Have you ever been confused about when to use a and when to use an? You may have heard the “rule” that you put an a before words that start with a consonant and an an before words that start with a vowel.

While that is a semi-good starting point, there is actually a little more to it than that. The actual rule is that you use a before words that start with a consonant sound and an before words with a vowel sound.

Let’s look at a few examples:

I would like a glass of water.

I don’t have an answer for you right now.

She waited an hour for the movie to start. –> here we use an because hour starts with an o sound

Some of the sounds can be a little tricky, but if you listen carefully to the sounds, you should be okay.

Watch Out!

One thing to keep in mind is that different countries (or even regions within the same country) pronounce words in slightly different ways and since knowing when to use a and an is based on sounds, you need to remember this when in different countries or regions.

For example, in the States, the word herb is pronounced more like “erb” and in British English it is pronounced with the h- sound. This would affect the use of a and an.

An Announcement

You may have noticed that the design of the English blog has changed during the last week or so.

This is because, behind the scenes, Transparent Language has been busy changing platforms and working on a bigger and better design for all their blogs. This isn’t the final version but it is what we will be working with until the new designs are ready.

If in the process of changing things around, you have experienced any problems with the blog or its posts, then we do apologise for the inconvenience. We are looking forward to all the changes and improvements and hope you are as well.