# A/an: European



## dnldnl

Are there any rules for when to say "a European" vs "an European"  or are they for the most part interchangeable? Or is "an European" incorrect?


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## volky

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## french4beth

As volky so clearly expressed, since there is a "y" sound at the beginning of the word "European" you would always use "a + European".


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## dnldnl

Ok, thanks, guys. I was in doubt because I constantly see others use "an European" rather than "a European." And Google also gives nearly 1 million entries for "an European."


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## Blumengarten

<<Copy of illegal copy deleted - see above.>>

You cannot rely on the way a word is spelled.  *Any* word that _sounds like_ it begins with a consonant is preceeded by the pronoun A, even if it begins with the letter E. Since the word EUROPEAN _sounds like_ it begins with a Y, the proper pronoun is A.


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## Yôn

dnldnl said:


> Ok, thanks, guys. I was in doubt because I constantly see others use "an European" rather than "a European." And Google also gives nearly 1 million entries for "an European."


 
If I recall correctly, Google does not include articles in its searches.  As for the rest of the thread, and the question posted, everyone who's answered so far is correct.

There can be some trouble with this idea, though, because some words are pronounced differently in different English-speaking areas of the world.  I believe in British English _h_ is occasionally not pronounced at the beginning of certain words, _historical_ comes to mind at the moment.  In this case, it's _an historical calendar_ (pron. _an 'istorical..._), but in most of America, _a historical calendar_ (pron. _a historical..._).  I think this is proof that audience is an important consideration to make when writing.  If you're a British government official, for example, writing a letter to the President of the U.S. asking for a visit, you would probably want to keep such differences in mind.  This is especially true when the President in question is somewhat too dimwitted to be able to understand the difference, and so might become confused.  

A British folk will hopefully correct any errors I've made in this post.  


Regards,
Jon


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## winklepicker

Yôn said:


> I believe in British English _h_ is occasionally not pronounced at the beginning of certain words, _historical_ comes to mind at the moment. In this case, it's _an historical calendar_ (pron. _an 'istorical..._),


This is exactly right. Curiously, _h_ was dropped by both upper and working classes in the past. _An historical, an hotel_ etc are now considered old-fashioned and rather prissy, however. _(Cue avalanche of posts from BE speakers crying 'RUBBISH!'!)_


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## GreenWhiteBlue

Everyone on both sides of the Atlantic, though, would say "an honor" or "an honest man".


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## panjandrum

Not surprisingly, this question has already been discussed:
*Indefinite article - a or an - historic, historian, historical, humanitarian ...*


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## Donnangelo

< This discussion has been added to a previous thread. Cagey, moderator. > 

Hi again and thanks for your help. In an english grammar book I saw the forward: " There is a european city..."
    In my opinion that is wrong but the
book says that we must use a before "eu".
Is that right??
Thanks again!!!!!!!


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## bibliolept

To my thinking, "eu" sounds like "yu"; "a" precedes words starting with the sound of a consonant.


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## Fernita

Yes, it's right. I agree with bibliolept's explanation.
The same happens with:
*a *euphemism
*a *eucalyptus


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## modus.irrealis

Like bibliolept says, it always depends on the sound that a word begins with rather than the letter. And since _eu_ normally begins with a _y_ sound you use "a", but in the rare cases where the word begins with a vowel sound, you use "an" -- I can only think of "an Euler diagram."


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## sekaijuuni

I feel a little awkward saying "a European" but people who say "an European" strike me as...snobby?  It sounds like they want to be sophisticated but I judge them for making a grammatical error.  

That makes next to no sense.


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## timpeac

"A European" sounds fine to me. "An European" would sound very odd to me.


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## marget

timpeac said:


> "A European" sounds fine to me. "An European" would sound very odd to me.


 
I agree with timpeac. Since "European" begins with a "y" sound, that's a consonant sound and should take "a".


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## Donnangelo

Thanks a lot!!! 
I thaught that "eu" sounded like "u". Any way, even if "y" is not a vogal doesn't it sound like "i"? For example: family, any...
I mean, it doesn't like "m" or "l" or "b", that we have to use our tongue to pronounce them. The only similar one that I can think about is "w" because we don't use our tongue to pronounce it.
Tanks a lot!!!!!!!


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## Donnangelo

sorry:

...it isn't like "m" ...


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## GreenWhiteBlue

As the initial sound in a word, "Y" does not sound like "i":

_A young man_
_A yellow ribbon_
_A Yemeni passport_

Here are other words that begin with the same sound:
_A union _
_A useful tool_
_A European vacation_
_A euphonious voice_

BUT:
_An unusual man_
_An upper room_


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## Ynez

In phonetics, you will see that sound as "j" (look up some of those examples above in a dictionary to see the pronounciation).

