Should I Say ‘A’ Hour Or ‘An’ Hour?
When should I use a and when should I use an? In this post, we discuss if you should say ‘a’ hour on ‘an’ hour.
Should I Say ‘A’ Hour Or ‘An’ Hour?
When should I use ‘a’ and when should I use ‘an’?
The Rule
You use ‘a’ before words that begin with consonants e.g., b, c, d. You use ‘an’ before words that begin with the five vowels – a, e, i, o, u.
However, the way you pronounce it and not the spelling, shows you which one you must use.
Examples:
- You should say, ‘an hour’ (because hour begins with a vowel sound) and ‘a history’ (because history begins with a consonant sound).
- You should say ‘a union’ even if union begins with a ‘u’. This is because the pronunciation begins with ‘yu’, a consonant sound.
Abbreviations
You need to understand if the abbreviation is pronounced as a single word or letter by letter.
Examples:
- You say ‘a long playing-record’, but the abbreviation is ‘an LP’ (because ‘LP’ is pronounced ‘elpee’)
- You say ‘an MNET programme’ (because ‘MNET’ is pronounced ‘emnet’)
- You say ‘a NATO officer’ (because ‘NATO’ begins with a ‘ne’ sound)
[Top Tip: If you need practical help with your grammar, buy The Complete Grammar Workbook.]
 by Amanda Patterson
If you enjoyed this article, read these posts:
- How to Deflate those Inflated Phrases
- Punctuation For Beginners: What Is Punctuation?
- Grammar For Beginners: All About Parts Of Speech
Top Tip: Find out more about our workbooks and online courses in our shop.
0 thoughts on “Should I Say ‘A’ Hour Or ‘An’ Hour?”
All these years and I never knew that LP stood for long-playing record!!! Now I wonder why I never wondered what LP stood for…
Fortunately for me, it was ingrained in grammar school that a vowel deserves an “an.”
However, punctuation inside quotations always baffles me.
We will post a note on how to correctly punctuate quotations.