Re: what is it?

Peter Henderson <pet...@usa.net> wrote:

>anonymous@bogus_address.con wrote:
>> On 2001-10-03 l3m...@bumblbee.demon.co.uk said:
>> 
>>    > >It's rather easy when you know it really, when a word begins with
>>    > >a vowel, you say "an" (an apple, an oven, an utter) if it begins
>>    > >with a consonant, it's always "a" (a pear, a clock, a ship).
>>    > >It's easy as (a) pie :-))
>>    >
>>    >What about Hour, Hotel, Happy?  It's not enough to know that the
>>    >word starts with a vowel, you have to know it *sounds* as though it
>>    >starts with a vowel.
>> 
>> In American English, the preferred (and proper) usage is:
>> 
>>   =A= hotel
>>   =A= happy
>>   =A= hovel
>>   =A= ham
>>   =A= herring
>> 
>> ..since in American English, the leading 'h' is almost always
>> pronounced.  There is no 'dropped-H' Cockney accent in the U.S.A.
>> 
>> 'Hour' is the exception that proves the rule.  In American English,
>> the leading 'h' in 'hour' is =not= pronounced...so correct usage
>> there is '=an= hour.'  But that's a rare exception.
>> 
>> 
>
>
>How about acronyms like RTF? Is it a RTF file (because R is a consonant) 
>or an RTF file (because when R is pronounced it startes with a vowel 
>*sound*)? See http://www.m-w.com/cgi-bin/dictionary?ar According to the 
>dictionary the letter R is spelled "ar" so it really does start with a 
>vowel, even though it's a consonant. I'm a native English speaker, but 
>was never taught this... Does anyone have an authoritative answer? I 
>think it's "an RTF file" based on what I've said...but I need an 
>authoritative answer to prove my English teacher wrong... :o)

I can't be authoritative either, but I'd agree with your summary.
IMHO, "a" versus "an" comes in to play as a result of the sound of the
words which follows, not the spelling.  Hence the apparent
contradictions of an FAQ, an X-Ray, or even a UB40.

-- 
Derek

Curiosity *may* have killed Schr�dinger's cat.

Related ASCII art in the Gallery

Explore these categories from our collection of 11,000+ artworks:

|HHHHH/"\"\HHHHHHH|
|HH`\|_.-)'|/'dP,H|
|Hb.`\\_/_//'.oddH|
|HHHb|`.\/\,'|HHHH|
|HHHHHb/\/\/|HHHHH|
|"""""""""""""""""|
| |"" /\ \  / |"" |
| |__/--\ \/  __| |

  _________
 /___   ___\
//@@@\ /@@@\\
\\@@@/ \@@@//
 \___ " ___/
    | - |
     \_/  jrjc

  ______
 /|_||_\`.__
(   _    _ _\
=`-(_)--(_)-'
         hjw

   .="=.
 _/.-.-.\_ 
( ( o o ) )
 |/  "  \| 
  \'---'/jgs  
  /`"""`\\ 

 _________
|  _____  |\
| |\ ___| | \
| | |   | | |
| | |___| | |
\ | |____\| |
 \|_________|
 Andy Johnson

  __      _
o'')}____//
 `_/      )
 (_(_/-(_/

Make your own ASCII art

Turn images, text or 3D into ASCII, or draw your own – right in your browser.