalink]
29 Mar 2011, 02:22
vivesomnium wrote: Use of a or an are not determined by spelling, but pronunciation. any word which sounds like it begins with a viwel (may or may not actually begin with a vowel) will take an. and any word whihc begins with sound of a consonant will take 'a' as preceding article.
E.g.
user,university both begin with sound of 'yu..' Hence, 'a' is the article used for them.
hour begins with a consonant, but we always say 'an hour' why? because the first sound when the word hour is pronounced is 'aww.' sound of a vowel.
I hope this makes it clear.. you can consider many other examples.. 'a one-day match' is correct, not 'an one-day match', reason being while one begins with a vowel, the sound is that of a consonant - w. Thanks! That clarified it. I was not aware of it.
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Re: "a user" or "an user"? [#permalink]
29 Mar 2011, 23:40
Letters are just and abstraction layer for sounds. Quote: On a side note:
meaning -> speech (sounds) -> characters.
well, at least in most languages =) I do not know Chinese/Japanese, etc, but I've always imagined the mapping there is more like:
meaning -> characters.
It is like with many walks of life - adding an additional layer of abstraction may seem to add complexity, but it actually reduces it...
And letters do not always behave the same way (i.e. do not always result in the pronunciation of the same sound). I find rules that depend on the actual sound (rather than the letters) much more logical.
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Manager
Status: Seeking new horizons...
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Re: "a user" or "an user"? [#permalink]
30 Mar 2011, 00:13
Yes, your argument sounds logical. Thanks!
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Re: "a user" or "an user"?
[#permalink]
30 Mar 2011, 00:13
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