johnwhelan
Well-known member
So please tell what was the point you were trying to make if we all got it wrong
I think the point is that English is primarily a spoken language so when you speak you naturally use "a" and "an" correctly according to your dialect/pronunciation. Unfortunately we use written English in the forum and it can be difficult enough getting understood and the more academic view of grammar can assist here. There is another issue that hasn't been touched on and that is that many people whose first language is not English read the forum and the misuse of grammar will lead them astray.
My personal view is most of the time the formal grammar rules should be followed for clarities sake there are occasions when the rules can be broken but in an international forum you need a lowest common denominator sort of approach. The best example I can give you is in Canada we have civil servants who are rated bilingual, I used to have a some sort of level in French, not the top because my accent / vowels are European rather than North American. However at work we had some one who boasted they were completely bilingual their first language was French. One of my coworkers came from Yorkshire some fifteen miles from where I was born as the sheep graze on the moors. We had a conversation using northern grammar, thee, thou etc with the verb endings and style of speech as used in King James authorised bible, we could understand each other perfectly but the "perfectly bilingual" Francophone caught about one word in ten. When we wanted to communicate in the office we used a more standardised approach.
Cheerio John