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English: A vs. An

365 points · 529 comments · azhenley

  1. tikhonj · · focus · HN ↗
    One fun thing is that some words can reasonably go either way: "a hotel" vs "an hotel" or "a SQL query" vs "an SQL query".
    1. wizzledonker · · focus · HN ↗
      For me, only “a hotel” and “an SQL query” sound correct here

      (Edit: I just realised this might be a dialect thing. I say “ess cue ell” and not “sequel”, and “hoe tell” rather than “otel”. Australian accent)

      1. crossroadsguy · · focus · HN ↗
        Luckily zed and zee won't flip the article.
    2. crossroadsguy · · focus · HN ↗
      a ho.tel

      an oh.tel or o.tel (is it still spoken somewhere like this?)

      The confusion arrives for words like "herb" depending upon whether the place uses F or C for temperature ;-)

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