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.
Ubisoft needs to hear this.
It hurts my soul everytime I start up Farcry 5 and see “A Ubisoft Game” and not “An Ubisoft Game” on the intro splash screens.
Unless they pronounce it something other than You-Bee-Soft or Ooo-bee-soft. In which case, that would hurt my soul even more.
I’ve only ever heard it pronounced “You-Bee-Soft” and the “yuh” sound that starts with functions as a consonant. You wouldn’t say “An youtube video.”
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.
I don’t know what the official pronunciation is, but I always read it as Ooo-bee-soft.
I always heard it as if it was an insult. Like they hated their customers.
YOU BE SOFT, BIIIITCH.
in french afaik it is pronounced like a french u, or a german ü
OP explains in the description why it starts with A ans not An.
This is how I’ve always read it, which would make “A You-Bee-Soft Game” correct