• dependencyinjection@discuss.tchncs.de
    link
    fedilink
    English
    arrow-up
    16
    arrow-down
    2
    ·
    edit-2
    4 months ago

    I only do this as I like to learn new things myself and appreciate if people correct me.

    The title is wrong. It should be “A European…” rather than “An European…”.

    The way you can decide which one to use is by looking at the proceeding words first syllable sound. If it has a vowel sound you use an if it doesn’t, then you use a. It’s important to note it’s vowel sound and not just a vowel.

    Examples:

    • A teacher
    • An apple
    • A car
    • An hour (note it starts with a vowel sound, but not a vowel)
    • A European
    • An excellent teacher
    • Vittelius@feddit.deOP
      link
      fedilink
      English
      arrow-up
      13
      ·
      4 months ago

      Thank you for the correction. I wasn’t sure (but also to lazy to check)

      I’ve edited the title

      • dependencyinjection@discuss.tchncs.de
        link
        fedilink
        English
        arrow-up
        9
        arrow-down
        1
        ·
        4 months ago

        No problem. Thank you for being receptive to my comment.

        Sometimes people get mad, and I don’t get why as I love to learn new things and it may help other people who may be non-native speakers to learn the quirks of English.

        • Essence_of_Meh@lemmy.world
          link
          fedilink
          English
          arrow-up
          8
          ·
          4 months ago

          Here are some possible reasons for people getting mad if you’re really wondering why it happens:

          • unsolicited advice can make people feel stupid (you love to learn, not everyone does)
          • comments like yours can be used as a way of making fun of OP to disregard their point without actually interacting with it
          • being corrected on a slip up and not something you sincerely don’t know can be annoying (either towards the person correcting you or towards yourself for “not knowing something this simple”)
          • I don’t know about others but my school life never taught me how to deal with criticism, if you made a mistake you didn’t study properly and should go back to doing that instead of being explained what went wrong and why (this one might sound a worse than it really was but you get the point)

          I’m not saying you did any of those things and I’m right there with you on learning but the knee-jerk reactions often do have a reason behind them. There’s also the whole issue with how polarized social media is these days and the willingness to listen or admit to a mistake can be a difficult thing to stomach (“it’s a sign of weakness”).

          I hope that helps!

          • dependencyinjection@discuss.tchncs.de
            link
            fedilink
            English
            arrow-up
            4
            ·
            4 months ago

            Thanks for this. It really does help to understand the reasons.

            I would say that I always try to preface my unsolicited advice to try and convey that I am not shitting on people or being condescending, as I did here. I do this so people can feel comfortable that I’m doing it to be nice and without any malice at all. I know you said I didn’t do any of these things, I just wanted to explain my thought process.

            • Essence_of_Meh@lemmy.world
              link
              fedilink
              English
              arrow-up
              3
              ·
              4 months ago

              I get it. At the end of the day web is a vast space and people will have different experience functioning here, all we can do is try to convince others we’re genuine and do our thing. I’m just happy whenever a positive interactions like your and OP’s happen.

        • idiomaddict@feddit.de
          link
          fedilink
          English
          arrow-up
          1
          ·
          4 months ago

          Sorry, native speaker and language teacher here and I disagree. This is dialect dependent, but in my dialect at least, it’s the glottal stop at the beginning of a vowel sound that triggers it. Saying “an European” for me is like saying “an yellow.”

        • Snoopy@jlai.lu
          link
          fedilink
          English
          arrow-up
          1
          ·
          4 months ago

          Sadly i’m deaf, so i can’t use sound to correct myself 🥹😭

          I sh4uld meet an english deaf and usk them how do they manage those grammar rule. Their answer will be pretty fun :3