In my mind, that "j" sound is like a strong "i", just that there is always some other vowel after it: ie, iu...(sound)

The sound "W" is of the same type. Then in English it is:

a one-way ticket


Correct me in my example with "W" is not a good one, I can't think of any other


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## dn88

Ynez said:


> In phonetics, you will see that sound as "j" (look up some of those examples above in a dictionary to see the pronounciation).
> 
> In my mind, that "j" sound is like a strong "i", just that there is always some other vowel after it: ie, iu...(sound)
> 
> The sound "W" is of the same type. Then in English it is:
> 
> a one-way ticket
> 
> 
> Correct me in my example with "W" is not a good one, I can't think of any other



Your example with "one-way ticket" is correct in my opinion.


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## Donnangelo

Thanks again!!! I I'll study more grammar because it is still very confusing to me. That is probably because in portuguese and spanish "w" and "y" have the same sound as "u" and "i" respe. Thank you all so much!!!!!!


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## 3pebbles

As other people have said an rather than a goes before a word that begins with a vowel sound regardless of how it's spelt, an honest man or an hour are other good examples.


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## Outsider

Donnangelo said:


> I'll study more grammar because it is still very confusing to me. That is probably because in portuguese and spanish "w" and "y" have the same sound as "u" and "i" respe.


Phonetically, "w" and "y" (the latter written "j" in the International Phonetic Alphabet) are consonants. In Portuguese, these consonants occur as allophones (variants) of the vowels "u" and "i", so they are perceived as the same entity. However, they are not quite the same sound as the vowels.


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## Donnangelo

Thank you all again!!!!


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## JotaI

< This thread has been added to previous threads on this subject.  Cagey, moderator. > 

Dear forum members,
I need some help. I have found in thousands of references the word "European" preceded by the article "a".
Correct me please if I'm wrong but, shouldn't it be preceded by "an"? Are both articles correct in this case?

Thank you very much. Correct anything you think is wrong, please. I still have many things to learn.
Kind regards.

JI


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## Mary Therés

'A' european sounds perfect to me. In fact, I don't think I've ever seen or heard 'an' european.


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## Gwan

I would agree with 'a' european as well. The general rule is 'an' before a vowel, but if that vowel sounds like a consonant (i.e. 'european' sounds as though it starts with 'y' - it could be spelt 'youropean' and have the same sound) then often (always?) 'a' is used. On the other hand, 'an' is quite often used before words starting with 'h' e.g. _an_ historical event, but _a_ house. Just to complicate things


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## JotaI

I think next time I'llcheck my pronunciation before asking. 
Thank you very much. 
Best regards, 

JI


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## ewie

Gwan said:


> 'an' is quite often used before words starting with 'h' e.g. _an_ historical event


 
Yes, Gwan, _in error_, you might've added here.
Or you might have used _an honest man_, the _h_ of which is genuinely silent.


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## Gwan

ewie said:


> Yes, Gwan, _in error_, you might've added here.
> Or you might have used _an honest man_, the _h_ of which is genuinely silent.


 
In error? I don't get it...


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## ewie

The _h_ of history is sounded, so _an historic _is ... well ... an error.


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## Karmele3

It´s probably like  "a university", because u = /ju/


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## Loob

ewie said:


> The _h_ of history is sounded, so _an historic _is ... well ... an error.


There's a long thread here on _a(n) historic_ etc.

Personally, I say "a historic..."; but I see from that thread that panj prefers "an historic..."

Surely you don't mean you feel panj is in error, ewie?



Karmele3 said:


> It´s probably like "a university", because u = /ju/


 


Loob


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## Porteño

ewie said:


> The _h_ of history is sounded, so _an historic _is ... well ... an error.


 
Well, not exactly, you have a choice here. It depends on how you choose to pronounce 'historic'. It can be _a historic _or _an historic. _Just as in _a hotel_ or _an hotel_.

But of course, the proper answer is that the 'EU' in European sounds like a consonant, as in *U*niversity. (*a* university)


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## john_riemann_soong

/h/ isn't like other consonants. You could probably re-analyse the liaison between "an" and "historic" as a sort of an aspirated nasal. For some reason the beginning /h/ in "history" gets really dampened when there's liaison before it.


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## ewie

Porteño said:


> Well, not exactly, you have a choice here. It depends on how you choose to pronounce 'historic'. It can be _a historic _or _an historic. _Just as in _a hotel_ or _an hotel_.


