What is the correct Grammar

[milly143]

Is it correct to say, for example, 'an hotel' or 'a hotel'? I would have though the latter is correct as H is not a vowel but many people use 'an' in this context? Is there a secret rule of grammar I am missing?

[SaxyJag]

Technically, the former is correct as the 'h' sould be silent, as in 'heirloom'. However you won't be thought ignorant if you use 'a' and prounounce the 'h' - it's generally accepted these days.

[milly143]

hhhmmm, I appear to be even thicker than I thought I was. Thanks for the answer!

[Aschenbach]

here

[Quizmonster]

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. It is the lack of stress rather than any French provenance - as some claim - that matters.
However, �an hotel', specifically, is regarded as old-fashioned though not quite extinct. The other words above are still commonly preceded by 'an'.
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 we all 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...."

[milly143]

Ah yes, it's all begining to make much more sense now! Thanks again!

[miss_me]

whoa....optional to pronounce the 'h'?? That would be weird, otel is a totally different word from hotel and would sound like you couldnt speak properly surely??!

[Quizmonster]

Yes, Miss_me, it is optional whether you say "A hotel" (with a pronounced 'h') or "An hotel" (with a silent 'h'). The vast majority of us opt for the former, but it is still perfectly correct - though rare - to choose the latter. People of a certain class and age still do...it's as simple as that.
There is no word 'otel' in standard English.

[jno]

there are a few words that definitely have a silent H: hour, honour and related words. Most Hs are sounded. But there are a few, as Quizmonster says, that some people pronounce with a sounded H and some don't. Some of them baffle me a bit - people who say istoric or orrific never say istory or orror; so I find it a bit illogical to drop the Hs there. Anyway, hotel is one of these; I think otel is a minority pronunciation, and in decline, but many people do still say it that way.

The other odd word is H itself... many people these days seem to say haitch; I never have, and have no idea where it came from (cockney?). I think this is also a minority pronunciation - but it may be gaining.

[Quizmonster]

The reason we don't say '(h)istory' or '(h)orrible' with silent 'h', J - unless we're Cockneys, of course - is that the stress is on the first syllable, not the second, so it isn't really baffling. Some people would say: "It was an (h)orrific crash."

[jno]

I see the pattern QM, but not the logic. Why should the matter of where the stress falls determine whether you pronounce an H or not? It's not as if historic is hard to say, is it? (Or do some people find it so? As a non-Brit, I don't want to be too dogmatic about this.)

[Mikeyd2]

On a slightly different track .

Is it ...A MGM Cartoon or An MGM Cartoon? I was watching some "Tom and Jerry" cartoons with the kids recently (honest Guv) and they had both on the titles .

[jno]

Mikey I think (as with a lot of abbreviations) it depends whether you say emm gee emm or Metro Goldwyn Mayer. In real life I suspect very few people outside the company itself say the latter, and even Hollywoodites may just call it Metro; so it would normally be an MGM cartoon. A MGM looks odd.

[ugly_bob]

also, in my experience, the haitch pronunciation (of the letter h) seems to come more form the North of England (esp Yorkshire)

[SaxyJag]

They seem to say 'haitch' a lot her in the East Midlands too. I used to think it was just uneducated people who used it, but I've heard teachers saying it too (although that's certainly no measure). It always makes me think people are trying to sound posh (as in, "we are 'ighly (h)onoured to be 'ere, marm).

[SaxyJag]

They seem to say 'haitch' a lot here in the East Midlands too. I used to think it was just uneducated people who used it, but I've heard teachers saying it too (although that's certainly no measure). It always makes me think people are trying to sound posh (as in, "we are 'ighly (h)onoured to be 'ere, marm).

[lightoftruth]

this thing with not pronouncing the "h" comes from the french side of the english language. In french you harly ever pronouve the h so "je vais dans un hotel" is pronounced je-vez-dans-oon-owtel

[Quizmonster]

The transfer from �a' to �h' at the start of a word where the first syllable is unstressed is somehow not as smooth as it is when that syllable is stressed. For me, "A history..." flows better than "a historical..." That's probably all that needs to be said...each to his own. In answer to Milly's question �an hotel' is just as correct as �a hotel', though it's somewhat dated. Personally, I'll go on using it in speech, as I'm �somewhat dated', too!

[Quizmonster]

The letter �h' was spelt �ache' until the late 19th century, when �aitch' appeared. However, the insertion of an unnecessary �h' and the dropping of a necessary �h' had been going on for at least a hundred years before that.
�Haitch' is clearly much more recent, generally believed to come from Ireland. In addition, since so many of the teachers in early-days Australia were Irish Christian Brothers - it is probably more prevalent there than here, though that is possibly our source.
When this topic comes up, I invariably recall the story of the ill-educated army NCO telling recruits: "Rifle butts are made from hoak, hash and �ickory!"

[jno]

QM, how would that 'ache' have been pronounced, do you know? As in the modern word ('ake', so to speak), or as aitch, or as in the French ahsh - which I think is actually the French pronunciation of the letter?

[Don Quixote]

Do you say 'a uniform' or 'an uniform'? 'A unicycle' or 'an unicycle'?