Re: RFS: dfu-programmer

[Andrew Straw <astraw@caltech.edu>]

Michelle Konzack wrote:
> "an" is used before a "vowel" like
>
>     an USB connector
>     an Inode
>     an Error
> but
>     a Straw(berry)  :-)
>     a Maintainer
>     a Debian package
>   
Well, that's certainly what they taught me at school, too. :) But it's
just not what I hear or read living in the US for ~30 years... So I
looked a little further:

Basically, one says "an" before a _phonemic_ vowel -- in other words,
only a vowel that starts with a vowel-like sound. Specifically, this
page http://owl.english.purdue.edu/handouts/esl/esliart.html mentions
that "u" often does not require an "an", namely when it sounds like "y"
in "you". A found a few other references to this on the web, and it
appears entirely reasonable and agrees with my personal experience as a
native English speaker, so I believe it.