Korean Job Discussion Forums

[Keepongoing]

OK you would write

"An SUV"
"A UFO"

then on some they do seem to follow the rule

"An AIDS victim??"

I am confused - please help

Obviously thes are not following the rule of placing "A" before a consonant and "An" before a vowel. If we wrote the acronyms out then the rule would be applied.

Can someone please expalin the inconsistancy.

[Delirium's Brother]

It follows a phonological rule not an orthographic one.

[Flash Ipanema]

I go by the way the following word sounds, not the letter it starts with.

For example, when you say SUV it starts with "es" - a vowel sound, so it is preceded by "an."

But with UFO, it's pronounced "you" - a consonant, so it is preceded by "a".

Hour starts with a consanant, but since the "h" is silent, it should be preceded by "an."

An SUV
A UFO
An Hour

Does that help?

[Ya-ta Boy]

You need to say the names of the letters and listen to the first sound...

an A; a B; a C; a D; an E; an F; a G; an H; an I; a J; a K; an L; an M; an N; an O; a P; a Q; an R; an S; a T; a U; a V; a W; an X; a Y; a Z

That is different than saying words that start with those 'odd' letters--

a fool
an honest man/a happy man
a lousy day
a mouse
a noun
a red bike
a sweet tooth
a union/ an unhappy man

PS: 'a' and 'an' are articles, not acronyms

[jinks]

[VanIslander]

"an" exists to bridge two vowel sounds

listen don't look to determine usage

[Sneaker]

[spyro25]

you see, the initial sound in S is not /s/ but /e/ (apologies to the IPA),

ess

so this means you would use the article 'an', which as someone mentioned bridges two vowel sounds.

the initial sound in U actually begins with a y sound yoo which is classed as a consonant, even though phonetically it is written /j/ (bloody germans), so you would use the article 'a' same as you would with car.

[jinks]

[ChopChaeJoe]

[Keepongoing]

Thanks, so SUV is not an acronym, but AIDS would be