Jairo Pérez
Professional Teacher
Se escribe "a house" o "an house" Antes de u es a o an como an umbrella o a university ¿cual es la regla?
May 27, 2010 11:47 PM
Answers · 6
2
Th reason why it is 'an hour' but 'a house' is that the 'h' is preceded by 'an' and treated like the vowels 'a, e, i, o,u ' in case it is not pronounced such as in the word 'hour' .It sounds like 'our' then. In case the 'h' is pronounced as in 'house', the word is preceded by 'a' ,because it starts phonetically as well with a consonant. So the choice between the indefinite articles 'a' and 'an' in the case of preceding a word starting with the consonant 'h' depends on the pronunciation of 'h'.
May 28, 2010
1
H is confusing in English: we have a Germanic tradition which says it must be pronounced, and a Latin(French) tradition which says it must be silent. Ignore any written rules about this. You use "an" when the next *sound* is a vowel. It's smoother to pronounce that way. So: a horse, a house, a hair - the H is pronounced here. But: an hour, an honour, an heir - the H is silent. Same with words beginning with U. If it's a basic vowel "uh" such as umbrella, unusual, up-side, then "an" applies. If there's a "yuu" sound as in university, utopia, Uruguayan, use "a".
May 28, 2010
Holajjj
August 8, 2020
se escribe a house es igual una casa
October 3, 2010
Si,estoy de acuerdo con Martin ,it's "a house .Me gustaría añadir lo siguiente:when u say "una hora",it's "an hour "in English .
May 28, 2010
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