Is it:
a spectacular movie
or it is said:
an spectacular movie
I'm writing a book in English but I'm Latino so I might need some help with this, I'd appreciate it a lot
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2 Answers
The indefinite article "an" is used in front of words that have an initial vowel sound regardless of whether the first letter be a vowel or not. This is called a "sandhi" in English, which is similar to a liaison in French and other Romance languages. In fact, "sandhi" is the catchall term whereof a liaison is a subcategory.
So ask yourself this question: does the word "spectacular" begin with a vowel sound? Is the sibilant "s" a vowel sound? The answer is no, it is not; therefore, the answer is:
a spectacular movie
Notice words that do take "an" usually have a vowel as their first letter, but this is not always the case because of the pronunciation. There are some that can also take both depending upon the pronunciation that the speaker uses.
a book, a doll, a worm, an hour, an apple, a boy, an octopus, a/an historic occasion, a/an hotel, a briefcase, a raisin, an engineer, a user, a board, an orange.
I hope that might have helped you out. Take care and good luck.
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yeah, I get it. Thanks you very much man, It's just that in spanish the vowels are different :/– RodrigoMCommented Dec 9, 2017 at 0:21
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Okay, that's fine. It's pretty easy once you learn the rules. The letter "s" is never going to have an "an" preceding it because it is a sibilant sound. There are words like "one" that have a "w" sound so they don't get an "an". Some words like "homunculus" can be either "a homunculus" or "an homunculus" depending upon whether you say the aspirate "h" sound or skip over it and move straight to the "o" sound.– NickCommented Dec 9, 2017 at 0:28
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2If the questioner has a Spanish-speaking background, it's worth noting that the English sound sequence "sp(vowel)" normally corresponds to the Spanish "es.p(vowel)", using a "." for the syllable boundary. The rule "does this start with a vowel?" is reliable for "a" vs. "an"; where it might get tricky is in cases where a native English accent clearly uses a consonant, but the Spanish-speaking learner's accent might insert an extra vowel.– SoronCommented Dec 9, 2017 at 6:20
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1Fair enough, but I'm sure he has figured it out by now that there is no vowel in the beginning. I think that's called prothesis, am I right?– NickCommented Dec 9, 2017 at 6:24
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that's right, that was my confusion, the letter 's' in spanish is spelled like ‘es’– RodrigoMCommented Dec 9, 2017 at 15:27
It is "a spectacular movie"
An is only used when the noun starts with a vowel sound.
An opera, an artichoke
Note that even if the word starts with a vowel, but sounds as a consonant, it will not use an:
a one-time event.
The 'w' sound of one does not need an 'an' (while this example does...)
