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English: A vs. An

365 points · 529 comments · azhenley

  1. nephihaha · · focus · HN ↗
    I notice "an" is in decline in some forms of spoken English. I noticed this shift years ago. Some English speakers say "a (y)apple" rather than "an apple" or "a(y) orange" rather than "an orange". In some case the "y" sound is replaced by a glottal stop (a' apple, a' orange).

    [Why is this getting voted down? Bizarre.]

    1. YoshiRulz · · focus · HN ↗
      a.k.a. &quot;hard attack&quot;. There&#x27;s a nice video on the subject by linguist Geoff Lindsey: <a href="https:&#x2F;&#x2F;youtu.be&#x2F;nCe7Fj8-ZnQ" rel="nofollow">https:&#x2F;&#x2F;youtu.be&#x2F;nCe7Fj8-ZnQ
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