Why you should know: The ‘a’ vs ‘an’ conundrum is not about what letter actually begins the word, but instead about how the sound of the word starts.
For example, the ‘h’ in ‘hour’ is silent, so you would say ‘an hour’ and not ‘a hour’. A trickier example is Ukraine: because the ‘U’ is pronounced as ‘You’, and in this case the ‘y’ is a consonant, you would say “a Ukraine” and not “an Ukraine”.
Tip: when in doubt, sound it out(loud).
Thank you for coming to my TED talk.
You wouldn’t download an car
The phrase “an car” was used by Wade of Dankpods/Garbage Time, I think to describe a 90’s Toyota Corolla. “It’s An Car” to mean it does the job of a self-propelled box on wheels with seats in it. And I’ve taken to use that to describe bog standard tools, like my completely unremarkable Wen drill press is An Drill Press.
That’s great I love it. I do the opposite, I like to give banal items overly technical names. Chair=orthogonal spinal support unit. Hammer=non-calibrated adjustment appliance, etc.