Rules for choosing whether One or ONE should be used commonly memorized depending on whether the following word begins with a consonant (to use One) or a vowel (to use ONE). However, this is incomplete: these indefinite articles are used by the following sound, not the letter. So we say “a dog” and “a Balloon” or “an Emergency Message” and “An Ant” but we can also say “a useless pen” and “an hour”. Some words, like historiccan follow either One or ONE.
In the eternal and often fruitless search for ways to make English meaningful, many people seek simple rules to apply to our language. One such rule is the rule regarding whether to use One or ONE as an indefinite article (“a or an is used in English to refer to an unspecified or undefined person or thing”).
Some people strongly feel that words like ‘historic’ and ‘historical’ should be placed before ‘an’ and not ‘a’. We recommend using any article that suits your own pronunciation. Just remember that ‘history’ means something completely different.
The rule that many people vaguely remember is that people use One if the word that follows it begins with a consonant and one uses ONE if the following word begins with a vowel. That would be very easy, wouldn’t it?
It will, that’s why that’s not how the rules use One or ONE do.
It’s about sound
The deciding factor which of these words to use is sound start from following these unspecified posts, rather than letters that do. And there are a lot of words in the English language that start with a vowel, but were originally pronounced with a consonant (and vice versa).
One, futile, Unicorn all obviously start with a vowel; Not yet one sounds like a person is talking Wand the other two are voiced with the initials Y sounds, and so they will be preceded by Onemore than ONE (“ONE one hundred dollar bill”). On the other hand, we have a lot of words that start with a consonant, but are pronounced as if they started with a vowel (especially for H-words, such as heir, honest, hourly), and these words are preceded by ONEeven though they begin with a consonant (“He was ONE benevolent people”).
The same rule applies to acronyms and abbreviations, which when viewed on the printed page can lead to some visual inconsistency, especially if the reader does not silently say the words in the text. beginning as they read. For example, if a person were to write about a memo sent by the Federal Bureau of Investigation (in abbreviated form), it would be “ONE FBI memo”; although the word that follows ONE apparently begins with a consonant, it is voiced as a vowel (“eff-bee-eye”). However, if one were to write about a memo sent by the Central Intelligence Agency (again using the initials) it would be “One CIA Memorandum.”
All of this makes sense, and once it is accepted that we are applying a rule for spoken English to the printed page it is generally not too difficult to find the indefinite article form. which will be used. If in doubt, just say the word that will follow One or ONE out loud, and decide accordingly.
What words can use ‘A’ and ‘An’?
But! There always seems to be one but—what about problematic cases such as historic? Should this be preceded by One or ONE? It must be said that some people seem to feel very strongly that historic And history should be preceded by ONEmore than One. The reason for this is in these two words originally H for a long time, is not so emphasized that it is inaudible, and so is often seen”ONE history(al”) is written (and some people still don’t pronounce the initials H of these two words). Since many people reading this article have only skimmed this article so far to get a definite answer about the use of this indefinite article in this definite sense, here is what Merriam-Webster dictionary of English usage have to talk about historic:
A few words, such as historic and (especially in the UK) hotelis in transition and can be found by either One or ONE. You choose the article that best suits your pronunciation.
If you started learning how to use English in writing more than a few decades ago, you will easily find a large number of words that are clearly pronounced differently from today, as evidenced by the author. selected One or ONE before them.
A letter to a friend, touched by Dr. Jeremy Taylor’s objection from Popery. Discovered over a hundred and fifty statements that were wrong, or bad, in which. —AL, 1665
A History of the Mistakes of Christianity —Joseph Priestley, 1793
There are very few people today who still order ONE before words hundreds or history, for the simple reason that it sounds funny. However, some have held the view that historic ask for a ONE before it. If someone tells you that you have made a mistake in this regard, you can always rely on the wise advice provided above by Merriam-Webster dictionary of English usage and say “I am choosing the article that matches my pronunciation.”
Categories: Usage Notes
Source: vothisaucamau.edu.vn
