Grammar People:

[benjamin619]

A historical, or An historical? Word says they are both okay.

[Eulogy]

A history.

I have never and will never use an before history.

[waltermcphilp]

i was always under the impression that an proceeds any word that starts with a vowel, and vice versa

[Karl Connor]

i think both are acceptable!

[waltermcphilp]

that sounds like nonsense!

[Eulogy]

yeah they're both acceptable. but an sucks.

[benjamin619]

Some people say historical with a soft H, causing it to sound like a vowel, and so taking 'an.' Is there anything definite on this?

[benjamin619]

oh okay cool. thanks.

[TuralyonW3]

a historical

[Karl Connor]

i had a professor that said it depends on how your pronounce it. so unless you're giving a speech i wouldn't worry about it

[Karl Connor]

kind of like an opposum, a opposum

[tcm]

opossum.

i have come to prefer an.

[tcm]

Originally Posted by Eulogy

A history.

I have never and will never use an before history.

history wasn't in question. i prefer a before history because the stress is on the first syllable.

[Ever]

I think it depends on it's rhythm in the sentence. I beleive if my latin serves me correctly I am referring to elision. So if the h in history goes missing cause of elision you put it as 'an'. But if no elision occurs it makes more sense to put it as 'a'.

[Eulogy]

Originally Posted by tcm

history wasn't in question. i prefer a before history because the stress is on the first syllable.

yeah my bad

my answer is the same.

[Cell Tech]

is it "a history" if you pronounce the h, "an history" if you pronounce it an 'istory like in britain? thats how i always understood it. better go with "an history" if youre also going with "theatre" and "colour" and "cheque" etc

[tcm]

an herb.

[Ever]

Originally Posted by Cell Tech

is it "a history" if you pronounce the h, "an history" if you pronounce it an 'istory like in britain? thats how i always understood it. better go with "an history" if youre also going with "theatre" and "colour" and "cheque" etc

Yeah this is what I'm trying to say but pronounciation is determined by any number of things, mainly sentence rhythm. Elision is just the term used to describe when a certain consonant goes missing due to the context of a word in a certain text.

[BumbleBeeMouth]

In England, Ever is right.

[tcm]

Ever's in Australia, man.

[BumbleBeeMouth]

Right in two countries!

[tcm]

my money's on wormholes.

[brendo_91]

I think its a bit of a non issue, as long as you're consistent with it - i wouldn't switch from a to an all the time?

[pale blue eyes]

The rule is that if the h- is sounded then a is the proper form. They're both not acceptable in this case; an is used with other words that start with h but that's only because the emphasis on those words appears on the second syllable which sounds like a vowel and the h- isn't heard. Hence, an hour and not a hour. Plus, an history just sounds wrong. Don't put your faith behind Word's grammar check, ever.

You should go out and buy this:

http://images.amazon.com/images/P/01...1.LZZZZZZZ.jpg

I LOVE it. Best $30 I ever spent.

[DeviousJ]

Originally Posted by pale blue eyes

The rule is that if the h- is sounded then a is the proper form. They're both not acceptable in this case; an is used with other words that start with h but that's only because the emphasis on those words appears on the second syllable which sounds like a vowel and the h- isn't heard. Hence, an hour and not a hour. Plus, an history just sounds wrong. Don't put your faith behind Word's grammar check, ever.

You should go out and buy this:

http://images.amazon.com/images/P/01...1.LZZZZZZZ.jpg

I LOVE it. Best $30 I ever spent.

But wait, the stress in hour is on the first syllable - you don't go up at the end and say 'owER', and I bet you don't say 'an hotel' even though the stressed syllable *is* the second one there. The way I heard it, the initial h used to be silent in words that began with one but people gradually started to pronounce them, and these days the h is only silent in a couple of words (like hour). I think it's more of an accent thing than anything

[RenewRevive]

Originally Posted by benjamin619

A historical, or An historical? Word says they are both okay.

Hah. Word's grammar check is pretty good if you want to structure your sentences bizzaro-fashion.

[RenewRevive]

Originally Posted by pale blue eyes

You should go out and buy this:

http://images.amazon.com/images/P/01...1.LZZZZZZZ.jpg

I LOVE it. Best $30 I ever spent.

I don't know. This would seem to curtail a freewheeling approach to the English language.

[pale blue eyes]

Originally Posted by DeviousJ

But wait, the stress in hour is on the first syllable - you don't go up at the end and say 'owER', and I bet you don't say 'an hotel' even though the stressed syllable *is* the second one there. The way I heard it, the initial h used to be silent in words that began with one but people gradually started to pronounce them, and these days the h is only silent in a couple of words (like hour). I think it's more of an accent thing than anything

Bah, I meant accent not stress or whatever. I think. You would never say an hotel though because you can hear the h- sound at the beginning. Same with history so you would not use an. I know not that many h words are silent but that would be pretty much the only time you would use an. I guess the best rule would be the vowel rule that if there is a vowel sound a the beginning of the word than you should use an, otherwise you just use a. I have been up a couple days so my brain is admittedly a bit mushy.

I still love Garner's though, if I had the money I would buy that thing by the truckload and throw it at people who say things like "irregardless" or "for all intensive purposes" in the vain hope that they might crack it open. And if I hit them with it than that would just be delicious. Two birds with one stone.

[mpp]

yeah it comes from an older version of english

you can use either one

i think i usually write "an" and say "a"

[RenewRevive]

pale blue eyes:

I bet you get a big kick out of correcting people on invalid sentence structure, right?