On Tuesday, 28 April 2015 at 22:29:40 UTC, Steven Schveighoffer
wrote:
On 4/28/15 6:00 PM, Vladimir Panteleev wrote:
On Tuesday, 28 April 2015 at 21:42:04 UTC, Steven
Schveighoffer wrote:
On 4/27/15 10:36 PM, Vladimir Panteleev wrote:
http://blog.thecybershadow.net/2015/04/28/the-amazing-template-which-does-nothing/
Very cool.
Just a grammar nit, "an UFCS" should be "a UFCS".
Fixed, thanks. (I always found this rule counter-intuitive...
"u" is a
vowel dangit!)
And in most cases, 'an' is correct. It's only when it makes a
"you" sound (and if you spell out your acronyms, 'U' does),
when you want to use 'a' :)
an upsetting rule ('uh')
an uber-cool language ('oo')
a unique grammar problem ('you')
-Steve
Yeah, because the sound in `you` or the letter <u> is not a full
vowel but a semi-vowel /j/ (cf. German `ja`), also: a "voiced
palatal approximant":
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Palatal_approximant
Whenever a phonetic /u(:)/ becomes a /ju(:)/ (for whatever
reason), rules for vowels no longer apply, simply because it is
(phonetically speaking) no longer vowel, e.g. an + V => a + /j/.
Cf
a utilitarian point of view (*an utilitarian) /juː/
The spelling rule upsets you, because there is a mismatch between
what you see on the page and how you pronounce it (vowel vs.
consonant/semi-vowel). It also works the other way around:
- an STL expert
- a PhD student
<s> describes a consonant but is pronounced with a vowel here
/es/. Thus, you have to write `an`.
Just follow your natural way of speaking and you'll be fine. Read
it out to yourself. And let's be honest, it sounds really crap
when you read "an UFCS", bahhh!
