I’m derailing this showerthought to point out that I think it should be “a unique”, not “an unique”. Say both out loud. Now you might think that doesn’t make sense, because unique starts with a vowel. But not so fast! “Unique” is well… unique… because the “u” is actually pronounced like a “y”. The “a vs an” decision is actually an issue of consonant/vowel sound and not literally whether it’s a vowel or a consonant in the first letter of the following word. Remember the old list of vowels? a, e, i, o, u, and sometimes y? This is one of those sometimes moments. Y sometimes behaves like a vowel, but for the “a vs an” decision, it behaves like a consonant. You wouldn’t say “an yellow shirt”. You’d say “a yellow shirt”. And “unique” has the same sound at its start as “yellow” does.
I’m derailing this showerthought to point out that I think it should be “a unique”, not “an unique”. Say both out loud. Now you might think that doesn’t make sense, because unique starts with a vowel. But not so fast! “Unique” is well… unique… because the “u” is actually pronounced like a “y”. The “a vs an” decision is actually an issue of consonant/vowel sound and not literally whether it’s a vowel or a consonant in the first letter of the following word. Remember the old list of vowels? a, e, i, o, u, and sometimes y? This is one of those sometimes moments. Y sometimes behaves like a vowel, but for the “a vs an” decision, it behaves like a consonant. You wouldn’t say “an yellow shirt”. You’d say “a yellow shirt”. And “unique” has the same sound at its start as “yellow” does.
I think you need to check yourself into an hospital and seek medical attention!
But, me too, because I agree with everything you said…
This is a bad example. “Hospital” is pronounced without the leading “H” sound in some regions, so “an” would be appropriate. :(
'Ence why I mentioned it! ;)
This is pedantic as hell but you are not wrong!
Well you can also intuitively tell which one is right by pronouncing it.
Just tried it. “An oonique”… Sounds fancy.