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It is common to use

1a an historical event

2a an hotel

rather than

1b a historical event

2b a hotel

Why 'an' is used in such case?

Edwin Ashworth
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  • I've never seen "an" used with the word "hotel". Kindly add references if any – Bella Swan Nov 28 '19 at 11:03
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    @BellaSwan Yes.Such usage is also there.In this book it is mentioned https://rukminim1.flixcart.com/image/416/416/j4irlow0/regionalbooks/f/6/c/a-senior-english-grammar-and-composition-9-10-original-imaesfyqtqqw3w44.jpeg?q=70 –  Nov 28 '19 at 11:39
  • @Edwin Ashworth : Thanking for your valuable editing. –  Nov 28 '19 at 11:44
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    The scope of grammar as is held here on ELU and by most linguists does not extend to the choice between 'a' and 'an', hence the editing out of the 'grammaticality' referencing. // I've corrected the impression that 'a hotel' and 'a historical [event]' are (1) incorrect and (2) never used by educated native users (they're common usages). // The duplicate offers explanations of the varying accepted practices. I've heard 'an' before aspirated 'hotel', 'historian' etc. I believe that it's a hypercorrection, but now a third fairly common option. – Edwin Ashworth Nov 28 '19 at 12:07
  • @EdwinAshworth When I was studying the topic 'USAGE OF ARTICLES',I came to know about such a usage.Before that I was unaware of such usage. –  Nov 28 '19 at 12:18

1 Answers1

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"An" is used before a vowel sound. "A" is used before a consonant sound.

The usual pronunciations of "hotel" and "historical" sound the h, so those words begin with the consonant sound [h], so it's "a hotel" and "a historical ...".

However, some people used to pronounce "hotel" with the h silent. The word is derived from a French word where the h is silent. So some people used the French pronunciation. But now it's much more common to pronounce "hotel" the English way, with a sounded h.

Google Ngrams shows that, in British English, "a hotel" didn't overtake "an hotel" until 1931, whereas in American English, "a hotel" had overtaken "an hotel" by 1820. (These stats should be taken with a grain of salt, just like any Ngrams data brought to bear on a matter of spoken English; written English tends to lag spoken English.)

Why would some people say "an historical ..."? In some people's accents, the h sound is dropped in some circumstances. This is more likely to happen if the h sound is in a weak (unstressed) syllable. The first syllable of "historical" is weak, and so we get "an 'istorical". People with that accent feature might also "an 'orrific".

Rosie F
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