Re:Efficient Parallelization of an Ubiquitous Sequential Com...
by mvc on Friday December 08, 2023 @04:48AM
(#38567134)
As someone who uses a dialect/accent of English that means I often pronounce these "silent" letters (e.g. I would pronounce the "h" in herb), I've often wondered if selection of "a" vs "an" is supposed to be accent specific.
Re:Efficient Parallelization of an Ubiquitous Sequential Com...
by JoshTriplett on Sunday December 10, 2023 @04:31PM
(#38595254)
I think so, yes; if you say "herb" with a non-silent 'h', you'd write "a herb".
By way of example, the name Herb is commonly pronounced with a non-silent H, so even in a dialect where "herb" is pronounced "erb", you'd write "A Herb picked up an herb.".
The rule as often given in English classes is to use "an" if a word starts with a "vowel sound", rather than starting with a vowel. So, it's "an herb" (since the 'h' is silent in (American) English), but "a ubiquitous".
Relatedly, you can infer whether someone likely pronounces "URL" by spelling it out (like "you are ell") or as a word (like "earl") based on whether they write "a URL" or "an URL".