[jeevan159]

Hi ,

I read this sentences in a book explaining about Indefinite Article 'a' .

'a' is used before nouns that do not begin with letters 'a' , 'e', 'i', 'o' and 'u' .These nouns begin with consonant sound.


My question : Is the word letters should be replace with sounds or the sentence should remain the same ?

Regards
Jeevan

[susan53]

Yes, letters have nothing to do with it

It's a phonological rule and should read "a" is used before consonant sounds; "an" is used before vowel sounds.

Some words start their written form with a letter which is a consonant, but which is silent in the spoken form, so that the first sound is a vowel. Compare :

a horse /ə hɔ:s/ - /h/ is pronounced

and an hour /ən aʊwə/ - the letter "h" is silent

Similarly, the letter "u" may represent either the vowel /ʌ/ :
an umbrella : /ən ʌmbrelə/

or the consonant + vowel /ju:/ :
a university : /ə ju:nɪvɜ:sɪti:/

And of course, it's not just a matter of nouns. Any word following the article follows the same rules:

a man - an old man
a very old man - an extremely old man
a happy man - an honest man
a useful man - an unhappy man