Grammar - 'a' or 'an'

[Jay Barber]

Even though these days it's more acceptable to use 'a'
before words beginning with a sounded 'h', some people
still retain the use of 'an' before these words e.g. an
hotel, an historian. I am one of these people, and I don't
like that the grammar check tries to correct me all the
time.

 

[Kathy W.]

Personally I haven't tried this, but you should be able to
customize your grammar checker to skip or ignore this
pattern for certain words. Look in Word's help file for
topic "Overview of customizing spelling and grammar
checking".

good luck!

 

[Mike Williams [MVP]]

Even though these days it's more acceptable to use 'a'
before words beginning with a sounded 'h', some people
still retain the use of 'an' before these words e.g. an
hotel, an historian. I am one of these people, and I don't
like that the grammar check tries to correct me all the
time.

Which version of Word are you using?
--


Mike Williams - Office MVP
http://www.mvps.org/

Please respond in the same thread on this newsgroup. Make sure you
include details of your application and Windows versions, and whether
or not you have included any service pack updates.

 

[Larry]

For once I agree with Microsoft. "A historian" is correct. Would you
say, "He wrote an history"?

Larry

 

[Larry]

However, Word 97 does not correct "A historian" etc. This must be in a
later version of Word.

Larry

 

[Larry]

I misspoke. Word 97 will prompt a change from "an historian" to "a
historian."

 

[Jan]

I was taught that the correct way to use the articles "a"
and "an" is to use "a" before words beginning with a
consonant and "an" before words beginning with a vowel.
For example, you would write "An apple fell from a tree in
an orchard." By the way, an historian sounds correct, but
a history also sounds correct. That's the great thing
about our language - every rule has exceptions.

 

[TortFeasor]

It all depends on how you pronounce it. A history --- you hear the hhhhhhhh
sound.
An herb --- you don't hear the "h". (Sounds like An erb).

Same with "U" --
A university (you-niversity)
An umbrella (annum-brella)


TortFeasor
Cell#[email protected]

 

[Suzanne S. Barnhill]

The British often pronounce these words differently, however. For example,
they do pronounce the h in herb, and they may tend to suppress the h in
history, historic, historian, which is why they may use "an" before these
words.

--
Suzanne S. Barnhill
Microsoft MVP (Word)
Words into Type
Fairhope, Alabama USA
Word MVP FAQ site: http://www.mvps.org/word
Email cannot be acknowledged; please post all follow-ups to the newsgroup so
all may benefit.

 

[Mike Williams [MVP]]

An herb --- you don't hear the "h". (Sounds like An erb).

The 'h' is silent only for North American speakers.

 

[Guest]

So then, other speakers would write "a herb"

 

[Mike Williams [MVP]]

So then, other speakers would write "a herb"

To state the bleeding obvious , yes.