2021-04-02 ศัพท์ น่าสับสน ชุด – A – a, & an

Revision A

2021-04-02

ศัพท์ น่าสับสน ชุด – A – a, & an

แนะนำการใช้ ตามที่ส่วนใหญ่ใช้ แต่ละท้องถิ่น

ความหมาย อาจผันแปร ตาม ตำแหน่ง/หน้าที่ ในประโยค

Dictionary.com

ออกเสียง A/a – unstressed = ‘uh’ – stressed = ‘EY’

ออกเสียง an – unstressed = ‘uhn’ – stressed = ‘AN’

Dictionary.com

GRAMMAR NOTESFOR A

In both spoken and written English

the choice of a or an is determined by

the initial sound of the word that follows.

Before a consonantsound, a is used;

before a vowel sound, an:

a book, a rose; an apple, an opera.

Problems arise occasionally

when the following word begins with a vowel letter

but actually starts with a consonant sound, or vice versa.

Some words beginning with the vowel letter u

and all words beginning with the vowelletters eu

are pronounced witha beginning consonant sound,

as if the first letterwere y: a union; a European.

Some other spellings that begin with a vowel letter

may also stand for an initial consonantsound: a ewe; a ewer.

The words one and once and all compounds of which

they are the first element begin with a w sound:

a one-room apartment; a once-famous actor.

The names of the consonant letters f, h, l, m, n, r, s, and x

are pronouncedwith a beginning vowel sound.

When these letters are used as words or to form words,

they are preceded by an: to rent an L-shaped studio; to fly an SST.

The names of the vowel letter u

and the semivowel letters w and y

are pronounced with a beginning consonant sound.

When used as words, they are preceded by a :

a U-turn; The plumber installed a Y in the line.

In some words beginning with the letter h,

the h is not pronounced;

the words actually begin with a vowel sound: an hour; an honor.

When the h is strongly pronounced,

as in a stressed syllable at the beginning of a word,

it is preceded by a: a history of the Sioux; a hero sandwich.

(In former times an was used before strongly pronounced h

in a stressed first syllable: an hundred.)

Such adjectives as historic, historical, heroic, and habitual,

which begin with an unstressed syllable

and often with a silent or weakly pronounced h,

are commonly preceded by an, especially in British English.

But the use of a rather than an is widespread

in both speech and writing: a historical novel; a habitual criminal.

Hotel and unique are occasionally preceded by an,

but this use is increasingly old-fashioned.

Although in some dialects an has yielded to a in all cases,

edited writing reflects usage as described above.

Merriam-Webster Dictionary

A vs. an: Usage Guide

Indefinite article

In speech and writing a is used before a consonant sound.

a door a human

Before a vowelsound an is usual

an icicle an honor

but especially in speech a is used occasionally,

more often in some dialects than in others. a apple a hour a obligation

Before a consonant sound represented by a vowel

letter a is usual a one a union

but an also occurs though less frequently now than formerly. an unique

such an one

Before unstressed or weakly stressed syllables with initial h both a and an are used in writing. a historic an historic

In the King James Version of the Old Tetament and occasionally in writing and speech an is used before h in a stressed syllable. an huntress an hundred children are an heritage of the Lord — Psalms 127:3 (King James Version)

Merriam-Webster Dictionary

Usage Notes

'A' and 'An' and the Patterns of Their Use

Which gets used where?

The indefinite articles a and an pop up all over the place,

introducing nouns that refer to people, creatures,

or things not identified or specified.

We see and hear them in phrases like "a dessert" and "an essential."

Native speakers of English often give them no thought at all:

the little words just slip off the tongue like nearly invisible thread linking more important lexical elements.

In a way, a and an are the same word.

They both trace back to the Old English word ān, meaning "one,"

and they both have had the same indefinite article function

since the days of Middle English.

And yet, they appear in slightly different contexts.

The patterns that determine which article, a or an,

is conventionally used before a given word are based on phonetics,

but the patterns exist in writing as well as speech.

When preceding a consonant sound, a is used: "a cake," "a slice of cake."

Before a vowelsound, an is usual: "an enormous slice of cake,"

"an appropriately enormous slice of cake."

But sometimes, typically in speech

and more frequently in some dialects than others,

a is found before a vowel sound: "a ambrosial cake."

The pattern exists for consonant sounds

represented by a vowel letter as well:

"a one-handed attempt at cake serving,"

"a united effort to distribute cake equitably."

An is sometimes used in such contexts, but less now than it was in the past: "an unique opportunity for equitable ambrosial cake serving."

The letter Hhas historically inspired its own set of rules.

When the word beginning with H has a first syllable that is unstressed

or only weakly stressed, both a and an are used:

"a hilarious joke used to distract us during an horrific cake theft."

This is, however, less true than it used to be;

a is now the typical choice before words beginning with H

no matter their stress patterns.

This is even true for the most famous examples:

the word historic and its relations.

While "an historic cake theft" and

"an historical perspective on the theft of cake"

will likely not earn you the opprobrium of your readers/listeners,

"a historic" and "a historical" are by significant margins more popular.

Do with that what you will.

Also H-related: in the King James Version of the Old Testament,

you will find an used before H in a stressed syllable as well:

"an huntress," "an hundred."

In modern speech and writing this is rarer than even the most ambrosial cake.

