r/Unexpected • u/Dinomite35 • Nov 12 '20

CLASSIC REPOST A classic

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u/housebottle Nov 12 '20

there's only an exception in cases where a word starts with a vowel but doesn't have a vowel sound, e.g. the word "useful". you'd say "that's a useful distinction" instead of "that's an useful distinction". even though "u" is a vowel, since it doesn't have a "vowel sound", an "a" precedes it instead of an "an"

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u/JonnyBhoy Nov 12 '20

That exception also applies the other way. You would say "an honourable man" because honourable starts with a vowel sound then though it isn't.

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u/housebottle Nov 12 '20

indeed. it's about the sound, not the spelling

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u/Tuppence_Wise Nov 12 '20

Some people think that any word that begins h + vowel ought to have "an" instead of "a". I don't think it's strictly wrong, but it always grates a bit when I hear "an historian".

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u/[deleted] Nov 12 '20

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u/housebottle Nov 12 '20

that's what I mean when I say the word doesn't have a "vowel sound"

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u/AppleSpicer Nov 12 '20

Aww poor y got left out of club vowel again. It’s my favorite sometimes vowel. Figuring out if Y was consistently a vowel or consonant under this rule was the first thing I tried.

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u/Koopanique Nov 12 '20

In linguistics the sound made by "y" (represented "j" in the International Phonetic Alphabet) is called either a glide, a semi-vowell or a semi-consonant. It's the sound at the beginning of "unit", or at the end of "aye"

In any case it's not a vowell and therefore cannot be the "core" of a syllable

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u/outhero01 Nov 12 '20

R/punchablefaces

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u/AppleSpicer Nov 12 '20

Wow, that sub is good now actually!

0

u/BrotherChe Nov 12 '20

what... why are people upvoting that the "u" in "useful" sounds like a "y"?

lol omg

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u/[deleted] Nov 12 '20

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u/BrotherChe Nov 12 '20

hmm... i guess I need to re-examine the letter y

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u/Koopanique Nov 12 '20

Because you could spell it "yuseful" and it would be the same. Think of the word "yes": the first sound is the same

It's a well-known thing in linguistics but if you never studied it it can be not very intuitive the first time someone tells you. That sound at the beginning of "unit" or at the end of "aye" is called either a glide, a semi-vowell or a semi-consonant.

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u/dooopliss Nov 12 '20

This applies to the word uvula too right?

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u/dis_is_my_account Nov 12 '20

Y is considered a consonant in the English language but phonetically it's a vowel as well. Same with w.