{"id":1251,"date":"2012-05-05T14:37:29","date_gmt":"2012-05-05T18:37:29","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/english\/?p=1251"},"modified":"2012-05-05T14:37:29","modified_gmt":"2012-05-05T18:37:29","slug":"a-versus-an","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/english\/a-versus-an\/","title":{"rendered":"A versus An"},"content":{"rendered":"

Have you ever been confused about when to use a<\/strong><\/em> and when to use an<\/em><\/strong>? You may have heard the \u201crule\u201d that you put an a<\/strong><\/em> before words that start with a consonant and an an<\/strong><\/em> before words that start with a vowel.<\/p>\n

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<\/strong><\/em> before words that start with a consonant sound<\/span> and an<\/strong><\/em> before words with a vowel sound<\/span>.<\/p>\n

Let\u2019s look at a few examples:<\/strong><\/p>\n

I would like a<\/strong><\/em> g<\/strong>lass of water.<\/p>\n

I don\u2019t have an<\/strong><\/em> a<\/strong>nswer for you right now.<\/p>\n

She waited an<\/strong><\/em> h<\/strong>our for the movie to start. –> here we use an because hour starts with an o sound<\/span><\/p>\n

Some of the sounds can be a little tricky, but if you listen carefully to the sounds, you should be okay.<\/p>\n

Watch Out!<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n

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<\/strong><\/em> and an<\/strong><\/em> is based on sounds, you need to remember this when in different countries or regions.<\/p>\n

For example, in the States, the word herb is pronounced more like \u201cerb\u201d and in British English it is pronounced with the h- sound. This would affect<\/a> the use of a<\/strong><\/em> and an<\/strong><\/em>.<\/p>\n

An Announcement<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n

You may have noticed that the design of the English blog has changed during the last week or so.<\/p>\n

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\u2019t the final version but it is what we will be working with until the new designs are ready.<\/p>\n

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.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Have you ever been confused about when to use a and when to use an? You may have heard the \u201crule\u201d 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…<\/p>\n

Continue Reading<\/a><\/p>","protected":false},"author":69,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"content-type":""},"categories":[134956,135139],"tags":[14,218668,11087],"class_list":["post-1251","post","type-post","status-publish","hentry","category-english-grammar","category-english-language","tag-a","tag-a-versus-an","tag-an"],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1251","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/69"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1251"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1251\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1255,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1251\/revisions\/1255"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1251"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1251"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1251"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}