A question about using articles before a single letter in the alphabet [duplicate]

Question

I want to brush up my English and I just started to read some Grammar books. When I read the section about how to use an article before a single letter, it says that we have to use "a" or "an" depending on the pronunciation of the letter. My teachers in school have never told me about that and in fact I am not sure what is the correct article that should be placed in front of a single letter.

Here I tried to list all the 26 letters with articles. Please let me know if I am correct or not and be kind to point out my mistakes.

1. an "A"
2. a "B"
3. a "C"
4. a "D"
5. an "E"
6. an "F"
7. a "G"
8. a "H"
9. an "I"
10. a "J"
11. a "K"
12. an "L"
13. an "M"
14. an "N"
15. an ""O"
16. a "P"
17. an "R"
18. a "Q"
19. an S"
20. a "T"
21. a "U"
22. a "V"
23. a "W"
24. an "X"
25. a "Y"
26. a "Z".

Answer 1

Your list is correct, except that we would normally say and write an H, because the name of the letter H is usually "aitch", and most dictionaries (whether British or American) give that as the only way to pronounce it.

That said, "haitch" is common in Ireland and increasingly common in Britain, so "a H" is defensible as well, although learners would be better advised to stick with the more traditional form.

Note, the rule about "a"/"an" in your grammar book doesn't apply only to the names of the letters of the alphabet, but also to words in general. For example, we would say "a unique book" (because "unique" is pronounced with a leading consonant), "a UN meeting" (because "UN" is pronounced as two initials), but "an MBA" (because "MBA" is also usually pronounced as its initials, and the M starts with a vowel sound).