 
Hello Porteño.  So presumably by the same token if I choose to pronounce _yellow_ as _elephant,_ then I should write _an yellow lorry_.  [Sorry, I'm just yanking your chain here ~ I _know_ that (for mysterious reasons) some folk 'choose to' pronounce _historic_ without its _h_, while at the same time they wouldn't dream of pronouncing _history_ without its.  But _hotel_ I'll grant you, given that within living memory the word was pronounced widely without its _h_]



john_riemann_soong said:


> /h/ isn't like other consonants. You could probably re-analyse the liaison between "an" and "historic" as a sort of an aspirated nasal. For some reason the beginning /h/ in "history" gets really dampened when there's liaison before it.


 
I entirely see what you mean, John, and this is perhaps the 'mysterious reasons' I mentioned in my last post.
Unfortunately, though, I don't happen to hold with it vis-à-vis the writing of _an historic_ versus _a historic_.


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## Porteño

ewie said:


> I entirely see what you mean, John, and this is perhaps the 'mysterious reasons' I mentioned in my last post.
> Unfortunately, though, I don't happen to hold with it vis-à-vis the writing of _an historic_ versus _a historic_.


 
You wouldn't? I would.


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## john_riemann_soong

IIRC, "history" was initially silent when it entered English from French, as with "honour", but whereas "honour" didn't concern laypeople as often as the past did, "history" regained its /h/.


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## Loob

In the thread I gave a link to in post 9, there was a suggestion that different regional varieties of English took different approaches to _a(n) historic etc._

And there are certainly varieties of English which use "a" rather than "an" before vowels.

But I'm not aware of any variety of English which would put "an" before "European" or "University", which both begin with the semi-consonant [j].

Loob


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## panjandrum

It is much too tiring to regurgitate all the stuff already posted on this topic.
For views of many, many others on the whole question of a/an, see the thread that Loob linked in #9, or any of the relevant threads from the list to be found if you look up a an in the WR dictionary.
*CLICK HERE*.

The essence of the answer in most of those threads is that it depends entirely on how the words sound. 
[...]


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## Hermione Golightly

In the list, all the words, except for 'one', start with the _sound _Y, regardless of starting with a vowel. I've never heard 'university' pronounced other than you-niversity; maybe ? was a typo. 'One' is pronounced like 'won'.



> My list of adjectives (adverbs) and nouns beginning with a vowel but preceded by A, include USUAL, UNIT, UNIFORM, UNICYCLE, UNITED, UNANIMOUS, UNIVERSITY? EUROPEAN and ONE.


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## prof d'anglais

Yes, I'm sorry Hermione, I was using cap-lock and didn't notice the interrogation symbol instead of a comma. Corrected version below...

I'm interested to note that whilst there have been several references to the French origin of HONOUR (honneur), no one appears to have mentioned HONEST (honnête), HOUR (heure) or HEIR (hériter). All of these have a silent H in English, as in the French, therefore must be preceded by AN.

The H in hotel, hospital etc. is most definitely pronounced, therefore preceded by A, just as one would pronounce the definite article THE ðə and not ði before a vowel.

My list of adjectives (adverbs) and nouns beginning with a vowel but preceded by A, include USUAL, UNIT, UNIFORM, UNICYCLE, UNITED, UNANIMOUS, UNIVERSITY, EUROPEAN and ONE.

If anyone is able to suggest others, I would gladly include those also.


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## Delvo

Donnangelo said:


> That is probably because in portuguese and spanish "w" and "y" have the same sound as "u" and "i" respe.


They are the same sounds, but those sounds can be treated as consonants if the _next_ sound is a vowel. Consider a couple of fairly silly sentences:

•The yeti from York yelled at yellowjackets in his yard.
•The wild wallaby went into the wet wavy water.

Now try to pronounce them based on what you see with this spelling instead:

•The ieti from Iork ielled at iellowjackets in his iard.
•The uild uallaby uent into the uet uavy uater.

They'll sound the same, unless you make them last a bit longer when represented by "i" and "u" instead of "y" and "w", which means if you go at the same speed, there's no difference at all. "W" and "Y" are simply what the letters "u" and "i" look like when followed by a vowel. And there are several alphabets which have only two letters for these sounds instead of four, because the speakers only thought of them as two sounds, not four sounds. This originally included Latin, with the letter "i" and a letter that worked like "u" although it could have a sharp bottom like "v". ("W", "J", and the distinction between "U" and "V" as two separate letters are all post-Roman inventions; "Y" was a Roman import from Greek only for quoting Greek words and wouldn't represent a sound like "i" until after a couple of sound shifts in Greek.)



Donnangelo said:


> I I'll study more grammar because it is still very confusing to me.


This is phonetics and spelling, not grammar. Grammar what you need to learn if you want to put words in the right order in a sentence and attach the right suffixes to them.


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## GreenWhiteBlue

prof d'anglais said:


> I'm interested to note that whilst there have been several references to the French origin of HONOUR (honneur), no one appears to have mentioned HONEST (honnête), [...] All of these have a silent H in English, as in the French, therefore must be preceded by AN.



