grammatical question that's been bugging me.

Yes, but in an article such as what you posted, to be grammatically correct it should have been A. However, the English language has been so shortened and abused that there aren't many who properly use it either orally or written.


that's what i thought. But having read it on a national news channel website, it threw me off...


thanks for the clarifications!
 
When I was a child in England (we were stationed at Lakenheath) I was fortunate to attend English schools. I remember the language aspects of my learning being different (and more advanced) that American education. Spelling, and pronunciation---including "an historical" with the "h" not being pronounced. For what it's worth.
(when we returned to FLA for war college I remember the townie kids making fun of me nonstop due to my acquired vagaries)

Cheech--you know I'm a teacher, and even as an art teacher, I'm big on writing properly.
"Grammar" has 2 "m's". :rolleyes:
 
im gonna stick to my guns on this one..

it should be "A".

"an" (and any variation) means youre saying it wrong.

one reader there comments and compares it to saying "An honest".. it's a good comparison, i dont know anyone who pronounces it Honest (it's 'onest) but Historic is Historic (not 'istoric).
 
When I was a child in England (we were stationed at Lakenheath) I was fortunate to attend English schools. I remember the language aspects of my learning being different (and more advanced) that American education. Spelling, and pronunciation---including "an historical" with the "h" not being pronounced. For what it's worth.
(when we returned to FLA for war college I remember the townie kids making fun of me nonstop due to my acquired vagaries)

Cheech--you know I'm a teacher, and even as an art teacher, I'm big on writing properly.
"Grammar" has 2 "m's". :rolleyes:


lol... shoot. .. OK, well, on the bright side of things, I learned 2 things today :D


So what you're saying is, that the "proper" way of saying it would actually be "An-istoric" ??

I would have thought the opposite...
 
im gonna stick to my guns on this one..

it should be "A".

"an" (and any variation) means youre saying it wrong.

one reader there comments and compares it to saying "An honest".. it's a good comparison, i dont know anyone who pronounces it Honest (it's 'onest) but Historic is Historic (not 'istoric).


that's what i thought at first too. . . but if you say it in a sentence, it kinda flows off your tongue. an-istoric night... rather than the latter.


(thank god no one's in the office right now or they'd think I was a wacko, saying these same words to myself every couple of seconds)..
 
HAHAHAH! i can imagine. LOL.

the only way i can get "an-istoric" to roll off my tongue is if i try to imitate what i think Niko sounds like.......
 
"an" (and any variation) means youre saying it wrong.

Now, don't take this too seriously, but dropping the apostrophe in "you're" undermines your argument a bit.

Actually, if anything, there is a drift from "an historic" to "a historic". While the H is a consonant, it is nothing more than a voiced aspiration, a very soft consonant indeed. The older you are the more likely you would have been taught that, in the case of a soft "h", as in "historic" or "heuristic" (but not a hard "h", as in "Halibut"), "an" is the preferred article.

Both are correct. "An" is classier.
 
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