A house or AN house

[pixie77]

During a discussion with a workmate, it turns out that when she is writing down A hotel, she actually uses An hotel. (hotel is just an example she does it with all words starting with H)

What we were wanting to find out if anybody else was taught to do this?

We thought it might be a North American or French thing?

[smudge]

I say: We're staying in a Hotel.

[Loosehead]

Generally you should use an when the word following starts with a vowel. So an egg, an elephant, a tiger, a hotel, a house. Before all the pedants dive in I know there are bound to be exceptions, that's why I said generally.

[smudge]

I agree Loosehead.

[smorodina]

It used to be common for 'an' to be used before words beginning with 'h' where the stress was not on the first syllable. Hotel fits this category, and this rule is still commonly followed in USA, but has fallen out of use in the UK. If the 'h' is silent, of course, as in 'hour', 'an' is used.

[kempie]

I believe the 'rule' is that if the word has an unpronounced 'h' you must use 'an' - an hour; for the pronounced 'h' use 'a' - a hospital

[Sligachan14]

Try this site

http://www.askoxford.com/asktheexperts/faq/aboutgrammar/ hotel

[Artful]

kempie, you beat me to it! And sadly, Sligachan, your link doesn't work, not for me at any rate.
It's got nothing to do with French where the 'h' is silent and the 'le' and the 'la' apostrophes - l'heure, l'homme.

Whoops: le hibou, le hic...
Oh dear, I think I'd better look that up unless anyone can help me out?

[smudge]

Can't open up that thread Sligachan. Pixie must be able to, hence the 3 stars! How did you open it up Pixe?

I always pronounce the H' in Hotel - hence: Staying in a Hotel or Hospital. I don'tt pronounce the H in hour either - hence: See you in an hour.

[pixie77]

Sometimes when you click on a link this pops onto the end </P>  all you have to do is delete it and the link should work.

Found this info on a previous thread, cant remember where.

[kempie]

If a link fails it is often because a <P> tag has been appended, so just delete it from the Address bar and click Go.

http://www.askoxford.com/asktheexperts/faq/aboutgrammar/hotel

[kempie]

Snap!

[smudge]

Thanks for that pixie - I seem to remember that thread too - well it worked.

Glad to see it explains that 'An 'otel' is old fashioned & it that the H in Hotel is now more pronounced, hence 'A Hotel'.

[smudge]

Thanks too kempie - I'd already done it though!

[littleoldme]

smorodina's reply makes sense - hence a HOSpital, but an hoTEL or an hisTORic agreement etc.

Personally, I just use a, 'cos an hotel sounds toffee-nosed. :-)

[silly moo]

Well I must be old fashioned then because I use an hotel.

[mystress]

I am a Snob,so to sound"poncy" I say an 'otel!

[Marsh]

The </P> is the HTML code for the end of a paragraph.  It gets added by the AnswerBank gremlins if you press the End-Of-Line key straight after you've typed/pasted the link.  The underlining appears but the link doesn't work without that tiresome deletion.
If you put a space straight after the link, this fools the gremlins for some reason.

[orange-gnome]

Personally , I say "a hotel" and write "an hotel" don't ask me why I do, I don't know!!
However Jane Austin always wrote "an" before an "H" word like an house or an hotel. And we all know what Jane Austin says goes!!! : )