The Weirdness of the English Language

So we put together an article at work this week that talked about some of the increases in numbers as they apply to the library; visits to the website, attended programs and downloaded books.

Apparently we have over ten thousand books being downloaded from our website each month, an increase of 78 percent over the previous year, a real growth area for the library.

So when we publish this in our monthly newsletter, we stated "A 78 percent increase over FY2009". Interestingly enough, if it had been a bit more we would have put a "An" in front of it instead of an "A", as in, "An 83 percent increase..".

Weird how if the number can determine if an "A" and or an "An" is in front of it.