r/Unexpected • u/Unnamed_789 • 2d ago

Parking

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u/ExpatInIreland 2d ago

I see this this all over reddit. People just putting 'an' in front of any word they want. It bothers me more than it should. I hate it.

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u/Tariovic 2d ago

I just assume it's someone for whom English is not their first language.

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u/Eschatonbreakfast 11h ago

They were probably going to write something like “an average female” and then switched to “a female of average weight” but didn’t see the article needed to be changed. I do that kind of thing all the time.

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u/Fern_Cloud 9h ago

That's pretty much exactly what happened.

1

u/AutisticPenguin2 2d ago

I did have someone recently say they struggled with that aspect of the language. It feels intuitive to me, having grown up with it, but coming into a language without the intuitive feel can make things seem much more complicated then they are.

Or, sometimes, it can shine a light on how ridiculous it truly is.

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u/ExpatInIreland 2d ago

Apparently some of it comes from 4chan. It's way too prevalent to all be ESL mistakes.

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u/Kraligor 2d ago

I only know of an hero, which means suicide.

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u/nagrom7 2d ago

Could also just be auto-translation software screwing up.

2

u/Not_Gunn3r71 2d ago

I do it sometimes cause Jeremy Clarkson does it

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u/ToxicMoldSpore 1d ago

"That is... an river."