If you look at post #8 in this thread, you will see that I mentioned "honest" ten years ago.




> My list of adjectives (adverbs) and nouns beginning with a vowel but preceded by A, include USUAL, UNIT, UNIFORM, UNICYCLE, UNITED, UNANIMOUS, UNIVERSITY, EUROPEAN and ONE.
> 
> If anyone is able to suggest others, I would gladly include those also.


If you look at post #19 above, you will see that ten years ago I mentioned
_A union 
A useful tool_
_A European vacation_
_A euphonious voice._


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## prof d'anglais

GreenWhiteBlue said:


> If you look at post #8 in this thread, you will see that I mentioned "honest" ten years ago.
> 
> 
> 
> If you look at post #19 above, you will see that ten years ago I mentioned
> _A union
> A useful tool
> A European vacation
> A euphonious voice._



Thank you GreenWhiteBlue.

Your spelling of HONOUR did distract me, but you didn't mention HOUR or HEIR, to your post #8 in this thread, or any of the other words I listed that begin with a vowel and should be preceded by A. But thank you for adding UNION and USEFUL to my list, from your post #19 above, as I requested, and you've thoughtfully added _euphonious _which I will endeavour to use more frequently now. Thank you.


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## GreenWhiteBlue

prof d'anglais said:


> Your spelling of HONOUR did distract me,



_Honor_ isn't "my" spelling.  It is instead the standard spelling used in American English -- and is thus the spelling used by the great majority of the native speakers of English.  I am surprised that you were distracted by it.



> but you didn't mention HOUR or HEIR,


I didn't say I had, which is why I specifically edited them out of my post, and only addressed your statement that no one had mentioned "honest."


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## prof d'anglais

I concede to your evident sensibilities.


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## Andygc

The topic of words beginning with "h" has been covered in detail in the thread linked to earlier (including "an hotel"). What possible reason can there be to regurgitate everything here?


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## prof d'anglais

I'm sorry! I thought members might be interested in the French origins of the silent H, and the unmentioned HOUR and HEIR. Maybe I missed these references. Does anyone know of any others?

I was wondering whether there were additional words beginning with a vowel but are preceded by A, other than those already mentioned.


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## RM1(SS)

prof d'anglais said:


> I was also looking for additions to add to my list of words beginning with a vowel but are preceded by A.


Forum rules prohibit the making of lists, so we cannot help you there.


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## Andygc

And in any case, this thread is supposed to be about the choice of article with a word beginning, specifically, with a "y" sound.


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## prof d'anglais

I believe Yôn, in post #6, first began asking about dropped H's, more than 10 years ago. The use of the indefinite article... A/an.


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## Loob

prof d'anglais said:


> Yes, I'm sorry Hermione, I was using cap-lock and didn't notice the interrogation symbol instead of a comma. Corrected version below...
> 
> I'm interested to note that whilst there have been several references to the French origin of HONOUR (honneur), no one appears to have mentioned HONEST (honnête), HOUR (heure) or HEIR (hériter). All of these have a silent H in English, as in the French, therefore must be preceded by AN.
> 
> The H in hotel, hospital etc. is most definitely pronounced, therefore preceded by A, just as one would pronounce the definite article THE ðə and not ði before a vowel.
> 
> My list of adjectives (adverbs) and nouns beginning with a vowel but preceded by A, include USUAL, UNIT, UNIFORM, UNICYCLE, UNITED, UNANIMOUS, UNIVERSITY, EUROPEAN and ONE.
> 
> If anyone is able to suggest others, I would gladly include those also.


Prof, the words in your "U" list don't start with a vowel: they start with /j/.

Perhaps you're trying to list words which start with a *written* <u> and are pronounced /ju/? If so, I think you might find it useful to draw up some general rules for your students - relating, perhaps, to whether the <u> is followed by one or more  consonants, whether the word involves the negative prefix _un-_, and so on.

Otherwise, I fear your list is going to be rather unwieldy.


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## prof d'anglais

Thank you Loob. 

I take your point, but are there any specific rules as to when one must use "A" before a vowel. The list seemed my only option. However there are only one or two other examples outside of the /ju/ pronunciation, so perhaps I can give my students the /ju/ rule along with the shorter list of say "EUROPE" /ˈjʊə/ and "ONE" /wʌn/, would anyone agree with that, and perhaps there are some other similar words, outside of the /ju/ rule, someone can suggest? 

Many thanks, in advance.


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## london calling

As the EF website (ef.com) states:

Use _a_ when the next word starts with a consonant, or before words starting in _u_ and _eu_ when they sound like _you_. Use _an_ when the next word starts with a vowel _(a,e,i,o,u)_ or with a mute _h_.


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