pantheris:

a-magpie-witchling:

negativeonetwelfth:

a-fragile-sort-of-anarchy:

Speaking of things I’ve never gotten over, when I was in elementary school, and we were learning the difference between ‘a’ and ‘an’ and when to use them, the teacher said ‘a’ was for before words that started with consonants and ‘an’ was before words that started with vowels.

So, I asked the teacher if we should go based on the letter, or the sound the letter makes, and when she asked what I meant, I said, “Like with acronyms and initialisms. Is it a FBI agent or an FBI agent? Or words like ‘hour’. Is it a hour because h is a consonant, or an hour because it makes an o sound?”

And not only did she never answer my honest question, she also accused me of pretending I didn’t understand the lesson just so I could show off that I knew the words “acronym” and “initialism” and didn’t let me to to recess for being a “disruptive show-off”.

Anyways, she works at the grocery store now and she’s always mean to me.

This makes me so mad. If kids are asking hard questions it’s because they are thinking critically and paying attention! I’m glad this person isn’t a teacher anymore they sucked

…

ok, but is it a or an in those cases?

It’s an FBI agent because the “F” in that case produces an “E” sound (”eff”); buut it would be a Federal Bureau of Investigation agent because, in that case, you’re pronouncing a hard “F”

It’s an hour because the “H” is silent and the first sound produced is an “O” sound (”hour” rhymes with “our”)

And yes, a teacher should be able to explain that without getting huffy and throwing a temper tantrum. If I can, they ought to be able to, too. It’s literally in their job title ffs.