English: A vs. An

iingve about 4 hours ago 3 commentsRead Article on redblobgames.com

DE version is available. Content is displayed in original English for accuracy.

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Discussion (3 Comments)Read Original on HackerNews

hungryhobbit•about 3 hours ago

TLDR; English (like all languages) is crazy ... but one particular bit of craziness, the a/an split (and the exceptions to a simple understanding of it) isn't as crazy.

dwattttt•about 2 hours ago

I was so primed to expect crazy I had to reread the article and your comment to notice "this bit of English isn't that crazy".

For those who won't read the article, either the word "a" or the word "an" is used before a word. Which is used depends on the first sound of the next word (not whether the next word starts with a vowel, as is commonly understood).

With this rule, only "129 of the 32,455 words in my list needed exceptions.", which is surprisingly regular.

nozzlegear•about 1 hour ago

That's how I've always understood the rule as a native speaker, even though I don't think it was ever taught (to me) in school growing up. It all depends on how the next word sounds.