Pearls Before Swine by Stephan Pastis for January 24, 2025

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    Robin Harwood  about 2 months ago

    When the word starts with a vowel sound, Goat.

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    Hello Everyone  about 2 months ago

    It’s “An” in front of a Vowel SOUND, so a Utah Jazz game would be fine.

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    carlsonbob  about 2 months ago

    Even Goat is wrong. If the next word SOUNDS like a vowel then put “an” in front of it. Pig is already confused and he didn’t help.

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    BasilBruce  about 2 months ago

    Can I say “A is a letter”?

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    The dude from FL  Premium Member about 2 months ago

    Goat, did you understand what he said? Then STOP correcting!

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    Jesy Bertz Premium Member about 2 months ago

    Barbie got it wrong. English is hard.

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    Johnny Q Premium Member about 2 months ago

    Another thing that bugs me: why do we say “anhydraulic” but we also say “ahistoric”?

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    Number Six (1967)  about 2 months ago

    Different pronounciations of English words over ‘The Pond’ always amuse me in movies and tv shows.

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    iggyman  about 2 months ago

    I loved my Grammar, my Grandpa too!

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    Ninette  about 2 months ago

    Only sometimes Y. Or the Y sound.

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    win.45mag  about 2 months ago

    A bunch of special needs kids in a choir could only sing good, after eating a apple and drinking a can of Tab soda. They became known as Moron Tab an apple choir.

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    steveh64  about 2 months ago

    In the Honeymooners episode where Ed Norton (Art Carney) and Ralph are making a TV commercial for some kitchen gadget that Ralph wants to sell, Ed says “Can it core a apple?”

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    WaitingMan  about 2 months ago

    I remember years ago when I heard a news announcer say for the first time “an historic event”. “An” before h-words now sounds normal to me.

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    CountOlaf2.0 Premium Member about 2 months ago

    Grammar Nazis
. their everywhere


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    A Common 'tator  about 2 months ago

    wordexample. com/list/words-beginning-vowel-no-an (delete the space before com)

    These words seem to begin with a vowel, but they’re actually pronounced with a consonant sound. That’s why they use the “a” article instead of “an”. There’re dozens


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    Ichabod Ferguson  about 2 months ago

    
and when it’s a proper noun add an extra N like Ann Arbor, Mi.

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    Croc Holliday 8645  about 2 months ago

    The bigger issue is why the Utah team is called the Jazz and the LA team is called the Lakers. Could have changed the names to something more appropriate when the teams moved.

    Also, why Toronto used the incorrect plural for its hockey team.

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    Goat from PBS  about 2 months ago

    I’m guessing he got there within a hour.

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    Wizard4168  about 2 months ago

    Fun fact: the Utah Jazz originally played in New Orleans, where the name made a lot more sense. Likewise the LA Lakers, who started out in Minneapolis.

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    SquidGamerGal  about 2 months ago

    What does a squid kid have to do with this?

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    TheRealTeddyOrtiz  about 2 months ago

    If Im 99 pounds and i eat a pound of nachos, am i 1% nacho? Yall want to hear my near year’s resolutions? 4k, 1080p, and 1920×1080 (Full HD) If atoms never touch, then do we have only have 4 senses? What happens if you press the brake and gas pedals at the same time? Does it take a screenshot? If apple made a car, would it still have windows? Why are cookies called cookies and bacon called bacon when you bake cookies and cook bacon? Your first birthday is technically your second birthday. Nothing is on fire, fire is on things. Fire trucks are actually water trucks. Does a straw have one hole, or two? Bean bags are boneless sofas. If you stab a cereal box, are you a serial killer? If two people on opposite sides of the world drop a piece of bread on the ground, earth becomes a sandwich. Are oranges call oranges because oranges are orange, or is orange called orange because oranges are orange? If tomatoes are fruit, can ketchup is jam. Shouldn’t phone chargers be apple juice? You have fingertips, but you don’t have toetips, yet you can tiptoe but not tipfinger. Teeth are the only problem where if you ignore them, they will go away. The object of golf is to play the least amount of golf.

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    newsbb  about 2 months ago

    With English as my third/fourth language, this is one I shall keep for future use.

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    ClaytonEmery1  about 2 months ago

    ???

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    Joseph Shelby  about 2 months ago

    One opposite of “a Utah” is “an hour”.

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    MS72  about 2 months ago

    Caught the “mistake” in frame #1 and knew the joke before looking at the next. Maybe I missed a little detail like the Kennedy assassination in the remaining frames, but I don’t think so. :)

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    rgulyash  about 2 months ago

    “I before E except after 
.” isn’t always applicable, either. Or is it neither?

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    Ellis97  about 2 months ago

    What are you? The grammar police?

