"there" or "their"

[Tony]

Use a before words that start with a consonant sound and an before words that start with a vowel sound.

It's the sound, not the actual letter that determines it.

Source: Purdue OWL / rules of grammar

[fordman1]

Isn't the English (American) language confusing? Is the English they speak in England the same? I know watching a movie with British accents gives me a head ache.

[RobLV1]

Here's a question that I used to ask my middle school students in English class: we all know that the vowels are a,e,i,o,u, and sometimes Y. Here's the question: how many of you know when the letter Y is a vowel, and when it's not?

[Tony]

The English language is pretty complex and has some conflicting rules on certain items, being a native speaker probably helps considerably,
but many people still use some words incorrectly.
Other English speaking countries usually have some variations in syntax, pronunciation, and even words used, this is also the case in different regions within the same country. A person from the southern US has a distinctly different accent than someone from the Northeast who are a little different from the midwest or west coast.
Non native speakers often transfer the subject and verb as that's a common sentence structure in many other languages.

( reply to Fordman1's English comment )

[Tony]

Here's a question that I used to ask my middle school students in English class: we all know that the vowels are a,e,i,o,u, and sometimes Y. Here's the question: how many of you know when the letter Y is a vowel, and when it's not?

I know.

[fordman1]

I don't know. I do know that over the years the actual meaning of many words changed so much they would not make sense today.