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Subject:Re: A or An? From:Paul Allen Rice <PaulRice -at- BROADCAST -dot- NET> Date:Fri, 4 Jul 1997 02:28:34 -0500
On StarDate 07:48 AM 7/3/97 -0700, the following TechnoBabble was spewed
forth from Tamminga, Ernie:
>The first part of Will's suggestion is good.
>The second part doesn't work. If it were, then you would also say...
>
>"In the phrase 'I want a/an orange wagon', use 'a' instead of 'an'
>because the item that's being referred to is the wagon, and not
>'orange'".
>
>Doesn't work that way. The article has to agree with the word it
>immediately precedes, not with the downstream noun that follows however
>many frontloaded adjectives there may be.
>
I'll agree with the rephrasing... that was my first thought.
But I want to know when it became acceptable to say "an historic occasion"?
That has been bugging me ever since the first time I heard it on the
evening news by none other than Mr. Proper himself, Dan Rather.
Paul Rice
PaulRice -at- Broadcast -dot- Net
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