Joachim, you're right... Chiara, I did misunderstand you, partially. You said "an" would not be used for words beginning with "u," and then you gave examples of "u" words that DO use "an."

Just remember that some "u" words go one way and some the other, depending on how you say them.

Something related that I was thinking about is that the use of "a" or "an" depends on the word immediately following, not on the noun to which the article refers. So you could have:

"A hope" (or as Goossun's Cockney fellow would say, "an 'ope"), but:
"A forlorn hope" (the Cockney would say "A forlorn 'ope")

Also good to remember that in American English, at least, the pronunciation of the vowel in "the" varies by the following word's initial letter in just the same way. You would pronounce "thuh" before words you pronounce with a beginning consonant, and "thee" before words you pronounce with a beginning vowel.

It's properly pronounced "worst."

Laziness, however, is how ALL linguistic change comes about.

Madame from Nîmes, I think you're right, but do you have any thoughts about why the error is so common and widespread?

It's not my list, id, but I'm sure that certain dialects do omit the L (members of my family from the Midwest and California speak this way). In others, the L is at least partly suppressed. As I said, YMMV (your mileage may vary).

Sorry about the hasty nature of the previous post... Speedwell posts from work and accidentally hit "send" while the boss was dictating an e-mail. I'll leave the grammar correction as an practice exercise. (heh)

According to the (online) 1911 edition of the Encyclopaedia Brittanica, "The origin of the word is unknown, but it has been fancifully suggested that, while the other toes touch the ground in walking, the dew-claw merely brushes the dew from the grass."

Other sources say it's unknown, but may be from "toe."

Knowing the practical nature of the ancients in coming up with words for things, I looked up the derivation of "thumb" on a hunch and found the Indo-european root "teu-" so maybe I'm on to something.

Nicole, it works like this:

You make the plural and the possessive in the usual way for acronyms. For example: I had a VCR. The VCR's power button was broken. I bought another VCR, so I had two VCRs. Then the second one's channel selector button broke, so I could tell that the VCRs' buttons were made cheaply.

This rule is exactly the same when the acronym in question ends in an S. So you have one ACS, and a thing belonging to it is the ACS's thing. Or you have additional ACSs, and something belonging to the ACSs is the ACSs' thing.

Got that? :)

Yes.

Another interesting example is shown in this excerpt from the (presumably ancient Scottish) poem "Hardyknute":

"To horse, to horse, my royal liege,
Your faes stand on the strand,
Full twenty thousand glittering spears
The King of Norse commands."

The closest American equivalent I can think of would be something like, "Let's ride." We wouldn't say, "To the horse, to the horse...."

Oh, I don't particularly care about being brainier-than-thou, and I've known about Cawdrey since the second grade. You were the one who started with the uncalled-for sneer against Steph, not to mention your unbecoming little snit fit against Americans. But I understand, really. The effects of psychiatric medication aren't always as predictable as we'd like.