Funnily enough, I know it's supposedly 'correct' English to say 'an' in front of some (all?) Hs (ha, I don't really know at all!) but my ears reject the idea. 'An Hotel' just seems WRONG to me, as does 'An Historical' anything!
It actually makes quite a lot of sense...I think crickets is planning on sharing the entry from Garner's Modern American Usage later on, but the distinction comes from whether the "h" is aspirated (pronounced). So "an hour," but "a hippopotamus" or "a historic moment."
Yes, indeed. I'm a fan of England, as you can see. :-) I suppose I should have clarified that my source discussed American usage. Out of curiosity, do you aspirate the h- sound in those words?
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Date: 2010-11-04 08:01 pm (UTC)Ah, English: fickle to the core.
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Date: 2010-11-04 10:13 pm (UTC)Ah, English: fickle to the core.
Couldn't have put it better myself.
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Date: 2010-11-04 10:15 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2010-11-04 11:09 pm (UTC)Pft. In this instance, life is too darned tootin' short.
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Date: 2010-11-04 11:12 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2010-11-04 11:21 pm (UTC)The way I look at it, if an article can't be bothered to be definite, I'm not going to let it decide how I pronounce stuff.
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Date: 2010-11-04 11:22 pm (UTC)Love it.
If there's an H there, I'm sayin' it.
Eddie would approve!
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Date: 2010-11-04 11:28 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2010-11-04 11:31 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2010-11-04 11:35 pm (UTC)(Let us not talk of Prince Edward here. One is an hanarchist.)
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Date: 2010-11-04 11:36 pm (UTC)"And that's what happens when cousins marry."
"Oh, you're a plumber? What on earth is that?"