Timeline for When should I use "a" vs "an"?
Current License: CC BY-SA 4.0
39 events
| when toggle format | what | by | license | comment | |
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| Mar 28 at 18:00 | comment | added | John Greene | So “a historic” just violated your rule? | |
| May 9, 2018 at 13:45 | history | edited | herisson | CC BY-SA 4.0 |
Replaced “hotel” with a less controversial example of a word that starts with a stressed syllable
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| Oct 5, 2017 at 19:46 | comment | added | Greg Lee | @JanusBahsJacquet, I noticed that "an Yosemite sunset" sounded fine to me, looked for it on the web, and found it. That's the whole story. I have no idea about traditionalist rules. I'd guess that you can't find it by searching on "an Yosemite sunset" is an artifact of how Google search works, since it is clearly present. | |
| Oct 5, 2017 at 19:38 | comment | added | Janus Bahs Jacquet | @Greg Does that really appear in any dialects? I have never heard that anywhere. That and the fact that your link was to a Google search for a phrase that yields zero results if performed with quotes made me think you were being sarcastic and trying to make a point (that I just wasn’t seeing). Apologies for assuming that if it’s not the case—I have just really never heard it before. I do see some actual, real-life examples of “an united” or “an European” when searching, though. I don’t think this one is a traditionalist rule, though, is it? | |
| Oct 5, 2017 at 19:31 | comment | added | Greg Lee | @JanusBahsJacquet, you made the point above (in the discussion of "a"/"an") that "an" can be used before "h+unstressed vowel", even when the "h" is not dropped. (Which is true for my dialect.) I am pointing out that the same is true of "y+unstressed vowel". | |
| Oct 5, 2017 at 19:07 | comment | added | Janus Bahs Jacquet | @Greg I don’t quite see what your point is here. I assume it’s Wikipedia-related, but beyond that, I don’t really see the relevance. | |
| Oct 5, 2017 at 18:59 | comment | added | Greg Lee | @JanusBahsJacquet "Y" is similar to "h" -- "an" is permissible before an unstressed syllable starting with a "y" sound. "An Yosemite sunset" is the name of this web page: google.com/… | |
| Apr 13, 2017 at 12:38 | history | edited | CommunityBot |
replaced http://english.stackexchange.com/ with https://english.stackexchange.com/
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| Dec 14, 2016 at 20:46 | comment | added | Adam Katz | "Correctness" is subjective; the language is still in transition, so we're both right. You've got the traditional angle, which comes from the British pronunciation, I've got the rule itself plus the reason it's rare to say "an historic" in the US. By popularity, "an" transitioned to "a" in 1937 for English as a whole vs 1968 for British English. | |
| Dec 14, 2016 at 19:33 | comment | added | Janus Bahs Jacquet | @AdamKatz No, I wasn't agreeing. You said that “an ’istoric” is fine, but “an historic” isn't; I said that “an historic” (with the h pronounced) is perfectly fine as well, though not as common now as it once was. | |
| Dec 14, 2016 at 18:46 | comment | added | Adam Katz | @JanusBahsJacquet you appear to be agreeing with me. I thought it was obvious that I was referring to the British pronunciation. "An 'orse" is valid because of the dropped h, like "an herb" in the US vs "a herb" in the UK. | |
| Dec 11, 2016 at 18:02 | comment | added | Janus Bahs Jacquet | @Adam No, that is not so. Even if the h in historic is pronounced as [h], it is a traditionalist view/rule that an be used before it. It is probably quite restricted nowadays, but there is nothing incorrect about it. It’s also not rare at all to find dialects that (optionally) drop initial h—it is very common in most of Britain, for example. You’ll find plenty of people, especially in the south, who’ll happily say things like an ’orse. | |
| Mar 6, 2015 at 1:59 | comment | added | Adam Katz | "An historic" is only correct when your accent pronounces it "an istoric," which is very rare these days. Some broadcasters overcorrect to say it out of habit, but it is not correct in the "American Broadcast English" accent. Then again, good luck correcting Walter Cronkite ;-) | |
| Oct 23, 2014 at 20:00 | comment | added | Aliweb | Would someone please tell me why the author has said "hotel" is stressed on the first syllable | |
| S Sep 5, 2014 at 18:27 | history | suggested | Michel Ayres | CC BY-SA 3.0 |
added link to keep alive in case of name change or user deletion (also, make easier to find in the comments)
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| Sep 5, 2014 at 17:36 | review | Suggested edits | |||
