On Wed, 20 Mar 2013 20:12:13 -0700, rusi wrote: > "I did an horrible mistake" [...] is 'h' a vowel in french?
No it is not, and writing "an horrible" is a trivial typo which can easily happen if you start thinking "an awful ..." (for example) and then change to "horrible". Been there, done that. But more interesting is the idea that in English we use "an" before words that start with a vowel, and "a" with words that start with a consonant: a tiger a car a house but an elephant an ambulance an unit Wait, what? "An unit"? What rubbish is that? The rule actually depends on the *sound* of the first syllable, not the letter. If the first syllable is a consonant sound, we say and write "a", even if the first letter is a vowel: a unique opportunity since the U in "unique" is pronounced as a "Yoo" sound rather than "Ah" sound. Likewise if the first consonant is silent, we use "an": an honourable man half an hour Now think of somebody who pronounces horrible with a silent "h". In English, an initial H used to *always* be silent, nowadays only some such words are. It's more common in dialect though. "I made a 'orrible mistake in getting a 'Arry Potter tattoo on my forehead." "I made an 'orrible mistake in getting an 'Arry Potter tattoo on my forehead." Say each sentence aloud. The second sounds far more natural, the "n" in "an" creates a bridge between the vowel sounds of "a" and "orrible". By the way, the "n" in "an" is not the only such "bridging" sound. In Shakespearean times, it was usual to use "mine" in the same fashion: my wife my peach but mine husband mine apple This-language-lesson-was-brought-to-you-by-the-letters-thorn-wynn-and-ash- ly y'rs, -- Steven -- http://mail.python.org/mailman/listinfo/python-list
