grammar question...

[Always Ready Brek]

ok in irish/uk english we put 'an' infrount of every word begining with a vowel and om the gym i always notice that people will say A extender as apposed to AN extender... AN hd tv as apposed to A hd tv... haha i obviously have too much time on my hands at the moment, but just curious is it proper american grammar to say that???

 

[Going411x7]

No it is not, Brek. You are an example of a good grammar student.

 

[Always Ready Brek]

haha, nice one!

 

[Going411x7]

There are exceptions with the "h," you know. For example, I say, "I can kegel my limp dick to an inch and a half longer," right?

 

[Always Ready Brek]

well spotted my man! and some kegeling you got going there eh!! i think if you were to kegel your dick any longer you'd kill someone with it!

 

[Falconer1]

ok in irish/uk english we put 'an' infrount of every word begining with a vowel and om the gym i always notice that people will say A extender as apposed to AN extender... AN hd tv as apposed to A hd tv... haha i obviously have too much time on my hands at the moment, but just curious is it proper american grammar to say that???

You typically use an before words that begin with vowels, but there are exceptions. For example, you would say a unicorn instead of an unicorn because it starts with a y sound, so it's exempt, even though u is a vowel. The inverse of this is also true, if a word begins with a consonant and makes a vowel sound, like how the word hour starts with an o sound, so you would say an hour instead of a hour.

 

[spanky]

It's really whatever feels more comfortable to say. Two vowels with glottal stops in a row are a little awkward to say. the 'n' in between just makes it flow better when you talk. I guess it could be confusing if you only wrote English, not spoke it, but you only really have to think about how you'd say it.

 

[somebodyelse]

the way we type we generally use A and AN as we would actually speak the word...

A House. An Hour...

House and Hour both start with a consonant, but when you say it House still starts with a consonant where as Hour starts with a Vowel. Phonetically it's "Ow" verus "How"

Pretty much like Spanky said, it's based on speech.

Ex:
An honor, an ADS, an SLS
a DLD, a DO, a UTC

and yes, i do believe it is correct to say "An HDTV" but if you were to a say Hi-Def it would be "A hi-def tele"

 

[Pegasus]

Oh boy you guys need a hobby.

 

[spanky]

haha don't get me started on there/their/they're

 

[Always Ready Brek]

american accent - AN AECH D TV. an irish accent A HHAECH D TV. sorted lads. that just about sums up my question. all about phonetics. i'll be able to sleep tonight

 

[somebodyelse]

Oh boy you guys need a hobby.

We can't all be magical flying horses...

 

[Pegasus]

We can't all be magical flying horses...

Lol, isn't the net great!

 

[first]

Of course, there are plenty of exceptions. Such as "a US marine" or "a one-sided story", they all start with a vowel, they sound like they start with a vowel yet the proper article is "a".