大学UNIVERSITY前是用"a" 还是用"an"?
大多数人认为这个问题很简单。当然是用"an"了,我说为什么呢?他们回答说因为UNIVERSITY是以元音U开头的,所以要用"an"。到底哪个是正确的呢?
我查了几个国内的语法书,很多只是告诉你答案却不告诉你为什么这样。只是让我们去死记一条规则。那么我们来看看美国人是如何来回答这一问题的:
We use a before singular count-nouns that begin with consonants (a cow, a barn, a sheep); we use an before singular count-nouns that begin with vowels or vowel-like sounds (an apple, an urban blight, an open door). Words that begin with an h sound often require an a (as in a horse, a history book, a hotel), but if an h-word begins with an actual vowel sound, use an an (as in an hour, an honor). We would say a useful device and a union matter because the u of those words actually sounds like yoo (as opposed, say, to the u of an ugly incident). The same is true of a European and a Euro (because of that consonantal “Yoo” sound). We would say a once-in-a-lifetime experience or a one-time hero because the words once and one begin with a w sound (as if they were spelled wuntz and won).