That depends on if you pronounce it you-kulele or oo-kulele. I'm not an expert on this at all but I think in hawaii it is an oo-kulele and on the mainland it more often a you-kulele. I think both are acceptable. Just to mix it up a bit more I think you could also spell ukulele like this: ukElele.
The issue of whether and when to pronounce a word the way the people whose language the word comes from would pronounce it is an interesting one and sort of complicated. Here in politically correct San Francisco, we have a street, Arguello. That word is a Spanish word that's pronounced Ar-gwey-o in Spanish, but everyone in SF pronounces the street name Ar-gwell-o. Go figure.
[rant]For instance, the name Desjardins. Here in Canada, I would say: Day-jar-din, without closing down on the 'n' sound at the end of the word. However, i have heard this pronounced in the states as: Dez-djar-dins.
[rant]
that's most probably because Americans tend to be pretty careless about other than their own language - just look at their horrible spelling of English words. In that respect, French and Americans are pretty similar btw.....
[/rant]
Fortunately we don't have the original problem in German - the instrument is naturally pronounced the original hawaiian way
An uke. If use the abbreviated name, as such, there is only one way. Never a uke.
But, with the full name, I can see what some have written about it going both ways depending on pronunciation. Isn't it because ukulele in Hawaiian begins with a consonant? The u is a consonant, no? I don't know
HMS has the right answer to the OP's question. It wasn't how to pronounce Ukulele...............
If I can remember my grammar from school, if the subject started with a vowel (a e i o u, or the sixth vowel, y) then it was an, everything else was a.
School was a long time ago so grammar may have changed!
H
HMS has the right answer to the OP's question. It wasn't how to pronounce Ukulele...............
It is actually a pronunciation rule and is not as cut and dry as your school rule suggests. As has been noted here before if the vowel is pronounced as a vowel we use "an" but if pronounced as a consonant, we use "a". Examples:
"I am a university lecturer. I made an upside-down cake. There is a universe in my teacup. It is an extremely complex issue. I am a European" - get the idea?
tom-ar-toetom-a-to
There are languages where the vowels only have one sound. English is not one of those languages. A true vowel sound uses only an open mouth with no other part of the mouth. Making the sound of long U as in use - usurper - usual cannot be made without constricting the back of the mouth and using the tongue almost as a glottal stop. Those words are pronounced with the single letter sound called a schwa. An uke is incorrect.. Are there exceptions to show that a hard and fast rule does not exist ? Absolutely. uke is not one of them.