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A dedicated ELL contributor has just brought a grammar issue in a review queue prompt to our attention (thank you Davo!). Grammar error in Review

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Apparently the reason description under the "Not suitable for this site" close category contains an error: "a" precedes a word starting with a vowel where "an" should be used. I am not sure this is something that affects other sites whose names also start with vowels--it would appear so--but it has been spotted on ELL where I am a moderator. This issue doesn't seem fixable within the scope of tools made available to mods. How do we fix this?

Possible solution: Shall we just change the description to "This question doesn't meet [site name] guidelines"?

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Yes, it looks like it does affect the other sites - see this screenshot from Ask Ubuntu:

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I also agree with your possible solution of changing it to:

"This question doesn't meet [site name] guidelines"

It would be way easier than correcting all the grammar errors for each site with this issue, easier than switching from "a" to "an". It would be a much better grammatical solution than just "a".

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    There probably only is one string in the Razor view This question doesn't meet a @(SiteName) guidelines. They can't correct all the grammar errors for each site. Your proposed solution is most likely the only option. – rene Sep 15 '20 at 18:02
  • Imagine changing 174 grammar errors in each site... shudders – 10 Rep Sep 15 '20 at 20:11
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    @10Repisn'tactiveonMSE I don't want to ;). That would be nuts. – Ollie Sep 15 '20 at 20:11
  • I actually prefer the proposed solution but why is it the only option? All is needed is checking whether or not @(SiteName) starts with a vowel to decide whether to use a or an. Am I missing something? – 41686d6564 Sep 15 '20 at 20:18
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    @41686d6564 don't forget that there are also non-english sites that run on the same code base. You don't want to add too much logic that only makes sense for English sites. If a one fix suits all exists it is preferred I guess. – rene Sep 15 '20 at 20:23
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    @41686d6564 It doesn't work for all vowels. For example, you wouldn't say "an Unix & Linux" because the initial sound is not a vowel. I don't have data as to whether making an exception for u would be sufficient among the sites in the network, but it certainly doesn't work for all words starting with u because some of those actually start with a vowel sound. In any case, it's not worth it, because another site could come along that has an exception. – Matt Samuel Sep 15 '20 at 23:31

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