| S Sep 5, 2014 at 18:27 | |||||
| Aug 26, 2013 at 11:01 | comment | added | awe | @nohat: There is something called "y" sound, but most English words starting with "y" actually is pronounced more like the "j" sound. The English "y" sound is more like "aj", but is only pronounced like that when not in the beginning of a word, like in "why". | |
| Sep 11, 2012 at 6:27 | comment | added | Xantix | In "herb" we do and we don't. | |
| Jun 2, 2012 at 16:04 | comment | added | Michael | When do we pronounce the "h" and when we don't? In "hour" we don't pronounce it, in "hotel" we do. | |
| Feb 27, 2012 at 7:39 | comment | added | user16269 | In what dialect is "hotel" stressed on the first syllable? | |
| Dec 12, 2011 at 23:19 | comment | added | FumbleFingers | I didn't upvote this before because it's incomplete without @Nohat's comment. Having just heard an historical from a BBC newsreader, I was prompted to edit and upvote the answer! | |
| Dec 12, 2011 at 23:16 | history | edited | FumbleFingers | CC BY-SA 3.0 |
added 489 characters in body
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| Apr 14, 2011 at 3:45 | vote | accept | Caleb Hearth | ||
| Mar 1, 2011 at 20:31 | comment | added | Andy | @CJM: You 'ave brought a 'earty smile to my face. | |
| Mar 1, 2011 at 13:19 | comment | added | CJM | @Nolderin - since when don't 'posh' people pronounce aitch? I don't recall the queen ever saying "I am 'appy 'ereby open this 'andsome new 'ospital". | |
| S Feb 3, 2011 at 18:54 | history | suggested | Iszi | CC BY-SA 2.5 |
Edited explanations to more accurately reflect intended meaning.
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| Feb 3, 2011 at 18:53 | review | Suggested edits | |||
| S Feb 3, 2011 at 18:54 | |||||
| Oct 11, 2010 at 13:16 | comment | added | Konrad Rudolph | @nohat: Interestingly, Google returns more than twice as many hits for “a historical” than for “an historical”. I’ve always used the more intuitive pronunciation rule: if I pronounce the “h”, away goes the “n”. | |
| Oct 9, 2010 at 22:18 | comment | added | Noldorin | @nohat: Depends how you pronounce "historical". In posh British English, you don't voice the "h", but most speakers of British English do voice it... | |
| Aug 6, 2010 at 18:39 | comment | added | nohat | The rules before "h" are a little tricky, but clear: if a word begins with an "h" sound and the first syllable is stressed (like "hotel"), then it never takes "an". If the first syllable is not stressed (like "historical") then it is possible to use "an". Some usage authorities would say you must use "an" in those cases, but I am not one of those authorities. You find both "a" and "an" used before words like "historical". | |
| Aug 6, 2010 at 17:08 | comment | added | njd | Gets tricky before "h" though, because it's a consonant that doesn't quite sound like a consonant: "a hotel" or "an hotel"? I prefer the former. | |
| Aug 6, 2010 at 6:26 | comment | added | nohat | @Kinopiko, I think what people mean by a "y sound" is the palatal approximant (en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Palatal_approximant) because that is the sound that the letter 'y' corresponds to in prototypical cases, such as in the word "yes". Are you saying that the palatal approximant is not a sound, or that "y sound" is not a valid way to refer to the palatal approximant? | |
| Aug 6, 2010 at 5:36 | comment | added | delete | @nohat: There's no such thing as a "y sound". | |
| Aug 6, 2010 at 4:46 | comment | added | nohat | @Kinopiko, it most certainly does! What sound do you think it starts with? | |
| Aug 6, 2010 at 3:42 | comment | added | waiwai933 |
@itrekkie Yes, it is complementary distribution. I believe an is the original, and thus it is deletion, but not fully applied due to the attempts of speakers of English to attempt to avoid the awkward glottal stop that otherwise occurs.
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| Aug 6, 2010 at 3:35 | comment | added | ShreevatsaR | @Kinopiko: At least in many dialects I've heard, "user", "European", etc. begin with the same (similar?) sound that many words starting with "y" do, thus a "y sound" (probably represented by a 'j' in more formal representations). | |
| Aug 6, 2010 at 3:02 | comment | added | Charlie | Are these in complementary distribution? Which is the underlying form? Is this an example of deletion or epenthesis? If the former, I think it would be interesting to find out why two vowel sounds cannot be next to each other. Are there other examples of this phonotactic rule? | |
| Aug 6, 2010 at 2:52 | comment | added | delete | "User" doesn't begin with a "y sound". | |
| Aug 6, 2010 at 2:22 | history | answered | waiwai933 | CC BY-SA 2.5 |