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[–] 11 points 7 months ago* (8 children)

Offtopic:

An usually

This feels odd, it seems like proper English, with the An since the next word starts with a vowel, but something about it feels off and I might be too dumb to realize what it is.

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  • [–] 15 points 7 months ago* (last edited 7 months ago) (3 children)

    I'm guessing the title is a typo, and I'm guessing was meant to be "An UNusually...."

    And the "a vs an" rule is more based on the sound that the next word starts with, rather than just the actual letter.

    So for "usually", it's a "You-" sound

    But for "unusually" it's an "Uh-" sound

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  • [–] 10 points 7 months ago*

    Because the u in usually is pronounced like the consonant y, like “yew”. We use “a” before consonant sounds.

    The u in unusually is pronounced like the vowel sound u, like “uh”. We use “an” before vowel sounds.

    This is because two vowel sounds in a row is somewhat awkward and doesn’t flow as easily with how you move your mouth to pronounce things. Using “an” puts an extra consonant sound in between the two vowel sounds.

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