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grammar
is it:
- "a unique" or "an unique"?
- "an year" or "a year"?
citing any other weird ones would be appreciated too
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Think of how it would look if you spelled it out how it sounded. Unique would be yunique, and the y there is not a vowel, so it is "a" and not "an". In year, the y is also not a vowel, so it is "a" and not "an". Similar words are "honor", if you spelled it out how it sounded, it would be onor, which starts with a vowel sound, therefore it is "an honor".
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"A year" is correct.
--When the letter "y" is the first letter of a syllable that has more than one letter, it is treated as a consonant (other than that, it is always a vowel).
"A unique" is correct.
--When the letter "u" makes the same sound as the letter "y," it is treated as y. (But then if the "u" sounds like a vowel, then use "an" [for example, "an understanding].)
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A few other weird ones? Hmm, let's see:
"A one-round match"
--When the letter "o" makes the same sound as the letter "w," it is treated as w ("w^n").
"An hour"
--When the letter "h" is not sounded (mute), which makes the word sounds like it starts with a vowel, use "an."
"An X-ray"
--When the word starts with a vowel sound, use "an," even if it starts with a consonant (in this case, it sounds like "ex-ray").
--This is perhaps the most complicated one. For example, you would say "an MRI" because the first sound that the word makes sounded like a vowel (em-ar-eye). But then if you were to write it out--Magnetic Resonance Imaging--you would use "a" instead ("a magnetic resonance imaging").
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Here's a very funny essay to read. It's about how crazy and lunatic English is, totally recommend you to read it when you find the time ^-^
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Hope this helps,
Ng2491 =)
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"A unique" and "a year". It's the sound that matters, not the spelling.
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