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When should I use “a” vs “an”?

While I was reading a book, I faced the following sentence:

There is a one-to-one correspondence between the two sets of quantities.

So, my question is: why the indefinite article "a" is not "an" in this phrase? The following word starts with a vowel, so shouldn't it be "an"?

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The word one is pronounced as beginning with a /w/ sound. Because this is a consonant sound and not a vowel sound, the indefinite article a is used instead of an.

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    People, this is such an obvious duplicate that you have no excuse for posting answers to it.
    – Marthaª
    Nov 10, 2011 at 16:19
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It's not about spelling but about the pronunciation. 'one' is spelled with a vowel 'o' at the beginning, but it is the sound 'w' (a bilabial glide) that is not really a vowel.

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    People, this is such an obvious duplicate that you have no excuse for posting answers to it.
    – Marthaª
    Nov 10, 2011 at 16:19
  • @Marthaª: I went to check the other answer first (I was going to immediately vote to close as duplicate), but I didn't see in the other question anything addressing this particular case. 'o' certainly looks like a vowel to most people (naively), so why doesn't the rule apply?
    – Mitch
    Nov 10, 2011 at 17:47
  • It's still the same rule: if it sounds like a consonant, use 'a'. We don't need to have separate questions about every letter of the alphabet.
    – Marthaª
    Nov 10, 2011 at 18:02
  • @Marthaª: What about “a” or “an” for words that don't start with vowels but sound like they're starting with a vowel? That's a reasonable question if you don't know English and pronounce initial "st" as /est/. I see similar reasonableness with "one". It's a seeming exception to the rule that needs explanation.
    – Mitch
    Nov 10, 2011 at 18:27

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