You're saying it wrong. The h is not supposed to be pronounced. Just like:
hour
honest
honor
heinous
Okay, that last one was a joke, don't go around saying anus. But i looked it up the right way to say the others to confirm my thoughts. And another bit of info, use "an" in front of words with a silent h, not a.
Also British people pronounce the 'h' in herb, so it's not "saying it wrong" where I'm from. I have no idea why Americans say 'erb... it sounds very odd to us. I wonder where that comes from?
Yes. If you'll see my post further down I said it depends where you live. When i looked it up i was using an american english reference. I guess i shouldn't have assumed the op was using american english.
Seems alot of people don't know this. While we're talking about it, many Americans use the combination “an historical” with the thought that it’s actually more correct, because that’s how many folks from the UK say it. However, Brits don’t pronounce the “h” the way that Americans do. For an American, “a historical” is actually the correct usage.
Brits (being one myself) pronounce the 'H' in historical, meaning it constitutes a consonant sound. "An historical" is never said here. "A historical" is the norm.
The only time I've ever heard "an historical" is on American television, which makes me think it's actually an American grammatical quirk.
"An historic" is a venerable mistake that some people insist on preserving.
It would seem that at some point in the 1800s in Britain certain speakers started dropping the 'h' from the pronunciation of 'history', 'historic'. At least, this is the only justification for saying and writing 'an historic', 'an historical'. But these were educated people, not people speaking some regional dialect where initial 'h' was dropped regularly.
This is copied and pasted from one of many websites stating that some brits do in fact drop the h.
Well that is one of many websites that's wrong, or certainly misleading as to the prevalence of dropping the 'h' in Britain.
I never hear 'an historic' here in England, or 'an history', or 'an historical'. I never see it written that way and as I say, the only times I've noticed 'an historic' being used is in America. I can imagine some people in Northern counties like Yorkshire dropping the 'h' and saying 'an 'istoric', but that's a feature of dialect rather than the standard.
Is it normal how i say herb?
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You're saying it wrong. The h is not supposed to be pronounced. Just like:
hour
honest
honor
heinous
Okay, that last one was a joke, don't go around saying anus. But i looked it up the right way to say the others to confirm my thoughts. And another bit of info, use "an" in front of words with a silent h, not a.
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disthing
11 years ago
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Gelmurag
11 years ago
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Also British people pronounce the 'h' in herb, so it's not "saying it wrong" where I'm from. I have no idea why Americans say 'erb... it sounds very odd to us. I wonder where that comes from?
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Jweezee
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Yes. If you'll see my post further down I said it depends where you live. When i looked it up i was using an american english reference. I guess i shouldn't have assumed the op was using american english.
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disthing
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That's cool :)
The reasoning for the "an" is because of the vowel sounds that usually follow silent h. It works for non h words also:
An apple
An asshole
An egret
an aardvark
And he looked at me angrily, and I knew right then he was an uneducated, insecure, fool. An idiot of the highest magnitude.
A tiskest, A tasket, A pocket with a basket.
Consonants get A, vowels get An.
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Seems alot of people don't know this. While we're talking about it, many Americans use the combination “an historical” with the thought that it’s actually more correct, because that’s how many folks from the UK say it. However, Brits don’t pronounce the “h” the way that Americans do. For an American, “a historical” is actually the correct usage.
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disthing
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Sillygoose
11 years ago
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Actually you've made a mistake.
Brits (being one myself) pronounce the 'H' in historical, meaning it constitutes a consonant sound. "An historical" is never said here. "A historical" is the norm.
The only time I've ever heard "an historical" is on American television, which makes me think it's actually an American grammatical quirk.
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Jweezee
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"An historic" is a venerable mistake that some people insist on preserving.
It would seem that at some point in the 1800s in Britain certain speakers started dropping the 'h' from the pronunciation of 'history', 'historic'. At least, this is the only justification for saying and writing 'an historic', 'an historical'. But these were educated people, not people speaking some regional dialect where initial 'h' was dropped regularly.
This is copied and pasted from one of many websites stating that some brits do in fact drop the h.
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disthing
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Well that is one of many websites that's wrong, or certainly misleading as to the prevalence of dropping the 'h' in Britain.
I never hear 'an historic' here in England, or 'an history', or 'an historical'. I never see it written that way and as I say, the only times I've noticed 'an historic' being used is in America. I can imagine some people in Northern counties like Yorkshire dropping the 'h' and saying 'an 'istoric', but that's a feature of dialect rather than the standard.
I've lived all over Britain all my life.
I love grammar.