Parts of Speech Part Two

[mistertassie]

In case you missed it, Parts of Speech Part One is here: mistertassie.livejournal.com/2115.html . Now we're going to move on to some more of the parts of speech we use in English.

Articles. We're lucky in English, we only use three articles in our language and they are all neutral. I've never understood why other languages need to make tables

Comments

'A' or 'An'

[ogimhere]

One of the things I've come across while writing, is that a noun starting with a vowel sound isn't the same thing as a noun starting with a noun.

For example:

1. I've never met an honest lawyer.
2. I'm staying at a hotel down the street.
3. Have you ever seen a unicorn?
4. Did you bring an umbrella?

If you could provide a more clearer answer regarding when to use 'a' or 'an', I would appreciate it.

Re: 'A' or 'An'

[mistertassie]

A word starting with a vowel SOUND gets an. Starting with a vowel and starting with a vowel sound are deifferent as your examples indicate. Hotel starts with the letter "h" but the first sound made in pronouncing the word is "aw", which is a vowel sound, so "an honest lawyer" is correct. Umbrella begins with a vowel sound "uh" but unicorn has a consonant sound "you" so umbrella gets an and unicorn gets a.

I hope that helps.

My apologies

[ogimhere]

What I meant was that while I understood the difference in 'starting with a vowel' (which was how *I* was taught in elementary school) and 'starting with a vowel sound', I was concerned that someone who struggles with phonetics, like an ESL student, might be a little confused

Re: My apologies

[mistertassie]

That is an excellent observation about the difference between vowels and vowel sounds. I am not a phonetician, however, so any clarification I could offer will not be as solid as the rest of the information I endeavour to offer