托福词汇辨析：a和an的正确用法

新东方托福网为考生推荐关于“a"和"an"冠词的正确用法，涉及到其跟随名词后是否有元音发音的单词： English has two forms of the indefinite article: a and an. In modern usage, the form a is used in front of words that begin with a consonant sound; an is used in front of words that begin with a vowel sound. The following uses of an are nonstandard in modern English: OK, I admit it, I don’t see why the iPad would be an useful device. Plot is an unique feature that indicatesthe address of the place. Found an useful paper on grid generation Fastest way to find an unique element outof given numbers We are an uniform based school and the design of our uniforms has been a careful and consultative process withexecutive, staff, student and community. It may be that writers who put an infront of unique or useful have mis-understood the rule; perhaps they think that an goes in front of any word that begins with u, regardless of how the u is pronounced. Although the letter u usually represents a vowel sound, it does not always do so. Such words as umbrella, undertaker,and ugly do begin with a vowel sound, [uh]. These words should be preceded by an: an umbrella an undertaker an ugly dog Sometimes, u represents aconsonant sound that incorporates the y sound heard at the beginning of yellow: unique [yoo-neek] useful [yoos-ful] usual [yoo-zyoo-l] I’ve never heard any one pronounce the word an in front of one of these words, although I suppose that somewhere in the world someone may talk that way. For a speaker who pronounces the word unique as [uh-neek] or [oo-neek], there would be some justification for writing “anunique feature.” What I think is that some speakers say “auseful paper” but go to write it and think it “looks funny”with a instead of an. In the case of an beforea word that begins with u, let your ear guide a useful device, but an unusual device a unique feature, but an ultra-interesting feature a useful paper, but an undervalued paper a unique element, but an unknown element a uniform-based school, but an unconventional school 微信号：testcrackers(←长按复制) 推荐理由：一线TOEFL、IELTS、GAMT考试培训资料。教师课件。最新出国留学考试咨询发布，英语听力口语学习、背单词~ (编辑：张剑乔) 版权声明：本文系新东方网独家稿件，版权为新东方网所有。转载须注明来源及作者，否则必将追究法律责任。