In the sentence “I met a European,” the use of “a” instead of “an” is correct because the word “European” is pronounced with a consonant sound at the beginning.

The choice between “a” and “an” depends on the sound that follows it, not necessarily the letter itself. “A” is used before words that begin with a consonant sound, while “an” is used before words that begin with a vowel sound.

In the case of “European,” even though it begins with the letter ‘E,’ the sound that follows is a short “yoo” sound, which is a consonant sound. Therefore, we use “a” before it.