104
votes
Accepted
Why would "an mule" be used instead of "a mule"?
The original printing had "an ass" instead of "an mule". That error was not lost on the chemistry community. See, for instance, Krenos's 2004 review of the text in the Journal of Chemical Education:
...
- 638
89
votes
Why would "an mule" be used instead of "a mule"?
It's just a typo, and it probably originally said "an ass". That would have been changed because it's incorrect (an ass is a donkey, not a horse–donkey cross) and, even if it were correct, the ...
- 4,477
20
votes
Accepted
When is it correct to use "scissors" as a singular noun?
You can use scissors with a singular verb anytime you want. However, to prevent getting into arguments, you may wish to limit this usage to medical scissors. Or you can say 'if a scissors was good ...
15
votes
Accepted
Why was "a world" used in this sentence of Melville?
OED:
World 5b. A period or age of human history associated with particular cultural, intellectual, or economic characteristics or conditions, or indicated by the character of those living in it.
1849 ...
- 46.4k
13
votes
When is it correct to use "scissors" as a singular noun?
According to the OED, scissors has a long history of use with a singular concordance (see examples below). Although the New English Dictionary (1910) - the original title of the Oxford English ...
- 18.1k
11
votes
"You're too clever a man"
This is an example of a Big Mess Construction:
This is too big a mess (for anyone to clear up).
You'll find the same format in a number of other cases:
a. She made too rude a remark (for me to ...
- 67.3k
11
votes
Is it incorrect to write "I rate this book a 3 out of 4 stars?"
Both "I rate this book three out of four stars" and "I rate this book a three out of four stars" sound acceptable to me.
"I rate this book a three" seems grammatical to me (although maybe "I give ...
- 84.5k
9
votes
Accepted
Is "a happiness" a valid expression?
Yes, this would be valid. Concepts like happiness that are generally not used with an article (a/the), can have an article if they are qualified.
So here, the part after it ("that came from someone ...
- 642
8
votes
Accepted
Indefinite article before noun starting with "the"
The difficult part of this sentence is the DVD title already having an indefinite article. In cases like this, you would choose whichever indefinite article fits grammatically. For example, I would ...
- 506
8
votes
Indefinite article before noun starting with "the"
One thing that no one's mentioned is to just drop the extra article. This one only works when the title is still identifiable as a movie without the article. For example:
"I want to buy a Lord ...
7
votes
Accepted
"at/to the Beach" but "at/to a restaurant"?
Because that is how English speakers talk (and write).
There are things that a city has (if they have them) that are used with the, even if there are more than one and a particular one is not being ...
7
votes
Why was "a world" used in this sentence of Melville?
Melville was free to choose the definite or indefinite article here. In general, it means very similar things either way. It's hard to say why Melville chose the indefinite article, but we can guess ...
- 41.7k
7
votes
Accepted
When and why did "a" become a synonym for "per"?
Actually, your question should be asked the other way around: "when did per become a synonym for a?", since this use of a is much older. And the answer, according to the OED, is around 1400....
- 90.3k
6
votes
"a" sharp tongue vs. "the" pointing finger
To have a sharp tongue is a common idiom in English, meaning something like "to habitually utter harsh or mean things with no warning". *To have a pointing finger, on the other hand, is not, though we ...
- 469
6
votes
Why is there an indefinite article in this sentence?
Caro invites you figuratively into the planning—you are to imagine Robert Moses saying at that time "We're going to build this around a sea-lion pool". When the decision was reached the pool ...
- 69.1k
6
votes
Accepted
Could it be that 'an another' is acceptable usage?
...when a mistake becomes widespread enough, it ceases to be a mistake, and becomes an acceptable alternative usage.
This isn't quite true... If everyone (including those making the mistake in the ...
- 67.3k
6
votes
Accepted
"With pen and paper" <-- Why don't we need an article here?
This is an anwer that I posted on this similar question here:
Omission of the indefinite article to eliminate ambiguity
Bare Coordination
This phenomenon is one that is not at all well understood, ...
- 48.7k
5
votes
A tendency to use "a" in place of "an" in American English
This is mentioned in Fowler's Dictionary of Modern English Usage:
There are signs that a is intruding into the proper territory of an in American English of various kinds. Two scholars presented ...
- 67.3k
5
votes
An epitome—grammatically correct?
Grammatically there is nothing wrong with saying "an epitome". However there are logical issues with it.
"epitome" is defined as
A person or thing that is a perfect example of a particular ...
- 26.4k
5
votes
An epitome—grammatically correct?
The Ngram chart for the frequency of "an epitome of" (blue line) versus the frequency of occurrence of "the epitome of" (blue line) in published works included in the Google Books ...
- 169k
5
votes
Accepted
Indefinite articles and chemical elements ("an Mg salt"?)
The following advice, found in an article by Michaela Panter, PhD, gives the advice found in the ACS style guide, but other science-related style guides often echo this:
Should the pronunciation of ...
- 87.1k
5
votes
Should one use "an" or an "a" before an acronym beginning with the letter H?
As several people have already stated, in both speech and writing, the only thing that matters is how the particular writer/speaker would pronounce the sound that follows the indefinite article. If he ...
- 12.6k
5
votes
Accepted
Nary an X or/nor a Y
Merriam-Webster's Eleventh Collegiate Dictionary (2003), a resource that tends to be parsimonious with its usage labels, identifies nary as a dialect word:
nary adj {alter. of ne'er a} (1848) dial : ...
- 169k
5
votes
What is 'there is a God' supposed to mean?
I doubt that anybody can give a definite answer to this question. If one were to ask the people who write 'a God', what exactly they had in mind when they combined the indefinite article with what ...
- 8,928
4
votes
Why is "any" not classified as an article?
Tradition
The term "article" is relatively old, and grammatical terminology has a certain amount of inertia. So this is partly a historical question: why did the word "article" come to be used to ...
- 84.5k
4
votes
Can choosing "a something" over "the something" be natural even when that "something" is previously mentioned?
Yes, a is perfectly valid, and in fact more valid than the.
It doesn't matter how many such courts there are. The indefinite article is to show that it was a constitutional court as opposed to a ...
- 103k
4
votes
Accepted
Verb - agreement dilemma - 'first-two days'
The key is that "two days" is a measure and measures are treated as singular.
That is why your option 1 works as the subject, verb, and predicate are in agreement. However I do not believe it needs a ...
- 5,774
4
votes
Accepted
for (a?) good reason: difference in meaning?
It's a slight difference in connotation. "A good reason" implies "a single good reason," it implies that there is or is not a compelling reason so there's the sense of a particular reason.
"For ...
- 263
4
votes
Not specifying the amount that you eat/drink
The first thing to notice about this question is that it really isn't about quantifying objects. The second thing is that it's not about the verbs eat and drink. Instead, judging from the example ...
- 109k
4
votes
Which article should be used in documenting arguments to a software function
I would say all of those options are correct. There can be a subtle difference in meaning, though:
please specify a patch to the source directory: by using a, it is suggested that several different ...
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