grammatical question that's been bugging me.

[Cheech]

what's the proper way of writing this:


A historical night

or

An historical night?


cause I read an article that had "an historical night" and it threw me off, cause I always thought you don't add an "N" when the next word starts with a "H" (or an H) ...

ughghg

 

[snoopy65]

It is A Historical Night. An is used in front of words that start with a vowel sound and A is used in front of words with a consenant.

 

[msjinkzd]

I think either is commonly accepted. I tested it on my word processor with two sentences, one with an "an" and one with an "a" and both were accepted.

 

[The Zigman]

it should be A historical...

An is used before words starting with a vowel, H, isn't a vowel..

as in .. An apple a day, as opposed to a apple an day...

 

[Cheech]

that's what I thought...
but look at this:


an historic night


that's not the original example I had on it... the original example is off limits, but it'll work.

 

[Opicana]

Both are considered correct. However, in formal English "A" is preferred. "An" is acceptable before "h" words that start with a vowel sound like "hour", "heir" and "herb". The "h" in historical is questionable...it's ever so slowly in the process of being dropped like herb. You can see this also in the pronunciation of "the" before it. If you say "thee" historical...instead of "thuh" historical you are also treating it like a vowel. So, you'd either be someone who says An/"Thee" or A/"Thuh". It's a quirk.

But formally, "A" is still correct.

 

[Cheech]

Both are considered correct. However, in formal English "A" is preferred. "An" is acceptable before "h" words that start with a vowel sound like "hour", "heir" and "herb". The "h" in historical is questionable...it's ever so slowly in the process of being dropped like herb. You can see this also in the pronunciation of "the" before it. If you say "thee" historical...instead of "thuh" historical you are also treating it like a vowel. So, you'd either be someone who says An/"Thee" or A/"Thuh". It's a quirk.

But formally, "A" is still correct.

ahhh I think I understand.

so it would kinda be read as:

"A Historic night",


or


"An-istoric night"


right??

 

[msjinkzd]

Yay, i was right! Sometimes I feel like my brain is shrinking as I age, LMAO

 

[Opicana]

ahhh I think I understand.

so it would kinda be read as:

"A Historic night",


or


"An-istoric night"


right??

Correct!

 

[snoopy65]

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.