Right. I’m a professional writer. The word “an” only comes before words that start with vowels. History does not start with a vowel. So any written material that contains “an historic” is incorrect as far as I’m concerned. This is a pet peave of mine. I expect spoken language to evolve, contain errors that people wouldn’t use when they write. But then, I don’t spend much of my day fixing peoples’ spoken language.
If it starts with a vowel it’s “an”
If it starts with a consonant it’s “a”
You people are loosing your minds 
Vowel sounds. After all, “hour” starts with a consonant, and it’s “an hour,” not “a hour.”
A and an are the same (indefinite) article. You choose which one based on how you pronounce the noun which follows. It’s not about grammar, but rather pronunciation, and therefore, phonology.
If it starts with a vowel sound it takes “an”: It’s an honor to meet you.
If it starts with a consonant sound it takes “a”: That’s a useful skill to have.
This rule applies in both speech and writing.
Those of you who were not taught to say “an 'istoric” are welcome to think it sounds odd, but please get off your high horses in proclaiming it an affectation. While that may be true in some cases, there are plenty of us who grew up saying it that way, find it flows more naturally in speech, and in no way are trying to affect anything. It’s just one of those things that is done differently in different places.
From here:
One tricky case comes up from time to time: is it “a historic occasion” or “an historic occasion”? Some speakers favor the latter — more British than American speakers, but you’ll find them in both places — using an on longish words (three or more syllables) beginning with h, where the first syllable isn’t accented. They’d say, for instance, “a hístory textbook” (accent on the first syllable) but “an históric event.” (Likewise “a hábit” but “an habítual offender,” “a hýpothetical question” but “an hypóthesis.”) Still, most guides prefer a before any h that’s sounded: “a historic occasion,” “a hysterical joke,” “a habitual offender” — but “an honor” and “an hour” because those h’s aren’t sounded.
I prefer to distinguish the two forms of language by saying, “vowel” vs. “vowel letter.” After all, humans speak language naturally. Writing is unnatural, artifice.
So if you ask me how many vowels there are in English, I’ll tell you at least 21, perhaps more, depending on how you want to view R-coloring and things like that.
Perhaps you’d like to review the foregoing posts more carefully. No one said it’s an affectation to say “an 'istoric.” We’re saying it’s an affectation to say “an hhhhhhhhhhhistoric,” which what a lot of American politicians do.
It has fuck-all to do with where the accent falls. It has to do with whether the following H is pronounced.
Thanks for clarifying that, I misunderstood. I agree that “an” does not go with a clearly enunciated “h” sound.
Yes, but whether the “h” is pronounced can be affected by where the accent falls. It wasn’t made clear in that passage, but the point is that when the accent is changed from the first to the second syllable, there is often a tendency to reduce the force of the “h.” In some cases, it can be lost altogether.
And this is one of mine:p
Me too. The usage is so entrenched we’ll need a peavey to move it.
I don’t understand why we have so many threads on a vs. an. It’s gotta be the easiest rule in English grammar. You simply do what’s easiest.