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Comment by stretchwithme | Hacker News Reader

I've been ignoring that rule for a long time. If it wasn't in the original, it doesn't go in quotes.

And another thing. Using "an" when a word starts an H is followed very inconsistently. In fact, I only seem to hear it in the phrase "an historic". "An human" doesn't really speak that way.

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Deciding whether to use "a" or "an" should be made based on the first sound of the next word as spoken, not on the first letter as written.

"An historic event" is wrong:

An is the form of the indefinite article that is used before a spoken vowel sound: it doesn’t matter how the written word in question is actually spelled. So, we say ‘an honour’, ‘an hour’, or ‘an heir’, for example, because the initial letter ‘h’ in all three words is not actually pronounced. By contrast we say ‘a hair’ or ‘a horse’ because, in these cases, the ‘h’ is pronounced.(http://www.oxforddictionaries.com/page/aoranhistoric/a-histo...)

There's nothing wrong with "An historic event".

I'm from London.

(However, it does irritate me no end to hear RP speakers say "An historic", pronouncing the "h")

yeah, I hear people pronounce the "h" and use "an" but not do it consistently. Didn't realize its silent in England.

I've only ever seen that with variations on "history". This is probably wrong, but when I first came across it at a young age I thought it was because British English often doesn't pronounce the leading 'H' making the word start with a vowel sound. <shrug>

And another thing. Using "an" when a word starts an H is followed very inconsistently.

Is that a rule in American English? I don't remember hearing it in school.

As best I recall, the rule is based on pronunciation, not on spelling. So for words where the "h" is pronounced, you treat it as a consonant and lead with "a": "go for a hike." Whereas for words where "h" is silent, so pronunciation thus leads with a vowel, you lead with "an": "it would be an honor."

"Historic" is pronounced differently, mostly based on region. You can go to "a historic occasion," with hard H, or "an 'istoric occasion," with a soft one.

Or, for native speakers: type what you'd pronounce.

An herb? An hour? An horchata?

Sure, but there's also 'an historical novel' - less likely, unless you are a character in said novel.

I would say that the real rule is not about the letters (vowel or consonant), but the sounds. So, you receive 'an MBA' because it's pronounced 'an em-bee-eigh'.

Incidentally, the soft h on "herb" is one of the things that bugs me most about American English (and it took me several years of living here to even figure out that it was consistently done that way).

Correct me if I'm wrong, but don't Americans pronounce a hard "h" on "herbivore"? How does "herb", then, lose its h?

I actually say "erbivore", as do most people I know.

Really? Oh, in that case it's at least consistent (though it still bugs me, for no particularly good reason other than that it's unusual).

What about the name "Herb"?

I don't know any personally but I usually hear the H enunciated in the name. But Herb is short for "Herbert", which is a German name, so maybe we inherited the pronunciation rule there.

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