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Date: Fri, 22 Mar 1996 17:26:00 -0800
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To: jkh@time.cdrom.com
CC: p.richards@elsevier.co.uk, fenner@parc.xerox.com, freebsd-chat@freebsd.org
In-reply-to: <22389.827542080@time.cdrom.com> (jkh@time.cdrom.com)
Subject: Re: cvs commit: ports/editors/bpatch/pkg COMMENT
From: asami@cs.berkeley.edu (Satoshi Asami)
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 * [Redirected to -chat since I don't think that the CVS committers particularly
 *  want to join in what could be a protracted grammatical discussion :-)]

(Ok, but don't take me off the CC: list, I'm not on -chat)

 * FWIW, I've never seen "an unit" used anywhere on this side of the
 * pond.  Our english teacher taught us (way back in the late 70's) that
 * `an' be used in front of words starting a, e, i or o.  We never
 * learned it as a general rule for vowels (especially since u and
 * sometimes y fit that category, and you'd never say "an uniform" or "an
 * yankee").

                                                   haha
                                                    |
                                                    v
Hmm.  I always thought it's the pronounciation.  If a `u' is
pronounced like a `you', as in `unit' (`you-knit'), it's a consonant,
and if it's pronounced like a weak `a', it's treated as a vowel as far 
as articles are concerned.

What about `an unpleasent experience'?  Do you say `a' here?

Same for spelled-out consonants, like `X-rated' (ok ok stop laughing),
I say `an X-rated movie', not `a'.

Satoshi