I've just read from a comment somewhere that 'a very emotional' is grammatically wrong, and it should be 'an very emotional'. Why is 'very' ignored in this case? If it should be ignored, are there any other words that should also be ignored?
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I don't know where you've read this, and I don't know who made such a comment, but I do know that no such rule exists. The rule for usage of "an" or "a" is, if the word following has a vowel sound, "an" is used (e.g. An honour, A house). If there's a consonant sound, "a" is used. There are many examples of this in relation to "very" :
Every time "very" is used, "a" is used. |
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The rule is based on phonetics, i.e. the grammatical role of the a or an is completely inconsequential. Furthermore, it's the sound of the word that follows that counts, not the spelling. So, for instance, it's a union because the u in union does not have the sound of a vowel even though it is a vowel. Conversely, it's an upper level because the u in upper has the vowel sound. |
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The rule is to look at the pronunciation of the word following a: If that word with a vowel sound, then you use an; if the word doesn't start with a vowel sound, then you use a. "A very emotional" is correct, because very doesn't start with a vowel sound. Notice that I am referring to the pronunciation of the word, not to the letter at the beginning of the word. For example, you write a user because user is pronounced /ˈjuzər/, a young person because young is pronounced /jəŋ/. |
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