> Usually "an" comes before a word that starts with a vowel, i.e a, e, > i, o, u. So one would say "an eight o'clock meeting" or "an 8 o'clock > meeting". More examples: an amphibian, an egg, an igloo, an octopus, > an umbrella. However, there are situations when this rule doesn't > apply. In software engineering, one uses UML diagrams as part of the > design process. Although this acronym starts with a capital "u", it's > pronounced and written as "a UML diagram" not "an UML diagram", just > as in "a ewe" not "an ewe". >
Then you must pronounce that word differently than I do, because for me it's "an ewe." I don't pronounce it like "you," it's more like "eeew," as in "eeew, disgusting." I don't remember how to write proper phonetics - linguistics class was too long ago, or I would do that. But at least in my dialect 'ewe' doesn't start with a consonant sound. But by and large I agree with you, just this one word that I pronounce differently. And it's *all* about pronunciation with a/an as well as the two different pronunciations of 'the,' although they don't matter to this discussion since they're written the same. It's all to make it easier to say and to sound better. Erik --~--~---------~--~----~------------~-------~--~----~ To post to this group, send email to sage-support@googlegroups.com To unsubscribe from this group, send email to sage-support-unsubscr...@googlegroups.com For more options, visit this group at http://groups.google.com/group/sage-support URLs: http://www.sagemath.org -~----------~----~----~----~------~----~------~--~---
