Korean Job Discussion Forums

[kathycanuck]

Ok, thought I was pretty up on grammar; ha! Why do we say, "a hospital", "a height of ten inches" but "an honor to meet you" and "an hour for lunch"? Is there a rule? Thanks in advance.

[MarionG]

A versus An

The questions you ask about why an is used in front of h in some cases and not in others is one of those grammatical questions for which there is no answer other than "convention."

Once upon a time an was more widely used than these days, and an was unsed in front of any word with an aspirated h. It is still used in front of some letters that start with a vowel sound. For example, the name Harry starts with AN H, and the name Mary starts with AN M.

And when you explain "convention" to your students, you have to say something such as you just have to learn it, there's no rule.

[Ya-ta Boy]

I disagree that it is a convention, unless that means it is a rule.

We use an 'an' before 'hour' because the 'h' is silent. This is consistent with the rule of using an 'a' before a consonant and an 'an' before a vowel SOUND.

Ex: An honest man is in a hospital.

The other situation that sounds inconsistent, but isn't, is 'u':

A union of an unhappy woman and a happy man...

If the 'u' says its name (as my third grade teacher used to say), then we must use 'a'.

a union; an urban; an unhappy;

[Been There, Taught That]

The grammatical rule is, roughly, that the article 'an' is placed before a vowel sound in order to transition smoothly in conversation and keep the sentence flowing. Silent H words start with a vowel sound.

[kathycanuck]

Many thanks to all who took the time to respond!