Which do you use: “a” vs “an”

Judging from all of the blogs that I read as well as emails and memos at work, there is a lot of confusion when it comes to using “a”and “an.”

When I was in school I learned that the usage rule for “a” versus “an” is as follows:

  • for words that start with consonants, use “a”
  • for words that start with a vowel, use “an”

And generally I find this to be a good rule of thumb if you are unclear on usage.

However, while looking through some posts on Daily Writing Tips I came across some additional info, which can be found here.

2 comments ↓

#1 Bwilson on 04.15.09 at 9:39 am

TYPO ALERT!

You have “god” and not “good” in this sentence.

And generally I find this to be a god rule of thumb if you are unclear on usage.

Just ironic when your on a site called stopwritingcrap.com to have a typo….

#2 Shawna on 04.15.09 at 11:02 am

Blake, I appreciate your love of irony and thank you for pointing out the typo. Feel free to point out any other errors for correction on this site.

As a side note, you may want to evaluate your use of “your” vs. “you’re.”

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