By Universities, Vowels

I agree with those who say there could be several definitions. Considering letters. Vowels: A E I O U (so W is not included here)Considering sounds. Vowel sounds: all those in the IPA vowel chart. (so W is not included here either. "The" is pronounced "thee" and the article...

Hmm, can I answer even though I am not a native speaker? I would say "thee eagle" because I learned to pronounce it "thee" before vowel sounds. Words like "university" and "wall" don't really start with a vowel sound, but with "semivowels", I...

First of all, you need some grammar too, because I noticed typical Asian mistakes, or non native constructions anyway.Here's the best tips I can give you:1 - Get a grammar book, and read it, learning the most common structures. "English grammar in use" by Cambridge University Press...

The letters W and Y are semi-vowels. Though they are consonants, at times they behave like vowels as their sounds in certain words change into vowel sounds.The word "European" starts with the vowel "E" but has the consonantal "yea" sound .. Hence "an...

Thank you Grammar Geek for your compliment, I am glad to be here with you sharing and learning. In fact I have also meant what you said. If the pronunciation starts with a consonant sound then it takes "a", as in "university". Besides, as in "hour", the pronunciation starts with a vowel, and it...

It's not whether it's a vowel, but whether it's a vowel sound. An umbrella, a university. An hour, a horse.

Use "an" before a noun that starts with a vowel sound. Note that it's the way it sounds, not the letter that determines it. Umbrella starts with a soft u, so it's an umbrella. University starts with a hard u, so it's a university.

According to John Wells at University College London: "I do not understand the proposed distinction between Mainstream RP and Contemporary RP (unless the writer thinks, wrongly, that ‘contemporary’ means ‘young’)." You can read more of what he says about it at:...

Thanks, anon. Without your post, I would have missed this thread. Goodman wrote:Hi CJ, What an impressive thread you have posted. You have slowly made me a fan of yours. Yep! CalifJim wrote: In any case, the struggle for the learner is always making the conversion from 'computing'...

Ahhh, yes, I actually thought about that, but I got confused, because the stress in "university" is not at the beginning. But now I realize there's a secondary stress...Thank you.But I'd like to know another thing: would it sound odd if I pronounced them all with the reduced vowel, as in...