2007-01-17 22:15:43 · 7 answers · asked by Paresh P 1 in Society & Culture ➔ Religion & Spirituality
The first is American English, the second is the King's English.
In England, the "h" is silent, so they say, "an 'istorical decision".
(Some brit can correct me if I'm wrong...)
2007-01-17 22:19:17 · answer #1 · answered by Anonymous · 1⤊ 1⤋
Beyond the semantic argument regarding whether a decision can be historic at the moment it's made, my grammar book says "an historical decision" is formally correct.
2007-01-18 06:23:12 · answer #2 · answered by link955 7 · 1⤊ 0⤋
Unfortunately this is the exception to the rule, and it's:
An historical decision.
This is because the letter h has its origins from the French language and, in French, the h is silent.
In English the h is pronouned, but the convention of writing an before a word that begins with an h has stuck.
PS: MC Hummer is wrong.
2007-01-18 06:19:17 · answer #3 · answered by Mawkish 4 · 1⤊ 1⤋
Do you say "the istoric" when using the definite article? If not, why drop the "h" when using the indefinite article?
The indefinite article "an" is ONLY to be used before a noun whose "h" is silent, eg. hour. Otherwise, say the "h", and DON'T put an "n" into the phrase. Those who say "an historic..." show that they are poorly educated.
Go watch any Bill Pullman movie (eg. "Independence Day") and listen to him speak. I don't think much of him as an actor, but his English diction and pronunciation are far better than most yanks.
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2007-01-18 06:34:41 · answer #4 · answered by Anonymous · 0⤊ 1⤋
"an historical decision"
its one of those exceptions that there are to every rule. we had to do a history project in school and one of the lines in my essay was "an historian discovered..." me and my friend argued about that for ages because she thought it was "a historian discovered..." so to break the confusion we asked our history teacher in our next lesson and he said it was "an historian". so yeah the second one is correct.
also, thanks for answering my question, but my name isn't any of what you wrote though it is similar to srishti and shreya. my name begins with "shre" though, have you guessed it yet? hehe
2007-01-21 10:39:58 · answer #5 · answered by ... 4 · 0⤊ 0⤋
neither, is it's a decision it's not historical, a historical outcome, or a moment in time.
2007-01-18 06:19:20 · answer #6 · answered by curlyhurlymo 3 · 0⤊ 2⤋
the latter
2007-01-18 06:19:26 · answer #7 · answered by Invisible_Flags 6 · 1⤊ 0⤋