The university allows URLs as a “person name”, so the spammer bots filled forms everywhere filling with my email and the spam URL as my name. So i’m getting bombarded by “legit” emails with a spam url as in “hi SPAM_URL”

    • nawa@lemmy.world
      link
      fedilink
      English
      arrow-up
      18
      arrow-down
      1
      ·
      edit-2
      10 months ago

      I would guess this person pronounces it like “ooniversity” in which case it’s correct, it depends on if there’s a vowel or consonant sound, not what letter it is. But I never heard it pronounced that way, for me it’s always been “youniversity” and in that case it’s incorrect.

      • dnick
        link
        fedilink
        English
        arrow-up
        10
        ·
        10 months ago

        Because an precedes a word that starts with a vowel sound, not just because they start with a vowel letter

    • squid_slime@lemmy.world
      link
      fedilink
      English
      arrow-up
      11
      arrow-down
      3
      ·
      edit-2
      10 months ago

      No although it should be, an is used in place of proceeding a vowel

      The correct usage is “a university” because the pronunciation of “university” begins with a consonant sound.

      • surewhynotlem@lemmy.world
        link
        fedilink
        English
        arrow-up
        27
        ·
        10 months ago

        an is used in place of proceeding a vowel

        Proceeding a vowel sound. The actual spelling is irrelevant.

        He was an honest man, an hourly worker, and an heir to the throne. He rode a unicorn to a university, and oddly he was a eunuch.

        • XeroxCool@lemmy.world
          link
          fedilink
          English
          arrow-up
          3
          arrow-down
          1
          ·
          10 months ago

          Perfectly explains why so many officials say “today is an historic event”

          Not. Lol fuck these rules.

          • surewhynotlem@lemmy.world
            link
            fedilink
            English
            arrow-up
            7
            ·
            edit-2
            10 months ago

            “an historic” only works in some accents. British, for example, pronounces it as “istoric”.

            Edit: un-mis-spelling

    • SoleInvictus@lemmy.world
      link
      fedilink
      English
      arrow-up
      7
      ·
      10 months ago

      OP is Italian. The u in the Italian word for university, universitá, is said with a vowel ‘ooh’ sound instead of a consonant ‘you’ sound. I’d wager they remember their English ‘a vs an’ rule phonetically and, with the words being so similar between languages, mixed the pronunciation up. I’m a native English speaker and that’s 100% how I fuck up my Italian.

    • Fridgeratr@lemmy.world
      link
      fedilink
      English
      arrow-up
      4
      arrow-down
      4
      ·
      10 months ago

      It’s debatable, technically it does start with a vowel so “an” should be used, but since it starts with a Y consonant sound, using “a” sounds a lot better and may also be considered correct/better.

      • dnick
        link
        fedilink
        English
        arrow-up
        7
        ·
        10 months ago

        Not really debatable, that’s the actual rule. An before words that start with a vowel sound.

    • Dagwood222@lemm.ee
      link
      fedilink
      English
      arrow-up
      1
      arrow-down
      14
      ·
      10 months ago

      ‘An’ is used before any vowel. An opposite, an electrician, an icehouse, an apple.

      • max@feddit.nl
        link
        fedilink
        English
        arrow-up
        2
        ·
        10 months ago

        Yes, but no. Your rule is correct, but the application of it isn’t. “An” is used for vowel sounds.
        University (you-knee-ver-city), UFO (you-eff-ooh) use “a”, while honorable (on-oohr-a-bul) uses “an”.
        Confusing language for sure.