Choose Words Correctly #01: 5 Important Usages of 'a' and 'an'.

Choose Words Correctly #01: 5 Important Usages of 'a' and 'an'.



(i) Use 'an' before a word beginning with a vowel sound (Vowel sounds are: a, e, I, o, u) : 
Examples: 
An onion 
An orange 
An obvious answer 
An umbrella 
An elephant 
(ii) Use 'an' before an 'h' that is not pronounced, i.e, an 'h' which is silent/unpronounced. 
Examples:
An honest answer
An hour 
(iii) Use 'an' before an abbreviation that is pronounced with a vowel sound at the beginning. 
Examples:
An AU organisation 
An MP3 file
An SOS call
(iv) Use 'a' before a 'u' that is pronounced like 'you', i.e, that spelt 'u' at the beginning but pronounced like 'you' /ju:/. 
Examples: 
A unique person 
A universal character 
A University course 
(v) Use 'a' before any word beginning with a consonant sound, i.e, those words that do not begin with the vowel sounds. 
Examples: 
A boy
A person 
A picture 

Emmanuel Kachele

Emmanuel Kachele is a founder and Blogger of KACHELE ONLINE Blog, an educational blog where 'O' Level English - 'OLE', 'A' Level English (ALE) and other related teaching and life skills are shared extensively. This is an online center for all Tanzanian Secondary School English Language students and teachers (Forms I-VI) and all interested English Language learners and teachers worldwide.

Post a Comment

Please share your thoughts

Previous Post Next Post