Why do we say "a unique situation"?

Question

I just had a shocker moment when I received an e-mail from a friend of mine who is a student of English.

He had written "an unique situation", which technically seems like it would be correct from a student's point of view, as it follows the rule of a --> an when preceding a vowel.

However, that sounds completely wrong to me and I have always seen this written and spoken as a unique situation, but I could not think of a reason to explain to my friend why we say it this way when there is clearly a rule that says otherwise! I know we often break our own rules in the English language but this seemed like one of the few that we could count on... Any linguists have any explanation for this?

(Would it have to do with the pronunciation of "u" being like "y"?)

Just to clarify I am a native English speaker.

Answer 1

I still can't figure out why in English we say, An Historic moment

The long "U" in English sounds like "Yoo", which begins with a consonant Y sound, so "A unique..." is probably correct.

I've never heard, "An universal idea" or "An ukalele" or "An eucalyptus tree" ...

Answer 2

Yes, for a native English speaker, it is sometimes a challenge to try to explain the peculiarities of English - unless, of course, the speaker is trained in teaching English as a second language.

I am not an ESL teacher, but I believe that your guess about the "u" sound being more of a "yu" sound may be the answer.

As for "an historic moment" vs. "a history", I remember reading someplace that the change of stress to the second syllable in "historic" makes a difference. On the other hand, my memory may be totally faulty on that one.

Don't lots of people say "a historic moment"? I just quizzed my husband on this, and he said "an historic moment", whereas I said "a historic moment".

• Then it should be "An ubiquitous problem" based on stress of second syllable? :) - pesta Mar 4, 2011
• I once read somewhere that "history" was pronounced with silent H, in English history, explaining the "an". - pesta Mar 4, 2011
• No, I think the second syllable was only with "history" sorts of words...my memory may be faulty, though... - mountaingirl Mar 4, 2011

Answer 3

Yes, You are absolutely correct: It should be a unique situation

''an unique situation'' sounds bad to my ears as a native English speaker and is also incorrect

I cannot elaborate on or explain the peculiar reasoning for this particular grammatical exception

The general rule that seems to apply is : The word an is used when the first sound of the following word begins with a vowel

an elephant would be correct as would an apple

However, when the following word begins with a consonant (anything other than an a, e i o or u)

a is usually used:

eg a pig a dinosaur a catastrophe

The rule appears to avoid the problem of two vowels being placed in juxtaposition ie next to each other f For example: a elephant

This is because it would sound unnatural and hinder the flow of speech to say a elephant but saying '' an elephant''.... would flow together better as you can combine the sounds of n and e

eg I would like to see an elephant in real life

It is fairly similar to the situation where the French would say;

Je vais aller a la banque = I am going to the bank

the sound of the s in suis and the a in aller are combined/rolled together to faciliate the flow of the speech.

This would only occur when the initial sound of the following word begins with a vowel

I hope this helps

• "Je vais a la banque" (or ""Je vais aller a la banque", in the future), "Je suis aller ..." is awful. - samdie Mar 4, 2011
• Thank you, Samdie I have made the necessary correction. My french is not normally that bad I was tired when I wrote it and was not thinking carefully to my shame - FELIZ77 Mar 4, 2011

Answer 4

While English is peculiar in many ways this is actually fairly easy and straight forward. You just have to keep in mind that the pronunciation, not the spelling is what determines whether it's a or an. So we have a unique situation and an upward movement because unique starts with a consonant sound although it is a vowel letter (as you say "like y").

So, when you're learning English the solution to the problem which I think works best is to pronounce what you are writing.

By the way, Spanish has something similar when it changes the definite article from la to el before a female noun that starts with a. Here, the key is also the pronunciation not the spelling as is proven by e.g. el habla cotidiana.