a / an before a vowel or consonant sound | Indefinite Articles | Learn English Grammar

Hi, I'm Alexandra.

In today's lesson, I am going to teach a basic English video about the indefinite articles:

‘a’ and ‘an’

and how to use them before a noun.

Let's look at the board.

Let's focus on ‘a’ and ‘an’.

When do we use ‘a’ and ‘an’?

All right, so first sentence here:

“I'm ____ woman.”

So woman starts with a ‘w’.

The answer here is ‘a’.

“I'm a woman.”

Okay, second one.

“I'm _blank_ artist.”

‘artist’ starts with an ‘a’

so the answer is ‘an’.

“I'm an artist.”

All right. Now, if we keep going, we've got a little bit longer sentence.

“My niece is _blank_ university student.”

So ‘university’ starts with the vowel ‘u’, right?

That's the letter ‘u’. It's a vowel.

So what's the answer?

“My niece is a university student.”

Okay, put that in.

“There's an ‘a’.

Okay, last question.

“My aunt is _blank_ honest person.”

Is it ‘a’ or ‘an’?

Well ‘honest’ has an ‘h’, right?

It starts with the consonant ‘h’.

And it's pronounced honest.

“My aunt is an honest person.”

All right, so if you don't understand when or why to use ‘a’ or ‘an’,

then this is the video for you.

I will explain exactly when to use ‘a’ and ‘an’ before a noun.

Also keep watching until the end because there will be homework and a quiz.

So let's get started.

Before we learn about ‘a and ‘an’,

it's important to know what consonants and vowels are.

The English alphabet has 26 letters.

21 letters are consonants and there are five main vowels:

a e i o u

Now is a good time to learn the rule of when to use ‘a’ and when to use ‘an’ before a noun.

As young learners your English teacher probably taught you this rule:

‘If a noun begins with a consonant, we use ‘a’.’

‘If a noun begins with a vowel, we use ‘an’.’

Let's take a look at the board again to check this rule.

First, we have “a bag.”

‘bag’ starts with a ‘b’. That's a consonant so “a bag.”

Second, we have “a cat.” ‘cat’ starts with ‘c’.

That's a consonant so this is correct.

“a cat”

Next, we have “an apple.”

‘apple’ starts with ‘a’ which is a vowel.

So ‘an’ is correct.

Then we have “an eraser.”

‘eraser’ starts with an ‘e’.

‘e’ is a vowel.

This is correct.

Next is “an iron.”

‘iron’ starts with an ‘i’.

‘i' is a vowel.

“an iron” is correct.

Then “an oven.”

‘oven’ starts with an ‘o’.

‘o’ is a vowel.

This is also right.

And finally, “an umbrella.”

‘umbrella’ starts with a ‘u’.

‘u’ is a vowel.

This is correct.

If you look at it, it's the vowels:

a e i o u

So it looks like the rule is working very well

but actually this is not the real rule.

Let's take a look at the next board.

So again, let's look at these two first examples:

“a cat”

‘cat’ starts with a ‘c’.

That's a consonant.

That's right.

“an apple”

‘apple’ starts with an ‘a’.

That's a vowel.

So that's also correct.

“an apple”

Now, let's look at these two.

“a university”

‘university’ starts with a ‘u’.

So ‘u’ is a vowel.

Why does it go with ‘a’?

“a university”

And what about this one,

“an hour.”

‘hour’ starts with an ‘h’.

And ‘h’ is a consonant.

So why is it “an hour”?

You can see ‘a’ before a vowel

and ‘an’ before a consonant.

The real rule is

‘a’ comes before a consonant sound.

And ‘an’ comes before a vowel sound.

‘c’ is a consonant sound

so we use ‘a’.

‘a’ is a vowel sound

so we use ‘an’.

The ‘u’ in university sounds like ‘ya’.

‘ya’ is the ‘y’ sound.

And ‘y’ is a consonant.

Because it has that y consonant sound

we use, ‘a’.

And ‘h’ is silent.

‘hour’ begins with a vowel sound.

“hour”

Because it has that vowel sound, we use ‘an’.

So it's important when choosing ‘a’ or ‘an’,

not to focus just on the letter,

but also the sound that the letter is making.

All right, let's move on.

All right, let's take a look at these four examples.

Remember, don't look at the letter,

but listen to the sound that it makes.

“a uniform”

‘uniform’ starts with the consonant sound ‘y’

so it gets ‘a’.

Again, “a European”.

‘European’ also starts with the consonant sound y - "ya"

So “a European”.

“an honor”

Remember, before we saw ‘hour’?

And the ‘h’ in honor and hour is silent.

So it starts with the vowel sound.

So “an honor”.

Now look at this one.

“an F.B.I. agent”

Let's focus on the ‘f’.

The sound that the ‘f’ makes:

f

f

So it's a vowel sound.

So it gets ‘an’.

“an F.B.I. agent”

All right let's move on to some extra practice.

All right let's practice using ‘a’ or ‘an’.

“Let's meet in … hour.”

Listen closely -

“hour”.

We know from before that the ‘h’ is silent.

So, “Let's meet in an hour.”

Okay.

“He will study … M.B.A. course.”

Listen closely to M.B.A.

em

M.B.A.

Obviously ‘em’ is the vowel sound,

so “He will study an M.B.A. course.”

“She's … happy student.”

Okay, look up here.

Here, the ‘h’ was silent,

but here, we pronounce the consonant ‘h’ sound.

‘happy’ ‘ha’

‘happy student’

So, “She's a happy student.”

“He has … excellent score.”

Listen closely.

‘excellent’

‘excellent’

That's a clearly a vowel sound.

So, “He has an excellent score.”

“That's … useless book.”

Listen closely here.

‘useless’

Ya, it's that consonant ‘y’ sound.

‘useless’

So, “That's a useless book.”

All right. Great students! Let's move on.

Now you know when to use ‘a’ and ‘an’ before a noun.

But you're not finished.

This video is not enough practice.

It's time for homework and a quiz.

Please check the description of the video to find links to the class homework

and a quiz.

Also be sure to comment below

and let me know if you have any questions.

If you want to see more videos from me in the future,

please remember to like this video and watch my other videos, too.

Bye-bye.