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As title suggest, wondering what the literary rule is for "A unit." Unit being a noun would need an article. I have generally understood that the a/an decision is if the vowel sound if the lead sound ex: "an hourglass, but a glass".

it seems to me very clearly the "U" sound is the lead here, but for word that start with the 'you-enn' sound (unit, uniform, unabomber), we use "a".

scott
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    The “u” in “unit” makes the “Y” sound—a consonant sound—therefore you use “a” as article. *Unit* noun UK ​ /ˈjuː.nɪt/ US ​ /ˈjuː.nɪt/ – user 66974 Jan 18 '19 at 19:54
  • What is a vowel sound, may confuse you. As @Hachi says, the initial sound of this word is not a vowel. However, I checked an old edition of Oxford English Dictionary, and they have some historical examples where they actually wrote an unit. See this OED screenshot for unit. I think this indicates that the word was pronounced in a different way (by some, at least) at that time. Maybe pronounced like "oonit". I am writing this comment here (even if this is a duplicate thread) because you asked specifically about unit. – Jeppe Stig Nielsen May 22 '20 at 15:28

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