English: A vs. An
- ID
- 26511
- Status
- summarized
- Published
- 20 Sep 2026, 4:41 AM
- Fetched
- 22 Sep 2026, 5:33 AM
- Provider
- Hacker News
- Category
- dev-community
- Original URL
- https://www.redblobgames.com/blog/2026-09-16-english-a-vs-an/
- Source URL
- https://hnrss.org/best
Summary
- Score
- 4.0
- Created
- 22 Sep 2026, 5:37 AM
- Tags
- Audience
- developersvibe_coders
What happened
Amit Patel (Red Blob Games) analyzed when to use 'a' vs 'an' in procedurally generated text, finding the rule depends on vowel sounds rather than vowel letters. Only 129 of 32,455 words needed exceptions to the simple 'starts with a vowel letter' heuristic. He also notes in hindsight he should have used LLMs to write the one-off parsing and visualization code, since it only needed to be correct, not clean or maintainable.
Why it matters
If you generate English text in apps or games, a simple first-letter vowel check will produce 'an unicorn' — you need a phonetic lookup (e.g., cmudict) to handle the ~0.4% of words where spelling and sound disagree. The LLM aside is a useful reminder: for throwaway analysis code, delegating to an LLM frees your time for the parts that actually need your expertise.
Discussion angle
The LLM note is the most broadly useful part — when do you hand one-off code to an LLM vs write it yourself, and how do you verify correctness when you do?