fuck the english language, aaaaargh

[luciazephyr]

So I'm working on my Dresdenfic and I'm getting all pissy because I have a line that goes

"You are merely an unique asset."

But that doesn't look right despite following the an/a rule! So is it "a unique asset" instead?

And furthermore, is it "a hour" or "an hour"? I know make a conscious effort to say "a hour" because that should be the rule, right?

Lullabee: Okay, but... you shouldn't
Lucy: WHY?!
Lucy: I DON'T UNDERSTAND
Lullabee: BECAUSE "HOUR" STARTS WITH A VOWEL SOUND
Lucy: THEN WTF IS UP WITH "UNIQUE"?!

Normally I would not be so hung up about this but it's Marcone speaking and his speech has to be very grammatically correct. IDK why, it just sounds more IC that way.

HALP.

Comments

[sarken]

I'm almost positive it's an hour and a unique, the later possibly owing to either the long vowel sound of "unique" or even just the repetition of the vowel-followed-by-n that exists in both "an" and "unique." But grammatical would probably be a good place to ask if you wanted a more correct answer.

[luciazephyr]

This is the concensus on my LJ's comments, so guess I gotta go with that.

But I keep thinking WHAT ABOUT DEAF PEOPLE WHO CAN'T HEAR THE SOUNDS. This all seems so unfair, aaaargh.

English. >8(