"An historic" or "A Historic"?

[juanez]

I always chuckle when I hear "It was AN historical event..." or "What AN historic decision..." particularly when it's supposed to be an intelligent person saying it. I just heard a talking head say it regarding the Scott Peterson case.

Many people think using "an" instead of "a" before historic or historical makes them sound smart...it doesn't. It makes them sound kinda silly.

"An" is used before words that start with a vowel or a silent or mute h. So "an hour" is correct, but "an historic verdict" is not.

Would you say "an history book"? How about "an Houston poker room"?

It's funny listening to politicians, news anchors, etc. WORD doesn't even highlight this as a grammatical error yet Webster’s clearly outlines the proper use of "an", and Webster's uses "a historical novel", "a historical account" etc. as examples.

I know, too anal...

[MelchyBeau]

Historic is an Adjective. The determination of the use of A or An only takes into consideration of the noun. Thus A historic event is incorrect. It should be An historic event. A historic book is correct.

Melch

[jakethebake]

[ QUOTE ]
Historic is an Adjective. The determination of the use of A or An only takes into consideration of the noun. Thus A historic event is incorrect. It should be An historic event. A historic book is correct.

Melch

[/ QUOTE ]
You're incorrect. A or An depends on pronunciation of historic and whether the h is pronounced.

[daryn]

ouch

[Kurn, son of Mogh]

It's English, it's not supposed to make sense. Do you also get annoyed that though, through, tough and bough are all pronounced differently?

[spamuell]

[ QUOTE ]

Historic is an Adjective. The determination of the use of A or An only takes into consideration of the noun. Thus A historic event is incorrect. It should be An historic event. A historic book is correct.

[/ QUOTE ]

Wtf are you talking about?

Event is a noun. Book is a noun. Historic is an adjective in both those cases, as it's describing a noun.

Anyway, "a" and "an" has nothing to do with adjectives as opposed to nouns, as far as I'm aware. And I'm English, so I know these things.

[daryn]

i think you may have misinterpreted his post.

[Leo99]

It's an honor. It's a useless honor. Noun or adjective don't enter into things here. It's just the sound of the word immediately after the a or an that matter.

[daryn]

debate baby!

[spamuell]

i think you may have misinterpreted his post.

Good call, I did.

Fortunately, he's still wrong. At least I think he is, as I've never heard that before, so I'll just assume that it is to do with the word immediately following the indefinite article until someone shows me that I am wrong about this.

[jakethebake]

[ QUOTE ]
It's an honor. It's a useless honor. Noun or adjective don't enter into things here. It's just the sound of the word immediately after the a or an that matter.

[/ QUOTE ]
correct. that other answer was just weird.

[MelchyBeau]

I was wrong, I apologize. This is what I get for learning english in Louisiana. 49th in education. TAKE THAT MISSISSIPPI.

Anyway I my post stated historic is an adjective.

Melch

[RocketManJames]

[ QUOTE ]
[ QUOTE ]
It's an honor. It's a useless honor. Noun or adjective don't enter into things here. It's just the sound of the word immediately after the a or an that matter.

[/ QUOTE ]
correct. that other answer was just weird.

[/ QUOTE ]

Late to this party, but ya, this is basically how it works. The 'n' in the word an is simply there to force a consonant sound, simply because it is awkward to have a double vowel sound.

But this rule is a bit weird, since there double vowel sounds are totally allowed in English digrams... Harmonica Adjustment, Toy Oil (actually try to say that 10 times real fast, it's tough), etc.

-RMJ

[LondonBroil]

[ QUOTE ]
This is what I get for learning english in Louisiana. 49th in education. TAKE THAT MISSISSIPPI.

[/ QUOTE ]

I lol'd reading that. Was it taken from a TV show?

[plaster8]

If you're British or Australian or have some other accent and pronounce it "istoric," use "an."

Everyone else should use "a."

[Cerril]

a blue car, an orange car.

[Cerril]

Actually it depends on how breathy your 'h' is in 'historic'.

ANYWAY, the question that baffles me is really which is proper to use in writing, since speech (in this case) follows the pattern that makes more sense. I'll -say- a (uh) historic event (well I'll rarely say -that-, but you get the point), but when writing it's more crucial to get the one that reads properly.

I tend to write an historic, much as it pains me to follow the common usage these days (do any of you remember when this trend started? I seem to remember it being some major news thing-slash-trial several years ago when there was sort of a subdebate along this issue when 'an historic' first started popping up in american usage)