I didn't know that, I always got told it depends on the first letter (and it didn't make sense for me for some words).. (Obviously not a native speaker)
Nope, it's based on the first sound. (Hence "an hour" rather than "a hour").
Don't tell the knuckle draggers still pretending that "history" has a silent-H.
That's an accent thing. In some places the "h" is silent, and in other places it's not.
Is there any English dialect in which it's silent in "a history"?
This is also why it's "a university".
Wait, what? So the rule isn't that the pronunciation starts with a vowel sound? Instead it's a more murky thing about how easy it rolls off the tongue?
University starts with the 'y' sound, hence "a university." On the other hand, "an unimpressive fact" uses "an" because "unimpressive" starts with the 'u' (vowel) sound.
Doesn't "university" start with the "y" consonant sound?
University has a kind of "y" sound, like the word "yes", which isn't considered a vowel sound.
That’s why the pronunciation of “an history” is such a contentious issue in British political linguistics to this day. Crucially, as has been observed correctly, the rule is that one should use the appropriate indefinite article. That in turn depends on whether one pronounces, as pirates, or has a silent ‘h’, revealing one’s origins even once the guise of Received Pronunciation had been defensively adopted.
Don't worry too much: I am a native speaker and I was taught the same in elementary school!