So on the ChoiceScript wiki, it talks about how we can extract a single letter from a variable by using #. For example:
*set firstname "Bob"
My name is ${firstname}. That's ${firstname#1}, ${firstname#2}, then ${firstname#3}...
#1 standing for the first letter in the string, then #2 for the second letter, etc. etc. This would look like this to the player:
My first name is Bob. That's b, o, then b...
If “firstname” was “Alice,” then the text would look different, of course, which is a nifty feature!
My question is: is it possible to then use that extracted letter in a condition?
For example, say I’m letting the player *input_text an adjective or color. “I want a _____ dress,” and they get to choose a color or style. But what if the word they input starts with a vowel? Then subsequently, the text would have to say “she wanted an orange dress,” rather than “she wanted a red dress.”
I figure if I can extract the first letter of whatever the player inputted, I could get around this with:
*if ({dresscolor#1} = "o") or ({dresscolor#1} = "a")
*set dressa "an"
*else
*set dressa "a"
You are wearing {dressa} {dresscolor} dress.
Which would appear as “You are wearing a red dress” or “You are wearing an orange dress”.
Of course, this doesn’t actually work due to the curly braces. But is there a way to use that extracted first character of a variable for purposes other than just displaying it? I hope what I’m saying makes sense! 
Oh, thank you! That works haha, I was missing the quotes and the dollar sign, which seems so simple in hindsight!