Xbox Live typo

[joefro]

http://i43.photobucket.com/albums/e397/joefro72/dumbgostbusters.jpg
Lol.
I'm sorry but I can't help but laugh at typos like this. Wtf? Who doesn't know how to use "a" and "an"?

[Rasputin]

X is a consonant, though the way anyone would pronounce gives it creates and opening vowel sound. However (from what I recall) a word that begins with a consonant uses "a," plain and simple. If it were something that started with a vowel but began with a consonant sound (like euthanasia) than "a" would be used, so you would think the same logic would apply to consonants that have a vowel sound.

I don't believe Microsoft is truly making a grammatical error.

[joefro]

Indefinite article 'a' or 'an' supposes a class of objects with pointing out
>to one of them no matter which one. So, yes, there is no such thing as "an
> XML (http://www.stylusstudio.com/xml.html)". However in English language nouns often can be used as adjectives,
> like "an XML example (http://blogs.stylusstudio.com/)" or "an XML application", in which case in should be
> "an" because (as already mentioned) XML is really "ex-me-el", so it starts
> from vowel.Google

[Rasputin]

Well I'll be damned. The typo probably comes from them not having a "smart" pre-built structure for sentences like that. The structure probably goes simply off of consonants vs vowels since most people won't really care if there's a typo like that.

[McLaughlin]

Typo =/= ignorance of grammar.

[Tetsaru]

I've always been taught that you use "an" before any word that starts out pronounced with a vowel sound. For example, you would say, "an hour ago," NOT "a hour ago."

As for Rasputin's example with the word "euthanasia," I think since it starts with a consonant sound (y as in "your," not y as in "today"), you would use "a," as in, "a euthanized animal."

Isn't the English language wonderful? 8D