Merriam-Webster Dictionary

Usage Notes

'A' or 'an'? What about before 'h'? — An Indefinite Article Guide

When to use each, and when to say 'either one works’

What to Know

Choosing between the indefinite articles a and an

is determined by the sound of the following word.

If the word begins with a consonant sound you would use a,

such as "a dog" and "a balloon," as well as "a one" and "a unicorn."

If the word begins with a vowel sound, use an,

such as in "an honorable man,"

and with spoken acronyms like "an FBI agent."

Words like historic, with a pronounced "H," can use either a or an.

In the eternal, and generally fruitless,

quest to find some way to make English make sense,

many people look for simple rules to apply to our language.

One such rule is the one concerning

whether to use a or an as an indefinite article

(“the word a or an used in English to refer to

a person or thing that is not identified or specified”).

The rule that many people vaguely remember is that

one uses a if the word that follows it begins with a consonant,

and one uses an if the following word begins with a vowel.

That would be so easy, wouldn’t it?

It would, which is why that is not the way that the rule for using a or an works.

It's About the Sound

The deciding factor for which of these words should be used

is the sound that begins the word which follows these indefinite articles,

 rather than the letter which does.

And there are scads of words in English that begin with a vowel,

but which are initially voiced with a consonant sound (and vice versa).

One, useless, unicorn all clearly begin with a vowel;

yet one sounds as though one is saying W,

and the others two are voiced with an initial Y sound,

and so these would be preceded by a, rather than an

(“A one hundred dollar bill”).

On the flip side, we have plenty of words that begin with consonants,

but which are voiced as though they begin with a vowel

(especially for H-words, such as heir, honesty, hourly),

and these words are preceded by an,

even though they begin with a consonant (“He was an honest man”).

The same rule applies to acronyms and initialisms,

which when viewed on the printed page

may lead to a certain visual incongruity,

especially if readers are not silently voicing the words in their head as they read.

For instance, if one were to write about a memo

sent by the Federal Bureau of Investigation (in its initialized form)

it would be “an FBI memo”;

even though the word following an clearly begins with a consonant,

it is voiced as a vowel(“eff-bee-eye”).

Should one, however, write about a memo sent by the Central Intelligence Agency (again using the initialism for the name) it would be “a CIA memo.”

This all makes a certain amount of sense,

and once one accepts that we are

applying a rule for the spoken form of English to the printed page

it is generally not so hard to figure out

which form of the indefinite article to use.

If in doubt,

simply say the word which will follow the a or an out loud,

and decide accordingly.

Which Words Can Use 'A' and 'An'?

But! There always seems to be a but

—what about problematic cases such as historic?

Should this be preceded with a or an?

Some people, it must be said, do appear to feel very strongly that historic and historical should be preceded by an, rather than a.

The reason for this is that in these two words the initial H was,

for a long time, unstressed to the point of inaudibility,

and so, one would typically see “an historic(al”) written

(and some people still do not pronounce the initial H of these two words).

As many of the people reading this have only waded

through this article so far in order to get a definite answer

on the use of this indefinite article in this definite sense,

here is what the Merriam-Webster Dictionary of English Usage

has to say about historic:

A few words, such as historic and (especially in England) hotel,

are in transition, and may be found with either a or an.

You choose the article that best suits your own pronunciation.

If you begin to dig into written English use from more than a few decades ago it is very easy to find a large number of words which were apparently pronounced differently than they are today, as evidenced by the author’s choice of a or an before them.

A Letter to a Friend, Touching Dr. Jeremy Taylor's Disswasive from Popery. Discovering Above an Hundred and Fifty False, or Wretched Quotations, in It.
—A.L., 1665

An History of the Corruptions of Christianity
—Joseph Priestley, 1793

There are very few people today

who still put an before the words hundred or history,

for the simple reason that it would sound funny.

Yet some have held onto the notion that historic requires an an before it.

Should anyone tell you that you’ve made a mistake in this matter

you may always fall back on the sage advice offered above

by the Merriam-Webster Dictionary of English Usage

and say “I am choosing the article that suits my own pronunciation.”

American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language,

An

Usage Note:

In writing, the form a is used before a word beginning with

a consonant sound, regardless of its spelling

(a frog, a university, a euphemism).

The form an is used before a word beginning with a vowel sound

(an orange, an hour).

An was once a common variant before words beginning with h

in which the first syllable was unstressed;

thus 18th-century authors wrote either

a historical or an historical but a history, not an history.

This usage made sense in that people often did not pronounce

the initial h in words such as historical and heroic,

but by the late 19th century educated speakers

usually gave their initial h's a huff,

and the practice of writing an before such words began to die out.

Nowadays it survives primarily before the word historical.

One may also come across it

in the phrases an hysterectomy or an hereditary trait.

These usages are acceptable in formal writing.

Dictionary of Problem Words in English

a & an

Correct choiceof a and an depends on the initial sound,

not on the initial letter, of the word that follows.

A should be used before all words beginning with a consonant sound except silent h (an honor)

and before words beginning with vowels that

represent combined consonant and vowel sounds (university, unit).

An should be used before all vowel sounds.

With the words historyand historian, a preceding a

is more often used today than an.

In history theh is always pronounced;

the h in words such as historian and historical

was formerly not pronounced, but it frequently is in contemporary usage.

Always say “ahistory book,” but refer to “an (or a)historian”

and “an (of a) historical novel” as you please. Both are standard usage.

Neither a nor an is needed in such expressions

as “no such (a) thing,” “no greater (an) honor.”