Should I use article "a" with the word "university"?
I was writing a sentence with the word university and was confused by the question whether I need to use article a or an. Could you help me? Is it a university or an university? Thank you!
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Best answer
Hello Solamio, I wouldn't use any of them unless you use an adjective or specify the place or name your are referring to before the word university. i.e.: an old university or a prestigious university - the University of Harvard. No article (definite or indefinite) is used before university or school but in the cases above mentioned. I went to university/school many years ago. You can use 'a' in cases like this: A university is a place where you will enjoy learning. The letter 'u' is not considered to be a vowel in phonetics. I hope you find this useful. Greetings
you should use the university..That sounds more appropriate
I would rather use "the university" it's more natural. Besides that we use "an" before words that starts on vowels (a,e,i,o,u) and "a" before words that doesn't start on vowels.
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In english there are vowels, a e i o u and only when a word begins with these vowels,it will always take “an” and for evey other alphabet it is “a” . So your answer is “an”
English has 5 vowels, and they are a, e, i, o, u. University is a word that starts with a vowel letter which does not have the phonetical (sound) use of vowels in its ‘U’. When you say ‘University’ you don’t say ‘u-niversity’ you say ‘Yu-niversity’. So even if a word starts with a vowel letter, the article ’an’ will be used only if it sounds a, e, i, o, u. other examples:- ‘an honest answer’ , ‘an year after’ , ‘a uniform in blue’
a University, because the U in university is pronounced as a long "u".
The vowel sounds a e I o u is not always used in this instance the u in university is pronunced yew as per the phonetic alphabet so a university is used
We use the article "an" when the first letter has a vowel sound. For example: An apple An egg An ice-cream An umbrella An orange An MP3 player as you can see, when you pronounce any of the nouns, you hear a vowel, so you should use the article "an".
Hi dear it is "a university" because "u" doesn't have a vowel sound here
If any word begins with a consonant SOUND, like "University" (We SAY it as - " Yew nee vir si tee", we use "a" and not "an". The reverse is also true: If a word that begins with a consonant SOUNDS like a vowel, we say "an". For example - " It's AN honour to meet you.
