Is it AN historic day?

[pohjonen]

Is AN historic day really correct? This has always bothered me. After all, you don’t say I’m gonna ride an horse. Have AN happy birthday. Isn’t that AN helluva note. It always sounded to pretentious to actually be correct. Someone please tell me I’ve been right all along. It would be such an happy day for me.

Poh

[GilaB]

According to the formal rules of grammar that I was trained with in junior high and high school, yes, words that begin with an “h” should be preceded with “an”, not “a”, just like words that begin with a vowel. However, it’s a pretty archaic rule, particularly in America - I’ve never met anyone who spoke that way, and most grammarians (IIRC) count both the “a” and “an” forms as correct.

[Dale_The_Bold]

My guess has always been that the “H” has been given more emphasis as our language changed, as a result h’istory has become “hhhistory.” An 'istoric, became “a historic.” However, I remember my grade school english teacher saying that words that start with “H” are preceded with “an.” It still works with “an hour.” Perhaps it has something to to with the strength of the “H.” An 'istoric event.

I’m reminded of a UB40 song…
“'ere I am baby
Come and take me by the 'and.”

This is nothing more than a theory, so take it for what it’s worth.

[hajario]

*Originally posted by GilaB *
**According to the formal rules of grammar that I was trained with in junior high and high school, yes, words that begin with an “h” should be preceded with “an”, not “a”, just like words that begin with a vowel. However, it’s a pretty archaic rule, particularly in America - I’ve never met anyone who spoke that way, and most grammarians (IIRC) count both the “a” and “an” forms as correct. **

It has everything to do with the first sound of the word, not the first letter. If the h is silent, use an. If the h is not silent, use a.

A horse
An honest man

Haj (A Haj!)

[pohjonen]

Well, then it should be A history, right? In hour and onest the H is silent. In history, it ain’t. It’s A historic day!

[tomndebb]

We can actually get a general consensus regarding the rule.

What we cannot get any general agreement on is our (collective and world-scattered) pronunciation (as demonstrated in the “Anyways” & “An historic” thread of last July).

[CaveMike]

More support for the 'istoric crowd:
http://www.webster.com/wftw/00jul/071900.htm

[mhendo]

As a graduate student in history who is constantly surrounded by people using the term “historic”, it seems to me that the most common indefinite article used before the term in both Australia and the US is “an”.

I don’t have a dictionary of American usage with me, but my Fowler’s Modern English Usage (Third Edition, ed. R.W. Burchfield) has this to say:

The thoroughly modern thing to do is use a (never an) together with an aspirated h(a habitual, a heroic, a historical, a Homeric, a hypothesis), but not to demur if others use an with minimal or nil aspiration given to the following h (an historic, an horrific, etc.)…

At the present time, especially in written English, there is abundant evidence for the use of an before habitual, historian, historic(al), horrific and horrendous, but the choice of form remains open.

All this was under the entry for a, an; under the entry for historic, it says:

When preceded by the indefinite article, the following pattern is recommended: an historic, an historian; but a history.