Using a or an depends on the sound that begins the next word. So…

(1) a + singular noun beginning with consonant: a boy; a car; a bike; a zoo; a dog
(2) an + singular noun beginning with a vowel: an elephant; an egg; an apple; an idiot; an orphan
(3) a + singular noun beginning with a consonant sound: a user (sounds like ‘yoo-zer,’ i.e. begins with a consonant ‘y’ sound, so ‘a’ is used) a university; a unicycle
(4) an + nouns starting with silent “h” : an hour
a + nouns starting with a pronounced “h”: a horse

In some cases where “h” is pronounced, such as “historical,” you can use an.However, a is more commonly used and preferred.

Basic use of a or an:

You were probably taught at school ‘an’ should be followed by a vowel (a,e,i,o,u) and a should be followed by a consonant.

• an elephant
• a car

Unfortunately, this is not always true!

When to use an or a depends on how the word is pronounced and not on how it is written.
The U in university is pronounced with a long ‘u’ sound which sounds like ‘yew’ and is written as jin the phonetic alphabet. So, although the letter is a vowel, it is not pronounced like one in ‘university‘ because it does not have a vowel sound. We therefore say ‘a university’.

The U in umbrella is pronounced as a vowel sound ( Λ using the phonetic alphabet) and so we use ‘an’. We therefore say ‘an umbrella’.

If the noun is modified by an adjective.

The choice between a and an depends on the initial sound of the adjective that immediately follows the article:

• a broken egg
• an unusual problem
• a European country (sounds like ‘yer-o-pi-an,’ i.e. begins with consonant ‘y’ sound).

In the section on pronouns, we saw that the word it is a third person singular pronoun. However, this word also has other roles which are not related to its pronominal use. We look at some of these other uses here.
When we talk about time or the weather, we use sentences such as:

• What time is it?
• It is four o’clock.
• It is snowing.
• It’s going to rain.