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Sprint 1.3: A And An — The First Time You Mention It

Learner uses a or an on first mention of a singular countable noun, and chooses between them by sound rather than by letter.

7 micro-lessons

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A or An

Six sentences where the first letter and the first sound disagree.

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My brother works at a college. He is ______.

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Your Ear Decides, Not the Spelling

The sound rule, the say-it-aloud test, and the article every job needs.

Your ear decides, not the spelling

Use an before a vowel sound. Use a before a consonant sound.

The letter does not decide. The sound does.

university   you say "yoo"   consonant sound   → a university
hour         you say "ow"    vowel sound       → an hour
MBA          you say "em"    vowel sound       → an MBA
European     you say "yur"   consonant sound   → a European
honest       you say "on"    vowel sound       → an honest answer

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Say It Out Loud

Five words where the mouth and the spelling disagree.

Five speakers. Each shows the written word, the sound it actually begins with in a speech bubble, and the article that sound takes.

Click to zoom

The mouth chooses the article, not the first letter.

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Sound First, Then Article

Three worked chains. Name the sound before you choose the article.

Find the first sound, then choose the article. The sound always comes first.

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1. hour

The first sound you say is , and that is a sound.

So the article is hour.

2. university

The first sound you say is , and that is a sound.

So the article is university.

3. MBA

The first sound you say is , and that is a sound.

So the article is MBA.

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First Mention

Eight sentences. Six introduce something new. Two refer back.

Write a, an, or the in each gap. Two gaps describe something already mentioned, and those take the.

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My sister is engineer at a car factory.
It takes hour to reach the airport by bus.
They are building university on the edge of the city.
He showed me X-ray of his hand.
I bought a bicycle last month. bicycle was cheap.
She lives on one-way street near the station.
My father is honest man.
We watched a film last night. film was very long.

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Introduce Two Things

One job, one new object. Say each noun aloud before choosing.

Write two sentences. In the first, say what someone's job is. In the second, introduce an object the reader has not heard about yet.

Sentence 1: say what a person does.

My sister is ...

Sentence 2: introduce something new.

I bought ...

Say each noun out loud before you choose a or an. Keep both sentences short.

Your two sentences*

Two sentences, one per line.

Which noun did you have to say out loud before choosing?*

Write the noun only.

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Why That One

Say one word aloud and explain which sound gave you the article.

Learners can ask follow-up questions and keep the thread going.

Pick one word where the spelling and the sound disagree — university, hour, MBA, European, honest, one-way, or X-ray.

Say it out loud. What sound does it actually start with?

Then say which article that sound gives you, and why the spelling would have sent you the other way.

One or two sentences is enough.

just now

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