Grammer quandaries

[mojo]

I thought I was a pretty good speller but when you write a lot you find out your flaws.

So the rule is 'a' becomes 'an' when preceded by a word that starts with a vowel.

But if I say.. "Looking for a USA casino" it sounds better than "Looking for an USA casino".

Or "Looking for a United States casino."

"Looking for an United States casino."

I could just move on, you would think, but it bothers me.

[Chalkie]

Perhaps this helps?





Why do some authors use the word an before all words that start with an H? Is this form of writing correct?

Contemporary writers using American English generally follow these basic rules for using the indefinite articles a and an:

• Use a before nouns starting with a consonant (a boy, a cat, a donut).
• Use an before nouns starting with a vowel (an apple, an elephant, an ice cream cone).

Exceptions:

• For nouns beginning with a silent-h, use an (an hour, an honor, an honest man), but if the h is not silent, use a (a horse, a handle, a heart).
• Use a before nouns beginning with u and eu when they sound like "you"(a European, a university, a unit).

Writers of Early Modern English applied an more widely to words beginning with h because speaking patterns of the times made that initial letter silent in many words, such as an heroic act.
Now that the once-unspoken letter h is being heard in our modern-day language, use of an is becoming increasingly rare with harsh-h sounding words. An occasional an historical, an hereditary, or an hysterectomy may creep into formal writing — or even everyday conversation — but these dated references are going out of fashion.

[aksana]

Very interesting thread! So it's correct to say:"Looking for a USA casino", isn't it?

[Chalkie]

It appears so yes, although technically not i think, however, i will dig up rules in a bit.

[Nandakishore]

But 'an' is also used in case of abbreviations which start with consonants, which when pronounced sound like vowels, e.g. 'r' (pronounced 'aar'). An RTG casino.

[mojo]

Good point Nan.

Thanks for the info Chalkie.

Still not sure. Perhaps it's better to write phonetically sometimes? In some cases?

[Chalkie]

The Rule

The rule states that “a” should be used before words that begin with consonants (e.g., b, c ,d) while “an” should be used before words that begin with vowels (e.g., a,e,i). Notice, however, that the usage is determined by the pronunciation and not by the spelling, as many people wrongly assume.
You should say, therefore, “an hour” (because hour begins with a vowel sound) and “a history” (because history begins with a consonant sound).
Similarly you should say “a union” even if union begins with a “u.” That is because the pronunciation begins with “yu”, which is a consonant sound.
Abbreviations

Deciding which version you should use with abbreviations is the tricky part. First of all you need to understand if the abbreviation is pronounced as a single word or letter by letter.
While we say “a light-water reactor,” the abbreviation is “an LWR.”
Similarly, you should use “an NBC reporter” (because “NBC” is pronounced “enbisi”) and “a NATO authority” (because “NATO” begins with a “ne” sound).


http://www.dailywritingtips.com/usin...-before-words/

[mojo]

Similarly you should say “a union” even if union begins with a “u.” That is because the pronunciation begins with “yu”, which is a consonant sound.

Aha! Thanks Chalkie. So it's 'a USA casino' which sounds better.

Who made up these rules.

[Nandakishore]

But if I say.. "Looking for a USA casino" it sounds better than "Looking for an USA casino".

And that's correct. Read here for an explanation: http://wordwhirled.blogspot.com/2005...or-unique.html

[mojo]

On the other hand you would use 'looking for an American casino' instead of 'looking for a American casino'.

Or just say 'looking for casinos for USA'. LOL

[vinism]

As Chalkie noted, a is correct before USA. However, I would argue that "looking for an American casino," "looking for a casino that takes American players," or "looking for a casino that takes players based in the U.S." are more correct usages. (Yep, I'm anal about words....)

[Renee]

My dad told me that English was such a hard language to learn because of how many rules we have...

If you think about it, we do.

Look at the latin based european languages like italian and french. They have few rules and the language IMO is very easy to learn because of this.

English is a strange language.. there are too many exceptions to the rule.

