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Hello there,

I share with you this embarrassing question. Which of the following phrases is correct, and why?

This is an EU issue.
This is a EU issue.

Thank you for your help.

The answer is "an EU issue". The rule is "a" before a consonant sound and "an" before a vowel sound. E, pronounced "ee" with a long vowel sound, would have "an" before it. You're welcome.

Blythe wrote:The answer is "an EU issue". The rule is "a" before a consonant sound and "an" before a vowel sound. E, pronounced "ee" with a long vowel sound, would have "an" before it. You're welcome.

I agree.

I concur with the other two posts.

I also agree with the previous replies. An or a is determined by whether or not the word begins with a vowel sound.

this is an EU issue is the right answer.
vowel sounds go with an not a ( Vowels are the letters A, E, I, O, U).
an apple.
not a apple

Blythe wrote:The answer is "an EU issue". The rule is "a" before a consonant sound and "an" before a vowel sound. E, pronounced "ee" with a long vowel sound, would have "an" before it. You're welcome.

Well said

An EU is correct because the EU is pronounced e-u. The "e" is a vowel sound.

An EU issue

I think the EU example is pretty clear, as it starts with a vowel and has a vowel sound.
A trickier example: an STD, as it starts with a consonant but has a vowel sound.
I think we all agree on this one: an hour.
But what about this one? A hotel or an hotel.
I've seen it both ways, as some people pronounce hotel as "otel", hence "an hotel".

ilovebooks2 wrote: ↑13 Jan 2018, 16:46 I think the EU example is pretty clear, as it starts with a vowel and has a vowel sound.
A trickier example: an STD, as it starts with a consonant but has a vowel sound.
I think we all agree on this one: an hour.
But what about this one? A hotel or an hotel.
I've seen it both ways, as some people pronounce hotel as "otel", hence "an hotel".

You see a similar thing when people say, "an historical event" even though historical obviously begins with an H sound. Some things are older than we know, and some of them have always been just fads.

DustinPBrown wrote: ↑14 Feb 2018, 09:43

ilovebooks2 wrote: ↑13 Jan 2018, 16:46 I think the EU example is pretty clear, as it starts with a vowel and has a vowel sound.
A trickier example: an STD, as it starts with a consonant but has a vowel sound.
I think we all agree on this one: an hour.
But what about this one? A hotel or an hotel.
I've seen it both ways, as some people pronounce hotel as "otel", hence "an hotel".

You see a similar thing when people say, "an historical event" even though historical obviously begins with an H sound. Some things are older than we know, and some of them have always been just fads.

What's the right thing then, "a historical event" or "an historical event" or both? Just as you said, I've seen both.

Also, I just discovered the difference between "historic" and "historical". "Historic" refers to something important while "historical" refers to something that happened in the past.

ayoomisope wrote: ↑17 Feb 2018, 10:12

DustinPBrown wrote: ↑14 Feb 2018, 09:43

ilovebooks2 wrote: ↑13 Jan 2018, 16:46 I think the EU example is pretty clear, as it starts with a vowel and has a vowel sound.
A trickier example: an STD, as it starts with a consonant but has a vowel sound.
I think we all agree on this one: an hour.
But what about this one? A hotel or an hotel.
I've seen it both ways, as some people pronounce hotel as "otel", hence "an hotel".

You see a similar thing when people say, "an historical event" even though historical obviously begins with an H sound. Some things are older than we know, and some of them have always been just fads.

What's the right thing then, "a historical event" or "an historical event" or both? Just as you said, I've seen both.

From what I know, they're both correct, just depends on your dialect, the context, how formal you wanna be, stuff like that I'd imagine. It's English, we've got ten different ways to say just about every word.

It’s all about the how it sounds when spoken.

The ‘a’ / ‘an’ usage is there to stop two hard vowel sounds clashing together. For example, ‘a ant’ grates, but ‘an ant’ flows.

However, there are exceptions Although ‘universe’ starts with a ‘u’, it sounds like it starts with a ‘y’ so does not need ‘an’ to make it flow as it’s not a vowel sound, phonetically it is ‘a yuniverse’

Similarly for words the begin with ‘h’ where the ‘h’ is not pronounced.

‘Herb is pronounced ‘urb’ In the ‘US’ and ‘herb’ in the UK.

So the US pronunciation needs ‘an’ to stop ‘a’ and ‘u’ grating, but the UK pronunciation does not need the ‘an’ as the ‘a’ and ‘h’ sounds flow together.

Hope that makes sense.