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ESL forum > Ask for help > a/an    

a/an



miyoko71
Morocco

a/an
 
Dear friends,
 How would you explain to your students that we should use "a" and not "an" for this expression:
a utilitarian purpose
thanks

13 Dec 2012      





SaraMariam
United States

I usually explain to them that there are certain vowel sounds that sometimes don �t sound like a vowel at all and the other way around. For example "utilitarian" is pronounced as if there was a "j" in front of the u. Whereas with umbrella you can directly hear the vowel sound. So you say "an umbrella".

A reverse example would be "hour". You write it with "h" but you don �t hear it. You just hear the vowel sound like "our" so you put "an hour". In the word "house" you hear the letter "h" right at the beginning so you have to put an "a".

Have a nice evening :)

13 Dec 2012     



miyoko71
Morocco

Thx Sara.It �s very helpful

13 Dec 2012     



uyumlu
Turkey

prononounciation is the key word I believe :)


13 Dec 2012     



rachidramzy
Morocco

the use of a or an is based on the sound not the vowel or the consonant. u is pronounced yu.
take care.

13 Dec 2012     



Peter Hardy
Australia

The sound is what count (s).
I teach the alphabet as names.  My name is , your name is, its name is �A � �B � �C � etc.
And what sound do they make? �B � says buh and so on.
Vowels are trickier as they even sound the same. 
But in this day and age my ss they know txt messaging.
So i �ve used abreviations as �IOU � and �urgr8 � to explain the vowel sound.
 
The ss have to translate.  After all, writing is like texting.  You only use all the letters :-)
The �U � is like �You � and as such not a vowel-sound.
Don �t forget the �O � as in one. Sounds like??? Indeed, �W �. So it �s "a one dollar coin."
The silent �H � is similar, but there are not many words starting with silent �H �.  Hour, heir, honest, honour (honor) are the best known.
Cheers.
Peter

 

14 Dec 2012