“A” or “An” before words.

“A” should be used before words that begin with consonants (e.g. “b”, “c”, “d” and so on) while “an” should be used before words that begin with vowels (e.g. “e”, “u”, etc). But the usage is determined by the pronunciation not by letter or spelling.


Here are the examples:

“a”
A blogger (blogger begins with “b” as consonant sound (bloger))
A book (book begins with consonant sound “b” (buk) )
A hotel (hotel begins with consonant sound “h” (houtel))
A uniform (uniform begins with consonant sound (yunifo:m))
A NATO authority (NATO begins with consonant sound (neto))
A union (union begins with consonant sound (yunien))


“an”
An hour (hour begins with vowel sound (auer))
An honest boy (honest begins with vowel sound (onist))
An umbrella (umbrella begins with vowel sound (ambrela))
An RCTI reporter (RCTI begins with vowel sound (ar si ti ai))
An example (example begins with vowel sound (igzaempel))

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