Vowel and Consonants
We know that the English alphabets consist of 26 letters in all. Of these a,e, I,o, you are called vowels. The rest of them are called consonants.
The words pens, book, bat, doctor and temple are all noun. All of them are in the singular number. All of them begin with a consonant sound. We have used 'a' before all of them.
We use 'a' before common nouns.
which are in singular number and
. which begin with a consonant sound
Example: a pen, a book, a bat, a tiger, a doctor.
An - The words apple, orange, umbrella, ox, and aeroplane are also nouns. They are also in the singular number. But all of them begin with a vowel sound. We have used 'an' before all of them.
We also say an inkpot, an ice cream, an elephant, an ant.
But, we do not say 'an hour' we say 'an hour', an honest man. These two words begin with 'H' which is not a vowel, But 'H' is not pronounced when we say 'hour or honest'.The sound is that of 'ar' and 'au.'
hour - ar
honest - aunest.