you must be an european.
[quote=“Dragonbones”]The rule is based on pronunciation, not spelling. You must use
What are “hard vowels”?
That’s how I refer to the “y” as in “yes” and “U.S.” sound and the “w” as in “wonderful” and “one”. I learned that term in grammar school, but don’t know whether it’s accurate. It’s useful to me, though.
Ever nervous of making the ugly wife mistake all over again, isn’t it something about aspirated or not vowels?
HG
In the case of the h, the ‘pronounced’ version is aspirated, I think. But otherwise I don’t think aspiration is relevant here. Then again, I’ll defer to someone who actually knows what the hell they’re talking about… 
This is why I always cringe when I hear “an historic occasion”.
JUst to restate, the rule is “a” before words that start with a vowel sound; “an” bfore words that start with a consonantal sound (including the semivowel sounds “y” and “w”). The “h” sound is nothing more than a consonant.
a university
a one night stand
an hour
an US$8 fee (“an eight US dollar fee”)
a US$4 ticket (“a four US dollar ticket”)
an MBA degree
a UHF antenna
a historic occasion
a FAQ (“a fak”)
an FAQ (“an eff ay que”)
Or even in the middle of words: e.g. “drawing”, which is pronounced “drawring” in certain dialects. Linguists call this an “intrusive r”.
A lot of people find it hard to say “I love you.”
A lot of people find it hard to say “I love you.”[/quote]
Oh right.
Anyway the ones DragB was on about are called semivowels (or glides or approximants but then it all gets v complicated so semivowels ok).
Aspiration is normally a way of characterizing consonants (the bei in Taipei is unaspirated, no puff of air with the b, although not voiced like the b in English bay; the p in Chinese pei or English pay is aspirated, puff of air with the p).
But you can describe vowels as aspirated (or as “breathed”) if they have an h sort of sound before. That’s a better explanation of the linguistic facts, probably, than saying English h is a glottal fricative or something awkward like that.
[quote=“the chief”][quote=“Erhu”]Yes, those are the rules and that’s why when talking about a plant that is used medicinally or as a spice you should say:
an herb; not a herb. 
[/quote]
What about the slightly overindulgent but generally wise and caring pater familias of a transplanted passel of Idaho squareheads?
A or An?[/quote]
It doesn’t matter. An means peace in Chinese and its all you should care about.