**10 points!** Why do some people say "AN history" instead of "A history" -- is there something I'm missing?

Question

Hi, I heard like four people today say, "an history." Isn't that grammatically incorrect? Shouldn't it be "a history"? After all, history doesn't start with a vowel, nor does it begin with a vowel sound (i.e. "hour" which is "an hour" instead of "a hour" because "hour" is pronounced like "our" [silent h]). What's going on??? Am I going crazy or are they all wrong?

Answer 1

A history study of Y answers will show that very few people understand or care about properly using the English language. Just look at all the short cuts and misspelled words. Gets under my skin.

Answer 2

Yeah, I suppose it is grammatically incorrect, but grammar doesn't seem to matter much anymore.

WORD HISTORY:

The forms of the indefinite article are good examples of what can happen to a word when it becomes habitually pronounced without stress. An is in fact a weakened form of one; both an and one come from Old English n "one." In early Middle English, besides representing the cardinal numeral "one," n developed the special function of indefinite article, and in this role the word was ordinarily pronounced with very little or no stress. Sound changes that affected unstressed syllables elsewhere in the language affected it also. First, the vowel was shortened and eventually reduced to a schwa (). Second, the n was lost before consonants. This loss of n affected some other words as well; it explains why English has both my and mine, thy and thine. Originally these were doublets just like a and an, with mine and thine occurring only before vowels, as in Ben Jonson's famous line "Drink to me only with thine eyes." By the time of Modern English, though, my and thy had replaced mine and thine when used before nouns (that is, when not used predicatively, as in This book is mine), just as some varieties of Modern English use a even before vowels (a apple).

Answer 3

I think the idea is that you would use an if the 'h' is silent. Some people might pronounce history 'isstery' and thus tack on an. And for the record I do pronounce hour 'our' and use 'an' when saying an hour instead of a.

Answer 4

The Article: A
Use the article "a" before a word beginning with a consonant.

A clown performed at the party.
I saw a peacock walking around loose at the zoo.

The book was about a girl in the 1700s.


There is one exception with the article "a":

Use "an" with a silent "h".

I will wait for an hour.
He was an honorable man

The Article: An
Use the article "an" before a word beginning with a vowel.

I ate an apple with my lunch.
The jewelry was made by an East Indian woman.
The growing boy had an enormous appetite.

There are two exceptions with the article "an":

When the letter "u" sounds like a "y", as in "you", use the article "a".
When the letter "o" sounds like a "w", as in "water", use the article "a".



A U.S. navy ship was deployed from San Diego.
My daughter wanted to be a unicorn for Halloween.
She was a one-woman show.

Answer 5

You may be going crazy, but this is not the indicator.

It is proper to say 'a history'. Some people say & write it the wrong way for exactly the same reasons that they say & write 'ain't' & 'liberry'. They are uneducated &/or lazy.

Poor grammar is, and has been, on the rise. So many people are butchering the English language it is nauseating.

Answer 6

It depends on where you went to school and how long ago. Grammatically speaking, that would have been correct many, many moons ago, but is no longer considered correct by most English teachers. Also, if you were taught English in another country like England, versus Americanized English, it would also be considered correct.

Answer 7

My science teacher is jamaican but grew up in Britain, she pronounces history with a very soft "h" sounds almost like istory, but with a tinge of "h" at the beginning. If you said the way she said it "an istory" would sound good. But I always say "a history" never "a istory" or "an istory."

Answer 8

H is a consonent, therefore it is preceded by the A. The usage of H doesn't have the sound of a vowel. "A history" is right.

Answer 9

For the same reason some people misuse affect and effect. They slept through English I, II, III & IV.

Answer 10

An history of...
A history lesson
Take English before History....