A RULE OF GRAMMAR

When I was a kid I was taught about vowels and consonents. I was taught that I have to use 'a' before a noun that sounds to start with a consonent and 'an' when it sounds to start with a vowel. Have you ever wondered behind the reason of this very rule of grammar? I , as a kid, wondered and thought upon it. May be for some it would have been an obvious rule to understand.But for me it was not. I thought upon it. I do not remember how many times I wondered upon this rule and how many times I thought upon the reason of creation of such a rule.It was just another rule in grammar like many others and all the grammar books used to teach us this basic rule in the very begining.One day came when I deduced the reason behind this rule and I was so happy to do this. Some things we learn ourselves and no book or no teacher would teach you.Perhaps the same would have happened with many of you.

This is one of the things I rememeber today of my childhood days.Here I mention the reason that sounds so obvious to think.How does it sound when we say 'a' apple, 'a' alarm, 'a' umbrella, 'a' hour or 'a' era.It sounds as if we speak two vowel sounding words, one after another, without any separating factor.Of course, a momentary pause between them works as a "little separater".But again, the "little separator" almost vanishes when we speak fluently.In addition to it, the English language is supposed to be spoken fluently as it is done by the native speakers.So 'an' emerged and the sound of 'n' acted and has been acting since, as a "significant separator".But why 'n', not 'l' or not 'b'? I have to do some research again on this, but a guess is that 'n' would have taken the least effort, phonetically, to speak in between two vowel sounds and would have sounded a "significant separator"! So 'an' apple.'An' era.'An' umbrella.'An' hour.

All in all, point is that how many times we understand things ourselves without any piece of documentation.Everything is logical.Few thing might look subtle at first sight but they do work with a logic.Even exceptions have got a reason for being exceptions!