Is this sentence correct grammar - He would add an unique voice to our group.
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This is general reference {eg English Club}. – Edwin Ashworth Jun 28 '15 at 16:43
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@Edwin: I unthinkingly closevoted for lack of prior research (our current equivalent to the old "Too Basic") because of your comment. But really it should be flagged as a duplicate of When should I use “a” vs “an”?. Which today I'd rather see migrated to English Language Learners, but obviously ELL didn't even exist when that question was asked on ELU. – FumbleFingers Jun 28 '15 at 17:41
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@FF I couldn't find it (most of the earlier hits are for things like a / an 'x'; a / an before A” or “an” before abbreviation. But agree with both your points. – Edwin Ashworth Jun 28 '15 at 19:33
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No, it should be "a unique". The u has a consonant sound like "yu" here. If it were "uh" like in umbrella, then you would use "an".
proteus
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It's difficult to pronounce two vowels next to each other, in any language. In English, we elide one of the vowels (America+an -> American), convert one of them to a glide (burial), or separate them with a glottal stop (Anna [ʔ] asked). Using "an" rather than "a" is one of our strategies for preventing two vowels from coming right next to each other in pronunciation. So the only time you use "an" is when it does that.
Greg Lee
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Which accents have a glide in "burial"? I thought /j/ generally doesn't occur after /r/ for most English speakers (there are even people who syllabify the "y" in words like "Aryan"). – herisson Aug 01 '16 at 23:43
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@sumelic, I am referring to the pronunciation [bɛɹjəl] for "burial". That is a normal pronunciation in my midwestern American English. A three syllable pronunciation is also possible, [bɛɹɨjəl]. – Greg Lee Aug 02 '16 at 00:38
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Interesting. I actually was not aware of this two-syllable pronunciation, aside from in poetry or as a purely phonetic contraction in "fast speech." I haven't found it listed in any dictionaries. Maybe I will ask a question about it. – herisson Aug 02 '16 at 00:44