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Possible Duplicate:
When should I use “a” versus “an” in front of a word beginning with the letter h?

What's the proper wording here, neither one sounds right to me:

"Chevra, an humanitarian organization..."

or

"Chevra, a humanitarian organization..."

My instinct says it follows the same rule as "an hour", but the 'h' sound is more pronounced in 'humanitarian', so I'm unsure.

Community
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Judah Himango
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1 Answers1

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It depends on your accent, because the "a/an" pattern is completely phonological. Some dialects don't pronounce the [h] very strongly or at all in cases where it is followed by [j] (the "y" sound), like in "humanitarian" [hjumæn...], "humor", or "huge". In my dialect, the [h] is definitely pronounced so I would write "a", and I believe this is the most common pronunciation in the US (though I am not certain).

Kosmonaut
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  • But even if someone drops the /h/, wouldn't they use "a" because /j/ is a consonant? We don't say "an universe" (or at least, not in modern English), and that starts the same as ’umanitarian. – herisson Aug 30 '16 at 07:06
  • @suməlic: Yes. I have no idea what I was thinking back then. The part about [h] pronunciation is true but it has no impact on a/an. – Kosmonaut Aug 31 '16 at 14:06