Comments on: “A” and “An” with Consonants

By: Deanna Hoak

Deanna Hoak — Tue, 30 Jun 2009 10:01:29 +0000

Heh. I use “an” with “herb” also. I hadn’t ever heard that it’s pronounced with an “h” in England!

I’m pretty sure I use that glottal stop in “button” too. Now I keep saying the word to myself, trying to figure out how I actually pronounce it, which never really works. :)

By: --E

--E — Tue, 30 Jun 2009 01:32:21 +0000

I use “an historical” because I don’t pronounce the “h” (similarly with “an herb,” which, according to Eddie Izzard, is pronounced with the “h” in England).

As for “a apple” and the glottal-stop theory…

AAAAAUUUUUGGGHHHH!

I hate hate hate hate with the passion of a thousand burning suns the stupid glottal-stop that has invaded the parlance of Generation X and younger. My snobbery circuits just go on full ***RED ALERT WHOOP WHOOP WHOOP*** whenever I hear, for instance, someone pronounce the word “button” as “buh-un.”

I would rather hear an honest blue-collar “buddon” than that poser-middle-class idiot glottal stop. Learn to freaking enunciate, people. “But-nnn” or “buh-ton” are acceptable. There are two Ts–how are people completely ignoring them?

By: Deanna Hoak

Deanna Hoak — Mon, 29 Jun 2009 12:45:50 +0000

English is largely still taught that way, though the rules sometimes differ in the States. Did the dialect pronounce the “h”?

By: Cheryl

Cheryl — Mon, 29 Jun 2009 12:42:18 +0000

When I was in school (in England) we were taught to use “an historical” because it was a hard and fast grammatical rule that you should always use “an” if the following word began with “h”. In those days grammar was solely a matter of Rules Which Must Be Obeyed. There was no questioning the origin of the rule, or whether it was always appropriate. For all I know English may still be taught that way.

By: Deanna Hoak

Deanna Hoak — Mon, 29 Jun 2009 08:19:06 +0000

Agh! Thank you, Benedict. I will see if I can get that fixed.

By: Benedict Leigh

Benedict Leigh — Mon, 29 Jun 2009 07:21:25 +0000

I think your template may be corrupted. The RSS feed (which I subscribe to as your writing is facinating) is filled with a list if drugs rather than insightful comment on copy editing.