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Subject:Silent H (was a or an) From:"Leakey, Anna" <leakeya1 -at- Midas-Kapiti -dot- com> To:"'TECHWR-L'" <techwr-l -at- lists -dot- raycomm -dot- com> Date:Mon, 18 Oct 1999 08:41:07 +0100
Perhaps this is a question of American English versus British English?
Anyone taught English grammer in Britain will know that we say "an
hotel" because it derives from the French word 'hotel' where the h is
indeed silent. Fowler's Modern English Usage has it that " an was
formerly usual before an unaccented syllable beginning with h, and is
still often seen or heard". American grade schools may well have taught
Mr Robinson to say "a hotel", but it would be wrong to say that "anyone
who writes it this way is defintely incorrect." Old fashinoned, perhaps,
but no worse than that!
"Owen Clancy" <clancy -at- caboolture -dot- net -dot- au wrote:
> >I think this also applies to silent H, e.g., "an hour."
> I could never understand why the rule was also applied (sometimes) to
voiced
> H, as in "an hotel"
