0

This question already has an answer here:

In the following sentence, I'm unsure whether to use ‘an’ or ‘a’.

..primarily meant as a, albeit large, donation.

On the one hand ‘an’ sounds more appropriate when read, as the vowel beginning to ‘albeit’ suggests. Alternatively, one might say ‘a’ is correct; is a sentence not supposed to make perfect sense with the word between the commas removed. If so, it must be just an ‘a’.

I'm tilting towards the latter, even though it sounds odd. Please enlighten me.

|improve this question

marked as duplicate by RegDwigнt♦ May 28 '13 at 22:31

This question has been asked before and already has an answer. If those answers do not fully address your question, please ask a new question.

  • I find this specific example awkward – I simply wouldn't phrase a sentence that way – but I've run into the same problem in similar circumstances, like parenthetical asides. In those cases, I usually choose words to avoid this a/an clash. I'm not sure what the correct rule is when they don't match, but in a pinch I'd choose the sound of the nearest word. For example, in “a difficult opponent,” you use a to match the adjective, not an to match the noun. – Bradd Szonye May 28 '13 at 22:07
  • That makes sense. I think English is one of the areas in which a real solution isn't the only one. Thanks! – Blieque May 28 '13 at 22:19
  • 1
    Choosing between a and an is our most frequently asked question ever. It gets asked several times a week, every week. And the answer is always exactly the same, and embarrassingly trivial to boot. We even have a blog post. So please do search the site before posting. Thank you. – RegDwigнt♦ May 28 '13 at 22:47
  • 1
    The linked duplicate is actually a very poor question and answer: although it says it is about a/an before a parenthesis, the example given is not parenthetical. This question here, on the other hand, gives an example which is parenthetical. – MetaEd♦ May 28 '13 at 22:56
3

Are you stuck with this very awkward sentence construction? Since you are questioning what article to use, I suspect you are not. Therefore, I suggest that you change the sentence construction:

     ....primarily meant as a donation, albeit a large one.

That gets you around all of your problems.

|improve this answer
  • Yeah, this seems the sensible consensus here. Thank you. – Blieque May 28 '13 at 22:23
4

The choice between a and an is not one of grammar, or orthography. It is a purely phonological choice depending wholly on the following sound. The following sound here is /ə/- a vowel, so the form selected is an.

|improve this answer
  • Well, now we can have a discussion. I'm leaning more this way now though. – Blieque May 28 '13 at 22:23
  • +1 It's more obvious to pronounce it this way if you remove the commas, but I think rewording along @terpy's lines is still better. – choster May 28 '13 at 22:24
1

Personally, I would opt for ... primarily meant as an, albeit large, donation., for two reasons:

  1. If you actually speak the phase, saying a is awkward, whereas saying an comes naturally.
  2. If you had a straight adjective, instead of an adjectival phrase, there would be no question that the article should correspond to the adjective, not to the noun: e.g. an anonymous donation. Why should the present of an adjectival phrase, instead of an adjective, make any difference to the rule?

Alternatively, you could rephase the expression to:

... primarily meant as a donation, albeit a large one.

|improve this answer
  • Thank you. The second point especially makes a lot of sense. – Blieque May 29 '13 at 13:13

Not the answer you're looking for? Browse other questions tagged or ask your own question.