Regionalisms are a pain. A fun kind of pain, but a pain nonetheless. People pronounce words differently in different regions, but pronunciation sometimes determines whether you use “a” or “an.” If the following word starts with a vowel sound, use “an.” If it starts with a consonant sound, use “a.”

So, what do you do with regional pronunciation differences? It depends on where you live. I’ve considered “herb” before -- use “a” in Britain and “an” in America -- but Gillian alerted me to a pronunciation difference I didn’t know about:

"I’m excited to be using your books 101 Misused Words You’ll Never Confuse Again and 101 Words Every High School Graduate Needs to Know in my 10th grade English classes this year. However, I need to let you know that I found an error on the very first entry in 101 Misused Words. Your Quick and Dirty Tip offers a helpful visual example of when to use ‘a’ or ‘an,’ using the word ‘ukulele.’ However, your example assumes that one is pronouncing ‘ukulele’ incorrectly. While most American mainlanders say ‘yoo-ka-lailee,’ any Hawaii resident will tell you that the correct pronunciation of this Hawaiian word is ‘OO-koo-leh-lay,’ and this is, in fact, how it is pronounced throughout our great state. No self-respecting Hawaii resident would say ‘yoo-ka-lailee.’ Thus, the correct article to use with the word is ‘an’—’an ukulele.’ Aloha and mahalo (thank you) for your great books.” Gillian is correct; although some dictionaries only have one pronunciation for “ukulele” (which comes from Hawaiian words for “jumping flea”), Dictionary.com lists two pronunciations, noting that the correct Hawaiian is “oo-koo-ley-ley.”

If you’re writing for a national publication, I suggest you stick with “a ukulele”; but if you’re writing for a Hawaiian publication, you should definitely go with “an ukulele.”

I wouldn’t call this an error in the book; I’d call it an omission due to cultural ignorance -- a cultural ignorance that simply must be remedied by a Hawaiian vacation! Thanks, Gillian.