NationStates Jolt Archive

So I am typing a paper up, right? Well I type "it was ruled by an European Archduke"(inreference to mexico during Emperor Maximillian). But, MS word says that AN should be changed to A. I thought that one would use an before a word that starts with a vowel? Or is this a rule coming up because its a proper name???


-is confused-

is strange as you may find it. MSword is actually right here.

Try saying "an European". Thats just awkward

Word is wrong, but your wording is clumsy in my opinion. It's in the passive voice.

An apple.
An eel.
An icecube.
An octopi.
An umbrella.

An European = an yeropee-in.

See? Doesn't work.
Its a European.

Word is wrong, but your wording is clumsy in my opinion. It's in the passive voice.

"A European" is wrong? Nope, Word is correct.

Word is wrong, but your wording is clumsy in my opinion. It's in the passive voice.


And I've changed it from passive, as it eliminates the problem.

i find emperor maximillian and empress carlotta fascinating. what are you writing about?

An apple.
An eel.
An icecube.
An octopi.
An umbrella.

An European = an yeropee-in.

See? Doesn't work.
Its a European.

Shouldnt it be "an octopus"

An apple.
An eel.
An icecube.
An octopi.
An umbrella.

An European = an yeropee-in.

See? Doesn't work.
Its a European.

Ahhh...I gotcha.. the whole pronunciation of it. I wasn't thinking about that.

European is an exception to the rule. There are other exceptions the other way too. e.g. "an hour" not "a hour".

i find emperor maximillian and empress carlotta fascinating. what are you writing about?

I am just doing a silly one reaction and summary paper on the history of mexico. Its for my latin american politics class.

Shouldnt it be "an octopus"

Whoops. You're right.

An octopus.

Zilam, language rules are based on pronunciation. Writing is just a way to represent speech visually. European starts with a "yuh" sound, so the indefinite article is "a".

"A European" is wrong? Nope, Word is correct.
I looked it up. You are correct.

But the original sentence is still passive, and unless the style manual calls for it, I suggest the change. You avoid the whole problem that way because the indefinite article becomes a definite one, if you use it at all.

It's not actually the initial letter that causes "a" to become "an". It's the onset (ie, the initial sound). European, despite having an E at the start, begins with a "y" sound. Thus, it is a European.

It depends on the sound not the spelling

I looked it up. You are correct.

But the original sentence is still passive, and unless the style manual calls for it, I suggest the change. You avoid the whole problem that way because the indefinite article becomes a definite one, if you use it at all.

Ok, so is this at least a little better:

Even at one point in its long history, Mexico fell into the hands of a European Archduke, Maximilian.

Pronounciation is the key. I'd say a herb because I emphasise the 'h'. Some people say an herb.

English is very complicated; it has few general pronounciation rules. I tried to justify that words beiginning with a double vowel sound tend to start with 'a' and not 'an', but then I remembered that it's an Australian.I guess that European could be viewed as an exception.

I am just doing a silly one reaction and summary paper on the history of mexico. Its for my latin american politics class.

its a cool part of mexican history. a puppet emperor set up by the french, the popular resistance led by benito juarez. great tales of bravery, folly and impossible victories.

i really should read a book on it.

Ok, so is this at least a little better:

Even at one point in its long history, Mexico fell into the hands of a European Archduke, Maximilian.
Sure.

it's a unit, a euro, a user... rather logical for a foreigner...


BTW: LaTeX is so much better than word. I stopped using other methods to write texts.

it's a unit, a euro, a user... rather logical for a foreigner...


BTW: LaTeX is so much better than word. I stopped using other methods to write texts.

I'm guessing it's Linux-only based on it's lack of popularity?

its a cool part of mexican history. a puppet emperor set up by the french, the popular resistance led by benito juarez. great tales of bravery, folly and impossible victories.

i really should read a book on it.

Someone should make a movie about it :D

http://blog.erdener.org/archives/images/20040816-word.jpg

So I am typing a paper up, right? Well I type "it was ruled by an European Archduke"(inreference to mexico during Emperor Maximillian). But, MS word says that AN should be changed to A. I thought that one would use an before a word that starts with a vowel? Or is this a rule coming up because its a proper name???


-is confused-

As far as I'm aware, it's more to do with the way a word is pronounced - eg. "an European" sounds like "an Yeuropean, and of course the word "an" is not supposed to come before a consonant. Similar to the way in which it's acceptable to write "an hour" because it sounds like "an our"

I'm guessing it's Linux-only based on it's lack of popularity?


It is widely used by mathematicians, scientists, and engineers, in academia and commercially, and by others as a primary or intermediate format (e.g. translating DocBook and other XML-based formats to PDF) due to the quality of typesetting achievable by TeX. It offers programmable desktop publishing features and extensive facilities for automating most aspects of typesetting and desktop publishing, including numbering and cross-referencing, tables and figures, page layout and bibliographies.

It's the only format to use if you are doing serious science (and not economy or marketing :) )

http://blog.erdener.org/archives/images/20040816-word.jpg

lol

It's the only format to use if you are doing serious science (and not economy or marketing :) )

Oh. I think I'll be fine sticking to OpenOffice.org for my less-scientific needs.

http://blog.erdener.org/archives/images/20040816-word.jpg

Albinoblacksheep r0><0rz! w00t!

Oh. I think I'll be fine sticking to OpenOffice.org for my less-scientific needs.

I was really unsatisfied with how OOo texts looked and prefer the elegant defaults of LaTeX also for my story...

So I am typing a paper up, right? Well I type "it was ruled by an European Archduke"(inreference to mexico during Emperor Maximillian). But, MS word says that AN should be changed to A. I thought that one would use an before a word that starts with a vowel? Or is this a rule coming up because its a proper name???


-is confused-
j00 is teh wrong, 'an European' doesn't come out of the mouth proper like.

http://blog.erdener.org/archives/images/20040816-word.jpg

Curse you, I was gonna post that!


Anyway, OpenOffice FTW!