Determiners ('a' or 'an'): monarch butterfly
The Grammar Bit!
Read the three sentences opposite. You’ll notice that the words ‘a’ and ‘an’ are highlighted in bold. They belong to a family of words called determiners.
The general rule is that ‘an’ is used before a word that starts with a vowel sound. If the word does not start with a vowel sound, the word ‘a’ should go before it.
You’ll remember from previous years that the 5 vowels are a, e, i, o and u. Use this opportunity to quickly rehearse with your talk partner both the short and long vowel sounds that these letters make.
Take extra care with words that have silent letters e.g. an honest person. Remember – it is the starting sound of the word (whether this is a noun, adjective or adverb) that you need to think about and NOT its spelling!
Why is it a university (sentence 4) and not an university?
Scintillating Sentences
1)The beautiful monarch butterfly has delicate wings with an orange tint.
2) As winter ends in Mexico, one of the most beautiful spectacles in nature erupts as a cascade of half a billion monarch butterflies begin to take flight.
3) The scientists went to a university to learn many things that helped them make an incredible Spy Hummingbird.
Did you know?
A female monarch butterfly usually lays between 300 and 500 eggs on the leaf of a milkweed plant. Unfortunately, the milkweed plant is being destroyed, which is having an impact on monarch butterflies.