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English: A vs. An

365 points · 529 comments · azhenley

  1. mauvehaus · · focus · HN ↗
    Fun fact an adder (snake) was once a nadder, and an apron was on a napron. This fun fact brought to you by The History of English Podcast.

    <a href="https:&#x2F;&#x2F;historyofenglishpodcast.com&#x2F;" rel="nofollow">https:&#x2F;&#x2F;historyofenglishpodcast.com&#x2F;

    Happily sourced in Wikipedia so I don&#x27;t have to figure out which episode I learned that from:

    <a href="https:&#x2F;&#x2F;en.wikipedia.org&#x2F;wiki&#x2F;Adder" rel="nofollow">https:&#x2F;&#x2F;en.wikipedia.org&#x2F;wiki&#x2F;Adder &lt;- see below the table in Taxonomy.

    1. adzm · · focus · HN ↗
      And cherries were ceries from French, leading to the singular form cherry. Lots of neat little things like this.
      1. Tagbert · · focus · HN ↗
        And peas was both singular and plural like fish.

        &quot;I ate a single peas&quot; &quot;I ate many peas&quot;

        People thought it was a mistake and generated &quot;pea&quot; for a new singular.

      2. hrnnnnnn · · focus · HN ↗
        Swedish does a similar thing where it takes the plural of an English word as the singular Swedish loanword.

        Kex = biscuit, from &quot;cakes&quot;

        Keps = hat, from &quot;caps&quot;

        1. Scharkenberg · · focus · HN ↗
          German does it too: ein Keks = a cookie
    2. amitp · · focus · HN ↗
      That is my favorite podcast of all time!
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