Learn It. Live It. Love It.

I think the exasperation comes from people using "an" before words with a pronounced "h" (historical) but it was drilled into me lo 35 years ago that vowel sound or not, you used "a" before "h" I hate that Engrish is an evolving language…

Odd, I was in gradeschool not that many years before that (~45 years ago) and they taught us the vowel/consonant sound rule to apply. Hmmm

It may have been a writing thing. I was raised by an editor…

Remember too: English isn't a language that borrows from others. Instead it chases other languages down dark alleys, clubs them over their heads an rifles through their pockets…

Nice!

So can't remember who said that. I think it was Mark Twain? Eh, too busy to Google… :P

AND rifles!! aya…

People put "an" in front of words that start with H when the H isn't pronounced (like the word, "honor.") you may be thinking, "but what about people who put "an" before words like, "historical?'" Let me explain; the H at the beginning of a word will elide if it falls between two short vowels. If you are talking quickly, and pronounce "a" as a schwa, then the H in "a historical" elides, and so gets pronounced like "an 'istorical." But also remember that this cannot be the case if the syllable to which the H is attached is stressed; for example, the first syllable in "history" is stressed, so people will always say "a history" and never "an 'istory." Hope this makes sense!

sincerely yours,
A fellow meme farmer