Apollo 11 50th Anniversary

[burkhard]

(07-21-2019 09:41 AM)StephenG1CMZ Wrote:  All of the anniversary programmes I have heard instead read out "That's one small step for man" and most sounded like they were read in a quiet studio.

I suspect that generalist producers, not understanding much about the proper re-use of historic archival audio, use some modern digital techniques to "clean up" the audio. They think they are doing the viewers a favor, and considering today's undereducated public raised on 4g and 1080p, and expecting crystal-clear free worldwide long distance telephony, that is perhaps the case. It does however, deceive the viewers more than a bit, I agree.

Whether "a" was or was not spoken is immaterial. Either usage is proper English. Omitting it is actually a bit more poetic. It's akin to John F. Kennedy's "Ich bin ein Berliner" speech, where the use of "ein", although not used in typical conversational speech, was deliberate and done for emphasis.