A or an? Check any word

Type a word or a short phrase and the checker tells you whether it takes a or an, and why. The rule is about the first sound, not the first letter: an hour (silent h), a university (it starts with a “you” sound), an MBA (we say “em”). The checker knows the common exceptions, abbreviations and numbers. It runs in your browser, is free and needs no account.

A or an: the rule is the sound, not the letter

Use a before a word that starts with a consonant sound, and an before a word that starts with a vowel sound. Most of the time the first letter tells you the sound, which is why many learners remember the rule as “an before a, e, i, o, u”. That shortcut breaks in four places, and the checker above handles all of them.

Silent h and the “you” sound

• an hour, an hourly rate

  The h is silent: /ˈaʊə/. Same for honest, honour (US honor) and heir.

• a hotel, a house, a happy child

  Here the h is pronounced, so it is a consonant sound.

• an herb (US) / a herb (UK)

  Americans drop the h in herb; British speakers say it.

• a university, a uniform, a useful tip

  These start with /juː/, the same sound as “you”.

• an umbrella, an uncle, an unusual day

  These start with the vowel sound /ʌ/, so an.

• a European, a euro, a eulogy

  Every eu- word starts with the “you” sound.

Abbreviations: an MBA, a UN report

When you read an abbreviation letter by letter, the article depends on how the first letter's name sounds. The letters A, E, F, H, I, L, M, N, O, R, S, X have names that start with a vowel sound (“ay”, “ef”, “aitch”, “em”, “ex”…), so they take an. All the others, including U (“you”), take a.

• an MBA, an MP3 player, an NHS doctor

  “em”, “en”: vowel sounds.

• an FBI agent, an SOS, an X-ray, an HR manager

  “ef”, “es”, “ex”, “aitch”: vowel sounds.

• a UN report, a URL, a USB cable, a UFO

  “you”: a consonant sound.

• a BBC journalist, a CV, a PhD

  “bee”, “see”, “pee”: consonant sounds.

• a NASA mission, a NATO country

  Said as words, so they start with /n/.

A, an or the?

A and an are the same word, the indefinite article: “one, any one, you don't know which yet”. The is the definite article: “you know which one I mean”. So the choice between a and an is about sound, but the choice between a/an and the is about meaning.

• I saw a dog. The dog was huge.

  First mention: a. Now we both know which dog: the.

• Can you close the door?

  There is one obvious door, so the from the start.

• She is an engineer.

  Jobs take a or an.

• Dogs are loyal. Water is life.

  Plural and uncountable nouns in general take no article.

The never changes its spelling, but its sound does: /ðə/ before a consonant sound (the university) and often /ðiː/ before a vowel sound (the hour). For the full system, with first and second mention, unique things and the most common mistakes, read our guide to a, an and the.

Why a and an are easy to miss

In normal speech a is just /ə/ and an is /ən/, joined to the next word: an apple sounds like “a-napple”. Learners often leave them out when they speak, and do not hear them when they listen. Typing what you hear is the quickest fix: try our free English dictation practice, where a missing a shows up straight away as a mistake. To hear how other small endings work, see the -ed pronunciation checker.

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