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 RAA00888; Sun, 8 Aug 2004 17:00:15 +0200 (MET DST) X-Authentication-Warning: pauillac.inria.fr: majordomo set sender to owner-caml-list@pauillac.inria.fr using -f Received: from concorde.inria.fr (concorde.inria.fr [192.93.2.39]) by pauillac.inria.fr (8.7.6/8.7.3) with ESMTP id RAA02702 for ; Sun, 8 Aug 2004 17:00:13 +0200 (MET DST) Received: from mwinf0201.wanadoo.fr (smtp2.wanadoo.fr [193.252.22.29]) by concorde.inria.fr (8.12.10/8.12.10) with ESMTP id i78F0CRM017256 for ; Sun, 8 Aug 2004 17:00:13 +0200 Received: from me-wanadoo.net (unknown [127.0.0.1]) by mwinf0201.wanadoo.fr (SMTP Server) with SMTP id D47E3300044E; Sun, 8 Aug 2004 17:00:12 +0200 (CEST) Received: from pegasos (AStrasbourg-251-1-54-16.w82-126.abo.wanadoo.fr [82.126.219.16]) by mwinf0201.wanadoo.fr (SMTP Server) with ESMTP id A1DB93000443; Sun, 8 Aug 2004 17:00:12 +0200 (CEST) Received: from luther by pegasos with local (Exim 4.34) id 1BtpFA-00009Y-7D; Sun, 08 Aug 2004 17:05:52 +0200 Date: Sun, 8 Aug 2004 17:05:51 +0200 To: don groves Cc: Ocaml Mailing List Subject: Re: [Caml-list] "a 'a list" or "an 'a list" Message-ID: <20040808150551.GA473@pegasos> References: <6.1.2.0.2.20040807154048.01cd61e8@mail.web-ster.com> Mime-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset=iso-8859-1 Content-Disposition: inline In-Reply-To: <6.1.2.0.2.20040807154048.01cd61e8@mail.web-ster.com> User-Agent: Mutt/1.5.6+20040523i From: Sven Luther X-Miltered: at concorde with ID 41163FFC.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 sven:01 luther:01 sven:01 luther:01 2004:99 unsuspecting:01 pockets:99 ocaml:01 0700,:01 wrote:03 wrote:03 types:03 grammar:05 aug:05 Sender: owner-caml-list@pauillac.inria.fr Precedence: bulk On Sat, Aug 07, 2004 at 03:46:56PM -0700, don groves wrote: > At 14:39 8/7/2004, Brian Hurt 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? > > > >To the french reading this discussion: please remember that English as a > >language not only borrows words from other languages, it often lures > >unsuspecting languages down dark alleys, hits them over the head with a > >lead pipe, and rifles through their pockets for loose grammar. > > > And yet, it has become our international standard. So much for superior > human intelligence. > > It is "an" whenever the following word begins with a vowel or vowel sound > (such as 'an historical event') Notice that the rest of the rules seem to say that if the second letter of the word is then a 'n' again, you don't say an, but a. (a anecdote, and not an anectode). Not fully sure of this rule though, but in this case would you then write : a 'a nupplet ? Friendly, Sven Luther ------------------- 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