A URL or An URL

Sunday, June 21st, 2009

I’m not sure who started saying “an url” or why and what’s more puzzling are all the sheep who started saying it too, but those are the ones wearing masks.
Here’s a breakdown for all of you out there who for some reason started saying “an url” even though it sounds wrong as they say it.

When pronouncing a word that begins with a “U”, if it’s a long “U”, you use the word “a” in front of it…a long U gets “a” in front and a short U gets “an” in front.

Take these words and say them in your head and choose which word should go in front, this should help you see whether A URL or An URL is correct:

• Universe
• Underwear
• Underdog
• Uniform
• Ugandan
• Unfortunate
• Undermining
• URL

Now here they are in a sentence:

• In a Universe far, far away…
• He was killed in an Underwear factory which was an Unfortunate tragedy.
• He was rooting for an Underdog team.
• It was an Undermining comment
• He was a Ugandan man.
• She loves men in a Uniform.
• They needed a URL that was easy to remember.

Leave a comment if you think I’m wrong, but tell me why!

I guess you could say “U” is an “irregular” vowel because this rule doesn’t really apply to its siblings.

The letter “A”: An Ape, An Apple
The Letter “E”: An Ewok, An Elephant
The Letter “I”: An Icicle, An Irregular verb
The Letter “O”: An Ovary, An Ostrich
And the vowel at center stage:
The Letter “U”: A Utopia, An Understanding

Do you get it now?

This is from Quora.com, they gave a similar explanation to mine:

◆ Explanation —

The choice between a and an depends on sound.

That is why,

1. Certain words beginning witha consonant take a vowel because of vowel sound. For instance, honest, etc.
2. Certain words beginning with a vowel take a because of consonant sound.

Examples of the category 2 are

1. A university.
2. A union.
3. A European.
4. A Euro.
5. A unicorn.
6. A useful/ unique book.
7. And A URL.

These words take a consonant. Though these words begin with a vowel, they begin with a consonant sound, that of yu. Therefore, we use a in the above mentioned cases.

Similarly,

1. A one-rupee note.
2. A one.
3. A one-eyed man.

These words begin with a vowel o but they begin with a consonant sound w. That is why, they take a consonant before them.

URL stands for Uniform Resource Locator for those who didn’t know.

Than vs Then

This is basic English…what is the difference between these two monosyllabic words and when to use them: Then and Than!!

Then is used in reference to time:
“First we’ll write this, then hopefully people will understand the difference between the two.”
Than is used in a comparison:
“I’d much rather use the word A in front of the acronym URL than the word An, because you sound like a moron when you don’t.”

What Are Homophones?

Homophones are words that are pronounced the same, but are written differently.

Example:

• They’re, There, Their
• To, Two, Too
• All, Awl
• Do, Due, Dew
• Air, Heir
• Days, Daze
• Ewe, You
• Earn, Urn
• Flee, Flea
• Feat, Feet
• Vane, Vein, Vain
• Then and Than ARE NOT HOMOPHONES, they are pronounced differently. Example: The word “An” is NEVER pronounced “En”…EVER! Than, should NEVER be pronounced like the word “Then”.

As a review, Then = A moment in time. We’ll do this first, then that.

Than is a comparison: I would rather do this first than that. Or I would rather take the Red Pill Than the Blue Pill