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It seems like "A European" is the correct one but why ?

Is this a general rule about Capitalized words?

Mrko
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  • a duplicate of what? please leave a link back to the best source of information... – ntg Jun 30 '16 at 12:41

2 Answers2

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Even though European begins with a letter that often represents a vowel sound, phonetically it begins with the consonant /j/. That is why it is preceded by a and not an. The capital letter is irrelevant.

Barrie England
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Any word that sounds like it begins with a consonant is preceeded by the pronoun A, even if it begins with the letter E. Since the word EUROPEAN sounds like it begins with a Y, the proper pronoun is A.

If the stress does not fall on the first syllable, then an rather than a is used.

a h i story of England.

an hist o rical timeline.

a eur opean of note

Maximilian
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  • is this really important ? can we say whichever we want ? – Mrko Nov 23 '13 at 09:10
  • I can't agree with the second example. I certainly just say 'a historial...' – James Webster Nov 23 '13 at 09:14
  • @CatwithaFez, It is quite important though. Try saying a few phrases that should have "an" with "a". It feels uncomfortable with the stop. a owl, a apple, a umbrella, a editor, a ice-cream – James Webster Nov 23 '13 at 09:17
  • If the stress does not fall on the first syllable *and* the first consonant in the word is 'h' *and* you are one of the minority of English speakers who speaks this way, you may use 'an'. It's "a min or ity", "a Eu clid ean space". but "a/an hist or ical". – Peter Shor Nov 23 '13 at 12:27
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    A is not a pronoun. −1 for that alone. – RegDwigнt Nov 23 '13 at 13:00