Quizzes & Puzzles0 min ago
Why 'An' before 'H'?
19 Answers
As in "I'm staying at an hotel" as opposed to "I'm staying at a hotel".
Has never sounded correct to me!
Has never sounded correct to me!
Answers
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�An hotel', with the �h' silent, is perfectly correct, though somewhat dated nowadays. British people of a certain class and age still do use it...it's as simple as that.
It is optional whether or not to pronounce the opening �h' in words in which the first syllable is unstressed...eg habitual, horrendous, hotel, historian, horrific etc and therefore whether 'a' or 'an' is used before it. The five words just listed commonly have �an' before them.
It is the lack of stress rather than any French provenance - as some claim - that matters. Hackney, hearse, homage and hostage all came to us from French, too, but I do not know of any evidence that British people - other than Cockneys etc - ever said 'ackney, 'earse, 'omage or 'ostage. It is probably because of such words that the relevance of French pronunciation has been doubted as regards the 'an (h)otel' usage.
Much more significant surely is the fact that all four of these words open with a stressed syllable which 'hotel' etc do not. It seems most probable, therefore, that stress-pattern is far more important than French origin in this matter. The final nail in the coffin of �The French Connection' is the fact that Fowler's Modern English Usage - the �bible' in such matters - does not even mention a French factor here. On the other hand, it does indicate the relevance of the unstressed opening.
...cont)
It is optional whether or not to pronounce the opening �h' in words in which the first syllable is unstressed...eg habitual, horrendous, hotel, historian, horrific etc and therefore whether 'a' or 'an' is used before it. The five words just listed commonly have �an' before them.
It is the lack of stress rather than any French provenance - as some claim - that matters. Hackney, hearse, homage and hostage all came to us from French, too, but I do not know of any evidence that British people - other than Cockneys etc - ever said 'ackney, 'earse, 'omage or 'ostage. It is probably because of such words that the relevance of French pronunciation has been doubted as regards the 'an (h)otel' usage.
Much more significant surely is the fact that all four of these words open with a stressed syllable which 'hotel' etc do not. It seems most probable, therefore, that stress-pattern is far more important than French origin in this matter. The final nail in the coffin of �The French Connection' is the fact that Fowler's Modern English Usage - the �bible' in such matters - does not even mention a French factor here. On the other hand, it does indicate the relevance of the unstressed opening.
...cont)
cont...
The Americans have an example which we do not, in that they pronounce �herb' as if there were no �h' present. Thus, they refer to �an (h)erb' just as we say: �an (h)our'.
I'm sure all of us of a certain age will recall the judicial voice-over to the opening credits of Ronnie Barker's Porridge..."Norman Stanley Fletcher....you are an habitual criminal who accepts arrest as an occupational hazard and presumably accepts imprisonment in the same casual manner...."
A London society lady in earlier times would have been utterly mortified if anyone had heard her demanding: "Fetch me an �ackney." Anyone who heard her would have assumed she was a recidivist Eliza Doolittle! It has to be said, though that Mark Twain once wrote: "As soon as the Jubilee was over we went to what is called in England �an hotel'. If we could have afforded an horse and an hackney cab we could have had an heavenly time flitting around."
The Americans have an example which we do not, in that they pronounce �herb' as if there were no �h' present. Thus, they refer to �an (h)erb' just as we say: �an (h)our'.
I'm sure all of us of a certain age will recall the judicial voice-over to the opening credits of Ronnie Barker's Porridge..."Norman Stanley Fletcher....you are an habitual criminal who accepts arrest as an occupational hazard and presumably accepts imprisonment in the same casual manner...."
A London society lady in earlier times would have been utterly mortified if anyone had heard her demanding: "Fetch me an �ackney." Anyone who heard her would have assumed she was a recidivist Eliza Doolittle! It has to be said, though that Mark Twain once wrote: "As soon as the Jubilee was over we went to what is called in England �an hotel'. If we could have afforded an horse and an hackney cab we could have had an heavenly time flitting around."
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I just love the letter 'h' in English. It was inserted into words by the scribes who first wrote in Middle English, not to be pronounced, but to act as an aid to the pronounciation of adjacent letters. It has been added to words, dropped from them, transposed from before consonants to behind them, and generally messed about. See...
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