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# an

«an» in Mova's early modern english dictionary: **a (before a vowel sound)** — its meaning for a pupil, its sense in the lessons and examples, with 5 sentences of Mova's corpora that use it.

### kind

archaic sense

### modern equivalent

a (before a vowel sound)

### part of speech

article (also an old word for "if")

### meaning for a pupil

Used before a word that starts with a vowel sound, to mean one. [tree →](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/dictionaries/emode/A/an/#m1)

### how it differs from today

The old sense "if" does not appear in these sentences; they use "an" just as we do today.

### examples

- And he erected there an altar, and called it El-elohe-Israel. (Torah GEN.33.20, JPS 1917) [tree →](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/dictionaries/emode/A/an/#x1)
- He would think me an adventurer." (The Arabian Nights Entertainments) [tree →](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/dictionaries/emode/A/an/#x2)
- Misery, or an evil end, or simply evil, ROH. (Sefer Yetzirah, Westcott 1893) [tree →](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/dictionaries/emode/A/an/#x3)

### primary record

an

### tests

manual 9; corpora 6120 (Torah 266, tales 5771, Sefer Yetzirah 83); EWT 499; ratio 0.7 (Torah alone 0.6); Wiktionary no archaic label

### In the corpora

- [And in process of time it came to pass, that Cain brought of the fruit of the ground an offering unto the LORD.](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/torah/jps/GEN.89/)
- [Now Sarai Abram's wife bore him no children; and she had a handmaid, an Egyptian, whose name was Hagar.](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/torah/jps/GEN.398/)
- [And God was with the lad, and he grew; and he dwelt in the wilderness, and became an archer.](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/torah/jps/GEN.561/)
- [And he erected there an altar, and called it El-elohe-Israel.](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/torah/jps/GEN.1054/)
- [And the Midianites sold him into Egypt unto Potiphar, an officer of Pharaoh's, the captain of the guard.](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/torah/jps/GEN.1216/)

### Trees and pragmatics

[Every meaning and example of «an» parsed by Mova](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/dictionaries/emode/A/an/), each sentence with its dependency tree and frames.