Talk:an
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The definitionused in front of word starting with a vowel instead of a is not entirely correct. What aboutan hour? I'm not sure how I should change the definition.D.D.— Thisunsigned comment was added byDhum Dhum (talk •contribs) at20:07, 11 April 2003 (UTC).
I don't see what I did wrong, if anything.Polyglot 16:25, 29 Sep 2003 (UTC)
There is some room for dialectal variation here, particularly beforeh (a/an historic occasion is something of a shibboleth, at least in the US). The important point, though, is thata is a variant ofan and not the other way around.
One technical note: English doesn't have non-voiced vowels (contrast with Japanese, which does). The list above should read
The way to be sure thatuser differs fromumbrella is to put both after a consonant (e.g.,four users vs.four umbrellas). In, e.g.,those must be {users,umbrellas} there will be ay in between the vowels in either case. -dmh 04:50, 18 Sep 2004 (UTC)
Should this be listed as ===Article== and further qualified on the defintion lines? --Connel MacKenzieTC19:28, 28 November 2005 (UTC)
For obvious reasons, a Google search on this question is impossible.I have noticed an increasing trend in written English to useand in place ofan. Presumably this is due to pronunciation, asand is often/ən/, the same asan. Here's the example that brought this to mind:
Jim and Pam getting married did more than give Michaeland excuse to hook up with Pam's mom.
Is anyone aware of any documentation on this phenomenon? The article could use a usage explanation on this topic, if anyone could find sources.— ˈzɪzɨvə03:02, 9 December 2009 (UTC)
And when he had fasted forty days and forty nights, he was afterwardan hungred.
What is thean inKJV Matthew 4:2?Viking Rollo04:03, 13 January 2012 (UTC)
Is is "a hyperbolic..." or "an hyperbolic..."? (Latter looks weird to me but is found frequently.)What to do in that case ("y" not being a vowel)? I think this or an equivalent case should be put as exampe. Thanks. —MFH16:04, 3 October 2014 (UTC)
While the general consensus connects AN withOld English for 'one', this is conjecture, because AN < ÆN[6] - a much rarer form - (one, [pronounced the same]) and has its parallels in etymology of ONE inScots equivalent andCumbrian YAN (one)[6] = contemporaryCeltic form EAN[6]. There is no clear evidence of a direct connection between ÆN and ĀN in Old English that follows the sound law fromGothic AINS[8] orProto-Germanic *AINAZ[7]; nor must a connection withCornish AN[2] < Old Cornish EN[6]* (the, or definite article) be assumed.
[0] means 'Absolutely not; [1] means 'Exceedingly unlikely'; [2] means 'Very dubious'; [3] means 'Questionable'; [4] means 'Possible'; [5] means 'Probable'; [6] means 'Likely'; [7] means 'Most Likely' or *Unattested; [8] means 'Attested'; [9] means 'Obvious' - only used for close matches within the same language or dialect, at linkable periods.
Andrew H. Gray 20:49, 4 November 2015 (UTC)Andrew (talk)
Hi. If I had the linguistic knowledge, I'd add Usage notes, to suggest when one should use 'année' versus 'an', as I for one would welcome such a suggestion. Any takers? Ta,Trafford09 (talk)08:41, 28 September 2016 (UTC)
In former times an was used before strongly pronounced h in a stressed first syllable:an hundred.https://www.wordreference.com/definition/a
--Backinstadiums (talk)19:31, 5 February 2020 (UTC)
AND: an obsolete word forif (Informal spellings: [[an]], [[an']], [['n]]) --Backinstadiums (talk)19:07, 30 May 2021 (UTC)
and if reads Alternative form ofan if. --Backinstadiums (talk)10:19, 10 July 2021 (UTC)
The quotations are real, but "an unique" is rare and all sources I can find say that "a unique" is correct. Should we remove some or all of these examples? Google Ngram Viewershows "a unique" 154 times more frequently for the most recent (2019) data.
These same three quotations are also used atunique and I've started a conversation atTalk:unique#Three quotations using "an unique"? too.SchreiberBike (talk)23:26, 28 September 2022 (UTC)