A History and AN Historic event?

Question

As I was taught in school, the articals "a" and "an" are dependant on the following word starting in a vowell or consinant ie "I have A banana, he has AN apple"

But what is the deal with "History" and "Historical" we say "China has 'a' history" but then we say "AN historical event happened in China"

Not only is "h" a consinant so by English "rule" should be preceeded by "a" but "historical" is the same word but expanded and the artical changes. Is this explainable? Are there other words like this?

Answer 1

"an" historical event is a mistake...

the article "an" is used before another word with a vowel sound (note: it doesn't have to be a vowel, just a vowel sound)
this is why we say "an hour"... because "hour" starts with a vowel sound

Answer 2

Some dialects of English pronounce all aitches. Some omit a few. Some people say 'otel, many say hotel. Many if not most Americans say 'erb while the rest of the English speaking world says herb. Again some people say historic, others say 'istoric.

Variation in the languge is part of you, your accent and dialect help define you. There is nothing wrong with that.

There is, however, a simple rule:
If you sound the "h", use "a".
If you don't sound the "h", use "an".

Thus
A hotel but an 'otel.
A herb but an 'erb
A historic occasion but an 'istoric occasion

Never use "an" when you sound the "h" and you won't be regarded as illiterate.

Answer 3

My guess is that AN refers to 'event' and not 'historic.'

A History = article + noun
An Event = article + noun
An Historic Event = article + adjective + noun

Also, lots of languages / accents tend to blur over leading H sounds anyway, so that's why this one can slip through the cracks. (there's no leading H sound in French, ever, and think of the Cokney accent in England: 'ave one on me, guv'.)

But like you said, English has more exceptions than rules, so I could be wrong. ;)

Answer 4

Whoever said 'an histrorical event' made a mistake. It should be 'A historical..'

Refer previous answers.

Answer 5

Some people do not pronounce the _h_. (Which is not correct.)

And no, the _an_ does not refer to the word _event_. Articles should be chosen based on the immediately following word.