a and an

When do we use the articles a and an? Usually we are taught that we have to use "a" if the word begins with consonant letter and "an" if the word begins with vowel. However, we should not only consider the letter but also the sound or pronunciation because there are a lot of words which begin with a consonant letter but the pronunciation is that of a vowel.

For example:

the word "honor" though, the word begins with a consonant but the phonetic transcription is this /a:nər/ so we should not pronounce the consonant "h". It is not /ha:nər/ but /a:nər/ so, in this case we have to use the article "an"

For instance:

It is an honor to be a part of this ESL project.

Consider these examples:

a book (consonant b)

a unicorn (vowel u but pronounce as "yew")

an ape (a vowel sound æ)

an FBI member (consonant F but pronounce as the word "if")

grammar, 14-03-12 18:39, 14-03-12 18:41, Marz