From mboxrd@z Thu Jan 1 00:00:00 1970 Received: (from majordomo@localhost) by pauillac.inria.fr (8.7.6/8.7.3) id GAA16809; Sun, 8 Aug 2004 06:01:50 +0200 (MET DST) X-Authentication-Warning: pauillac.inria.fr: majordomo set sender to owner-caml-list@pauillac.inria.fr using -f Received: from nez-perce.inria.fr (nez-perce.inria.fr [192.93.2.78]) by pauillac.inria.fr (8.7.6/8.7.3) with ESMTP id GAA16295 for ; Sun, 8 Aug 2004 06:01:49 +0200 (MET DST) Received: from mail.davidb.org (adsl-64-172-240-129.dsl.sndg02.pacbell.net [64.172.240.129]) by nez-perce.inria.fr (8.12.10/8.12.10) with ESMTP id i7841mmL020545 for ; Sun, 8 Aug 2004 06:01:49 +0200 Received: from davidb by mail.davidb.org with local (Exim 4.34 #1 (Debian)) id 1BtesW-00066j-BH for ; Sat, 07 Aug 2004 21:01:48 -0700 Date: Sat, 7 Aug 2004 21:01:48 -0700 From: David Brown To: caml-list@inria.fr Subject: Re: [Caml-list] "a 'a list" or "an 'a list" Message-ID: <20040808040148.GA23440@old.davidb.org> References: <6.1.2.0.2.20040807154048.01cd61e8@mail.web-ster.com> Mime-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset=us-ascii Content-Disposition: inline In-Reply-To: <6.1.2.0.2.20040807154048.01cd61e8@mail.web-ster.com> User-Agent: Mutt/1.5.6i X-Miltered: at nez-perce with ID 4115A5AC.000 by Joe's j-chkmail (http://j-chkmail.ensmp.fr)! X-Loop: caml-list@inria.fr X-Spam: no; 0.00; caml-list:01 caml-list:01 2004:99 ocaml:01 0700,:01 exception:02 dave:03 wrote:03 types:03 aug:05 uses:06 weird:07 alpha:07 standard:07 i'm:07 Sender: owner-caml-list@pauillac.inria.fr Precedence: bulk On Sat, Aug 07, 2004 at 03:46:56PM -0700, don groves wrote: > >>From one of the many pendants-R-us discussion forums I'm on, this question > >came up: which is grammatically correct: "a 'a list", or "an 'a list", > >when discussing Ocaml types in english? Is there a standard (de-facto or > >de-jure) or just whatever sounds right to the ear of the writter? Assuming the reader pronounces the 'a as alpha, it would be "an 'a list". One could also say "a tick-a list" but that would be weird. > It is "an" whenever the following word begins with a vowel or vowel sound > (such as 'an historical event') Funny that you chose an exception to the rule. Welcome to English. "historical" uses an, even though most people pronounce the 'h' as a constant. Normally, we would say "a hundred". Dave ------------------- To unsubscribe, mail caml-list-request@inria.fr Archives: http://caml.inria.fr Bug reports: http://caml.inria.fr/bin/caml-bugs FAQ: http://caml.inria.fr/FAQ/ Beginner's list: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/ocaml_beginners