Booher's Rules of Business Grammar - Dianna Booher 2009

A honor or an honor to be here?
Modifier mishaps

THE ARTICLES: A OR AN?

Articles of Incorporation. Articles of Agreement. Articles of Faith. Organizers of people and information like to use the term articles as a means to categorize and classify. So as you might expect, grammarians have selected articles as a label for the three words that point out nouns: the, a, and an.

Use a before words that begin with a consonant.

Use an before words that begin with a vowel or vowel sound.

Dilbert hired a turkey for an assistant.

Ebeneezer created an eye-appealing brochure and a wall poster.

Pongo won an attendance award and a sales prize.

Wilmo considers it an honor to speak to an artisan of your caliber. (The h in honor is silent, so the word begins with a vowel sound.)

Gertrude reports an incident like carjacking to a dispatcher rather than to her boss.

The n in an keeps the two vowel sounds distinct (the article a and the initial vowel of the following word).

Memory tip

When you need the n to separate vowel sounds, imagine yourself enunciating like an opera star.