[Nandakishore]

My dad told me that English was such a hard language to learn because of how many rules we have...

To be precise, English has less rules than French or Germany, but it has more exceptions because English has always absorbed words and phrases from other languages more than other languages do. That's why English is one of the richest languages of the world.

[aksana]

No, English is an easy language, I don't know it so excellent, but it's easy to learn. For example, for me German is a more difficult language, and I don't talk about Japanese, Chinese, Korean, Hebrew languages, they are really very very difficult. And Russian language is also very difficult, even Russians don't know this language very good, especially Russian grammar rules are very difficult

[Renee]

No, English is an easy language, I don't know it so excellent, but it's easy to learn. For example, for me German is a more difficult language, and I don't talk about Japanese, Chinese, Korean, Hebrew languages, they are really very very difficult. And Russian language is also very difficult, even Russians don't know this language very good, especially Russian grammar rules are very difficult

Well my dad is Hungarian and the Hungarian language is not like any other language in the world (and IMO very hard to learn if you don't have anyone teaching you). He thought English was very hard to learn.

I find that while learning other languages (French, Greek and learning Italian at the moment) they make more sense in the structure of their languages compared to English. They all have similar rules for verbs and endings of words etc.

English doesn't really follow rules like that. Like past tenses etc.. In the other languages past tense verbs all have the same endings attached to the verb stem apart from a couple of exceptions.. English past tenses are all over the place.

Eg, most french past tense end in the verb stem + é. English past tense mostly end in ed, but then you get the ones like the verb to run. Past tense is not runned, it's ran. To swim is not swimmed, it's swam. To dig is not digged, it's dug. So even those three have no similarity whatsoever so there is not even a rule to the exception, you just have to know.. Then you have to count, where the past tense is counted. To type, past tense, typed.

I could give a million examples I guess..

One thing I think is great about English is that there are no male and female, everything is just "the".. the problem with translating into different languages that have male and female is that if you are telling a joke it doesn't really make sense in some cases..

I can see how English could be hard to learn.

[mojo]

I wish I had taken the time to learn more languages in school. I was lucky to finish at all lol.

If there was one language you would learn as a second language for this business what would to top one be?

[Renee]

I wish I had taken the time to learn more languages in school. I was lucky to finish at all lol.

If there was one language you would learn as a second language for this business what would to top one be?

I learned Italian when I was 10 for 3 years (and at the time could speak it better than English) but due to lack of use lost it.. I started learning it again a couple of months ago for this business and find that I'm picking it up again very quickly because I remember things that I've already learned. It's amazing how the brain works

Never too late to start learning Mojo! After all, you have a lot of people here to practice on

It's always easier if you have someone to practice on... You and Joe should go do it together, that way you can practice on each other.

[mojo]

I would definately consider it. I would want to be able to write.

I don't know if I would learn it with Joe. That way I can say things and he won't know what they are.

So Italian would be the best way to go for casino marketing?

[Renee]

I would definately consider it. I would want to be able to write.

I don't know if I would learn it with Joe. That way I can say things and he won't know what they are.

So Italian would be the best way to go for casino marketing?

I don't think Italian is the best, but I think it's one of the best..

I already speak French, so didn't need to learn that one.. And Helene speaks French and Spanish, so didn't need to do Spanish..

I think the top three would be French, Italian and Spanish, followed by German and maybe Danish.

It also depends on you. Some people learn some languages easier than others.. Personally I think French is easier than Italian... The only problem for me with French is that sometimes I forget the spelling because you don't pronounce the last letter of the word unless the next word starts with a vowel, so some words sound the same but are spelled different like veux and veut. The other thing with French is that if you aren't good with accents and pronunciation, you may have a little trouble with the pronunciation of the letter R. The letter R is pronounced with a roll in Italian which is probably easier I guess..

So many options!

But they are my recommended ones to choose from.

[mojo]

From your expert opinion, which one to you think has the largest casino market?

Poor Renee, all these questions. I can't help it! I have to know.