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    Huckleberry Hiroshima Premium Member about 2 months ago

    Vowel SOUND, not necessarily a pre-vowel rule.

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    Out of the Past  about 2 months ago

    If you’re looking for lot of useless answers just ask whether it’s a hemorrhage or an hemorrhage.

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    KEA  about 2 months ago

    somewhere I was told that the more advanced a language gets, the easier it is to communicate in it, but the fewer rules it follows.

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    CaveCat87  about 2 months ago

    Next time, Goat, be more specific when explaining these things to Pig.

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    wolfgang73  about 2 months ago

    And don’t even get started on pronunciation in English!

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    timinwsac Premium Member about 2 months ago

    Pastis done poked the bear today.

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    Clare Kelm Premium Member about 2 months ago

    9th grade English teacher loves this one, Stephan!

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    Croc Holliday 8645  about 2 months ago

    At least he wasn’t also texting while applying makeup and steering with his knees.

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    ChukLitl Premium Member about 2 months ago

    “A” needs a consonant sound for protection against a word that wants to be “the.”

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    ncorgbl  about 2 months ago

    You have to take into consideration who invented the language.

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    PSG46  about 2 months ago

    I’m surprised that pig knew what a vowel was
.

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    jbruins84341  about 2 months ago

    GO JAZZ!

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    mindjob  about 2 months ago

    Good thing he wasn’t checking his texts

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    Hello Sweetie  about 2 months ago

    If you remember the 1984 election you remember the kerfuffle over whether the Time headline should be “An Historic Choice” or “A Historic Choice”.

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    John Jorgensen  about 2 months ago

    Ooh, reading all that sets my teeth on edge.

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    ronlouisscholl  about 2 months ago

    No, a ‘yu’ is a consonant sound, ‘u’ is a vowel sound.

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    Otis Rufus Driftwood  about 2 months ago

    I hear so much bad grammar in my work day, I ask where did we go wrong. Why do people I talk to say ‘a payment processed’, not ‘a payment WAS processed’ anymore?

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    franish2bzn  about 2 months ago

    ‘Mother Tongue’ by Bill Bryson.

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    zeexenon  about 2 months ago

    “An historic occasion” took me a while. But a wild-ass English professor finally convinced me.

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    curtlyon19 Premium Member about 2 months ago

    speaking that 3rd panel out loud is kinda hard

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    [Unnamed Reader - 14b4ce]  about 2 months ago

    The quick brown fox jumped over the lazy dog

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    RobinA. Premium Member about 2 months ago

    They will always be the New Orleans Jazz to me.

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    Paul D Premium Member about 2 months ago

    And . . . the classic sign at the department store checkout counter: “Instant Credit in 5 Minutes.”

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    PAR85  about 2 months ago

    Sometimes it seems there are more exceptions to the rules for English than there are rules.

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    FireAnt_Hater  about 2 months ago

    I find it confusing, as ‘Utah,’ to me, starts with a ‘u’ sound exactly, yet ‘an utah jazz’ sounds incorrect, whereas ‘understanding’ does NOT start with a ‘u’ sound, yet it’s ‘an understanding.’

    No one need reply with corrections to my ignorance, as I rely on what sounds right, and I’m fine with that


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    tvstevie  about 2 months ago

    His next report card will have straight An’s.

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    whawn  about 2 months ago

    Grammer, once properly explained really does (almost) make sense: the article, ‘a’, ‘an’, or ‘the’, modifies the noun following. In this case it’s ‘game’. ‘Utah Jazz’ is an adjectival phrase descriptive of the noun.

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    CleverHans Premium Member about 2 months ago

    So if the Jazz was on the road in northern California, would pig go to a Yreka Utah Jazz game? And how does that fit in with Ireka, Eureka, and Wereka?

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    NaGrom Premium Member about 2 months ago

    English has a thousand rules and two thousand exceptions to the rules.

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    cnhardman  about 2 months ago

    I want to know how Pig was driving while eating an apple *and sipping an iced tea.

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    steve7701 Premium Member about 2 months ago

    Since it became okay (not with me) to say “an historic event” nothing makes sense any more.

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    Jonathan Bridge Premium Member about 2 months ago

    A local restaurant slogan reads, “Training Table- A Utah Original”.

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    mengelji  about 2 months ago

    Just be like the British and place an H or Y sound before every vowel. That way, both “an” or “a” sound wrong – problem solved!

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    da_villa  about 2 months ago

    Love how you unravel the complexities and absurdities of the English language like a word ninja or a master of phrases!

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    missyhyattfan  about 2 months ago

    An Utah Jazz game works too

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    alantain  15 days ago

    My rule is if it sounds stupid or awkward, it’s wrong.

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