This one drives me nuts. What are the proper rules of grammar concerning the use of ‘a’ or ‘an’ when the article precedes a word begining with the letter ‘H’? I must have missed school that day, and its importance I gather, was deemed so insignificant that it didn’t bear repeating again in my 12 years of compulsory education.
So I’ve tried to figure it out on my own, and I conclude that ‘an’ is a linguistic tool soften to ‘soften the approach’ of an upcoming word that begins with a vowel sound.
At first it seems pretty simple with speech. You use ‘a’ when it precedes a hard ‘H’ like HOOK or HERO. And you use ‘an’ before a soft ‘H’ like HONOR.
But in formal written English I often see ‘an’ being used exclusively. I might guess this is some obscure literary rule to make the written word more visually appealing. Kind of weird I think, but rather harmless.
It gets confusing when I recognize that not all English speakers pronounce a hard H, even when it is there. I had a professor from Boston who didn’t pronounce H’s at all. To hear him say the word HUMAN, it was YOOmen. Amusing.
What just grates on my nerves though, is when people speaking will purposely corrupt the rhythm and flow of their speech to accommodate this gramatical oddity. Television news people are notorious for this, saying for example: “…an historic event…” (pronouncing the hard H) instead of “…a historic event…”.
They must sometimes realize that it will sound akward, because once in a while they’ll try to correct it on-the-fly and do the Boston-style “…an _istoric event…”
So Dopers, what am I missing? If this is one of those countless inconsistencies the English language is riddled with, I can understand. But I strongly suspect people do it on purpose just to annoy ME.
Hm. And here I thought they were doing it all this time just to annoy me. This bears further investigation.
Using “an” before a hard “h” is, in my opinion, unforgivable. It makes the speaker sound like a pretentious idiot. This is why you’ll normally hear politicians and newscasters do it.
I don’t care if Strunk and White came back from the dead draped in chains, wailing, “Steeeeve, chiiiiiilllll. Using ‘an’ before a hard ‘h’ is aaaaaalllll gooooooood.” I ain’t buyin’ it. You use “a” before a consonant sound, and “an” before a vowel sound. It’s one of the simplest rules in English. You’re not missing anything; you’re absolutely right. It’s the monkeys on TV who are destroying the English language in the name of pseudo-intellectual affectation.
Although Lux Kiat may find it unforgivable, using 'an in front of a hard ‘h’ is proper grammar. It is not “the monkeys on TV who are destroying the English language in the name of pseudo-intellectual affectation.” It has however become obsolete and disused (as many, including myself, find it unnecessary) and is now used, as Lux said, by pretentious idiots. Language evolves over years and this is one way in which English has changed, but some who wish to seem intellectualy superior continue dredged up the old grammar as if old = smart.
On “Jeopardy!” the other night, a clue had “an historic”. Bugged the heck out of me.
Using “an” in front of a hard “H” may come from the British, where some local accents drop the hard “H” sound altogether. When written out, the “H”'s are often apostrophied out; e.g., “We got an 'alf hour to get to tea, guv.” This makes a little sense, as the hard “H” sound is being omitted, so the word after the indefinate article is “alf”, not “half”.
Yep, it was proper grammar when i was at school. Perhaps times have changed but i feel uncomfortable not using it when appropriate. I believe most broadcasting organisations have a grammatical code of practice so i wouldn’t blame the talking heads.
I’m 95% sure that according to Fowler’s, “an” does not precede a hard h. Unfortunately I haven’t got my copy of the book with me so I can’t look it up, but I have a distinct memory of Time magazine citing Fowler’s after several readers complained about a headline that read “A Historic Choice” (about Geraldine Ferraro … this was some time ago). I believe Fowler’s also went on to say that those who feel the need to use “an” should at least make the following “h” silent.
“an” 2) usually in speech and less often in writing before h-inital words with an unstressed syllible in which \h\ is often lost after an (an historian)
source: Merriam Webster
I’m sure you looked it up and saw that it is not improper.
I agree. This has bugged me for a long time. I applauded Time magazine’s use of “A Historic”. The “an” only makes sense if you don’t aspirate that “h”, so that it becomes “an istoric”.
The rule seems a little vague. It isn’t “use “an” in front of vowel sounds”, because no one says “an unicorn”. Despite what peopl say, it’s usage that determines what’s correct. The only question is – whose usage?
Generally, you use “a” before words beginning with “h.” The exceptions are usually clear cut – “hour” “herb” and other words where the “h” isn’t aspirated (i.e., pronounced). The variants of “history” are a gray area. By the rules, it should be “a,” but in England there developed the use of “an.” The actual determination is unclear, so it isn’t “wrong” to use “an historic event” in the same way it would be wrong to say “*an car.” Certainly there are certain accents (and not just Cockney) in which “an historic” drops the “h” sound. Other variations of “history” are more likely to use “a” (“a history major”).
The general rule is that you use “a” before consonent sounds and “an” before vowel sounds. Thus “unicorn,” which starts with a consonental “y” sound requires “a.”
My sense is that “a” is probably the right choice before variants of “history.” My French-English dictionary puts it best: “En anglais, le “h” est toujours aspiré.”
