"an uniform" or "a uniform"

English as a Second Language Listening, speaking, pronunciation and accent
1

which one the true " an uniform" or " a uniform"

which one the true " a bookstore" or “a bookshop”

2

.
“a uniform”

" a bookstore" or “a bookshop” – Both are fine.
.

3

It’s very interesting… why “a uniform”? I can’t fail to agree that it’s true… “a uniform”. But why? The rule says “we use AN before a vowel” (an apple, an envelope, an English dictionary" etc.) Is a uniform an exception to the rule?

Thank you in advance :slight_smile:

4

Hi, the ‘u’ sound is sometimes pronounces as a vowel and sometimes as a consonant. Listen to these examples: uniform, university, universal, etc. As you can hear, the first sound of these words is ‘j’ not ‘u’.

Let me know if this makes sense to you.
Thanks,
Torsten[YSaerTTEW443543]

TOEIC listening, photographs: Sitting around a table[YSaerTTEW443543]

5

Great! Thanks a lot! :slight_smile: I’ve got it!

Thanks,
Marina.

6

The “u” in “uniform” cannot be judged on the fact that it’s a vowel; rather, it is judged on its pronunciation:

you

Youniform

Hence it’s preceded by “a” to form the noun phrase “a uniform”.

Now let’s look at “urn”.

It starts with a “u”, but is the article the same?

Urn’s pronunciation is “earn”.

So we have the noun phrase “an urn”.

7

By the way, this also applies to words like:

an hour
an honour

which take “an”, while

a heist
a hoof

take “a”.

edit: oops, my apologies… I think I have inadvertently brought back a dead thread.

8

that’s right.
thank u torsten

9

“a uniform” is correct. because it starts with a consonant, not a vowel. you can check the pronounciation in the dictionary.
“bookshop” and “bookstore” have almost the same meaning. but i think bookstore shoulb be bigger.