"A historic" vs. "An historic", when to use

Question

When should I use one vs. the other, above?  I'd guess 'an' is more British, and 'a' is more American English, but...

MrPedantic · Accepted Answer

Hello Coreyj

Generally, 'an' precedes 'h' where the 'h' is either silent, or so light as to be almost inaudible:

'A historical novel' > 'an historical novel'.
'This is not a hotel' > 'this is not an hotel.'

In 'historical' and 'hotel', for instance, the 'h' syllable is unstressed. (In 'hotel', in fact, the 'h' used not to be pronounced.)

On the other hand, you would (I hope) never hear someone say 'it's an Hogarth' (in the sense 'a painting by Hogarth'), because the 'H' is heavy and precedes a stressed syllable.

That's the rule-of-thumb. You'll find that Merriam-Webster gives 'an historic occasion', for instance.

The drawback is that many people these days (in BrE at least) find it slightly affected. (Though if you were French, it would be fine: everyone would assume that you were importing the generally silent French 'h' into English. It might even seem charming.)

As for me, 'an hotel' and 'an historical' set my teeth on edge. I don't mind if 'an h...' accompanies a certain kind of antiquated accent – say, the kind we associate with an 80-year-old dowager whose pronunciations of 'often' and 'orphan' are identical. (The Dame Edith Evans type.) Otherwise, I feel it should be a flogging offence.

But you're probably safer with 'an h...' in written English, at least. No one can say you're wrong.

Things may be different in AmE.

MrP

Mister Micawber · Answer

Interesting.

I agree completely with MrP on the use of the indefinite article with aspirated 'h' (a hat) vs unaspirated 'h' (an honor).

However, I was ignorant of the social stigma attached to one or the other in marginal cases like 'hotel' and 'historic'-- I had thought that it was more a case of individual ease of pronunciation (I myself usually say 'a hotel' and 'an historic occasion', and therefore write them that way), and I have been teaching my students to speak it trippingly on the tongue and see which works best in such cases as:

____ Hawaiian guitar
____ Havana cigar
____ hallucinatory experience
____ homage to Santa Roselia
____ Herculean task

If the first syllable is unstressed, then the aspiration weakens considerably. 'Hotel' is of course open to two pronunciations. Where there will be an obvious trans-Atlantic difference is with such as:

____ herb salad
____ humble pie

MrPedantic · Answer

Yes; the first syllable of 'hotel' is longer than the first syllable of 'historic'; perhaps that makes a difference.

I expect the 'irrational vexation' part is just me. I probably wouldn't even notice 'an historic' in a non-BrE accent. Aitches do seem to cause a lot of trouble over here, as *** Van *** discovered.

(In Ireland too, where the Aitch/Protestant vs Haitch/Catholic divide serves as a kind of shibboleth.)

I'd be interested to hear Nona's thoughts.

MrP

Anonymous · Answer

Yes, in American English, we pronounce our H's, so it should be "a historic" and "a hotel," and definitely not "an" in front of either one of those words. So Iagree with the general rule stated at the very beginning, but disagree with the idea that the h is unstressed in AmE.

Anonymous · Answer

I am American and agree with MrP. People who say "an historic event" seem to be affecting an accent they think sounds educated ... it still sounds wrong.

Of course, words beginning with silent h's take "an", because there is no pronounced consonant at the beginning of the word. Same rule as always. However, the 'h' in hotel and historic is actually pronounced, so no 'an'. (!) Soft pronunciation of other consonants at the beginning of words doesn't result in those words taking 'an'.

I don't know how reliable this source is, but I agree...

Summary: use 'an' for words that begin with a vowel sound (i.e., an hour, a historic).

http://grammar.quickanddirtytips.com/a-versus-an.aspx

Darkmax · Answer

I tend to use "an" with "honor" or "honest" (and their derivatives) only. All other words starting with "h"  tend to be preceded by "a".

Anonymous · Answer

I am rather perplexed now after reading so many ideas about a historical and an historical. All I want to say is that I have heard two US presidents (present and former) say "an historic event ..." in their public addresses; and hence, I deduced that it was probably used in American English. I am not an English speaking person, and such things are quite challenging for me to understand and to explain.

Anonymous · Answer

First: I have no idea when this was posted as I can't find any dates. So this could be REALLY old.

But anyway:

I thought I'd add that there is a VERY simple rule for understanding when you use "a" or "an" before words.

The rule is:

If the word start with a vowel sound then you use "an".
If the word starts with a consonant sound then you use "a".

So completely ignore the spelling of the word and work out how you say it. For example, in British English we pronounce "herb" with the h making a sound whereas in America "erb" is the more common pronunciation. That means in Britain it's "a herb" and in America it's "an herb" (pronounced "an erb").

As for using "an historic" I personally dislike it (as I pronounce the "h" in historic, thus a consonant sound, therefore "a"). But the "h" is a pretty weak consonant and often ends up being omitted (hour, honor etc). However, more recently people are pronouncing the "h" in words, and thus you should move to using "a" instead of "an".

But the final rule is it's all about the vowel SOUND of the word afterwards. If you pronounce the "h" then use "a", if it's ignored use "an". So it's "a hotel" if you pronounce the "h" or "an hotel" if you say "an otel". But we are slowly moving towards pronouncing the "h" so it does vary from person to person.

Anonymous · Answer

My personal rule of thumb probably doesn't coincide with most others, but here it is: In speech, it doesn't matter which you use, but if you choose 'a,' then you should be sure to aspirate the 'h' (i.e., emphasize the sound of the consonant) in historic, whereas if you choose 'an,' you should not (instead, pronounce it as though it were spelled 'istoric.' To do otherwise in spoken English will result in either an awkward pronunciation-~~"a 'istoric"~~-or a stilted one--"an historic."

When writing, simply do what you would if you were speaking.

"A historic" vs. "An historic", when to use

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