An honest or a honest politician?
An honour or a honour?
There’s a rule in English which says that the indefinite article before a noun beginning with one of the vowels – a, e, i, o, u – should always be “an”. If the noun starts with a consonant, the article should be “a”.
So why do we often have a problem with words beginning with the consonant “h”? Many a time I have eavesdropped on busy newspaper subs pausing to discuss whether we should write “a honour” or “an honour”.
What about “an European”? An university? A hour?
The rule stands … but you should go with the sound that that initial letter produces: If it is a vowel sound – “o” in honour and hour – you should use “an”.
If the first letter of a noun produces a consonant sound – “y” as in university (you-niversity) or union (you-nion) – you should use “a”. “Hotel” should have an “a” before it.
In words such as “understudy” or “undeveloped” the “U” has a vowel sound so they are preceded by “an” … “An understudy excelled last night”, or “an undeveloped economy might provide cheap labour”.
“Urn” would have “an” in front of it as the “U” has a vowel sound.
The same rule applies to acronyms and abbreviations: a UK citizen, an SAS officer, an NME (en-em-ee) article, a Nato (Nay-to) secretary.
The or thee
In spoken English there is also a general rule about how the definite article, the, is pronounced. If it comes before a word that starts with a vowel sound, it should be pronounced “thee”; if it comes before a consonant, it’s pronounced “thuh”.
Examples would be “Thee apples”, “thee oranges”, “thuh satsumas”, “thuh university”, “thee inkspot”.
Whatstheword 