an a

[wildwood]

There is an 10 minute delay.
There is a 10 minute delay.

For some unknown reason I've always thought that there should be an 'an' before a digit but I still tend to lean to the 'a'.

Am I right or am I right?

[bibblebub]

depends on how the word for the number is spelt - so it's A ten but it's AN eight

[B00]

I always thought that the word that followed an A or an A dictated whichever one you used?

In this instance it would be "There is A 10 minute delay"

In Bibble's example it would be "There is AN eight minute delay"

[B00]

Sorry, should say the word that followed began with a vowel.

[Quizmonster]

Not ALL words that begin with a vowel are preceded by 'an'. Many words that open with 'u', for example, just have 'a' in front of them...for example, a uniform, a union, a university and so on. That is because the opening sound for these is, in effect, a 'y' and we don't say an year, an youth or an yoghurt.
Of course, words beginning with 'u' which ARE pronounced 'u' as in but DO take 'an' before them...for example an utter mess, an upper floor, an unexpected pleasure.

[piggynose]

thanx quizmaster, yr a star. just what i needed to know, as i never knew this. i always thought it was strange as boo said most words beginning with a vowel are usually preceded by an. but not always the case when it comes to a u, and yet not always. cant wait to use this in my next english class( i teach english in spain, and i´m expected to know english grammar inside out, bloody imposible.

[boxtops]

Agree with quizmonster, in ye olde days we were taught that if the following word begins with a vowel then it's "an" - an umbrella, an elephant. I remember someone in the class asking whether it should be a or an hotel, depending on whether you didn't pronounce the "H" (probably quite old-fashioned now, I would certainly stay in a hotel!).

[sherrardk]

But you would say there is A one minute delay and that starts with a vowel. (It's also AN hotel and that's not a vowel.)

[boxtops]

Ah sherrard, but as I understand it, that's because (as quizmonster says) the word one is pronounced WUN not OWN, so it sounds like a consonant. The hotel bit might perhaps be a regional variation, we (in the south) would say A - my school friend used to say An Otel (missing off the sound of H).

[sherrardk]

I don't get to say that a stay in either a or an hotel - I'm lucky if we get to stay in a travelodge!

[boxtops]

I'd count that as a(n) hotel!!

[wildwood]

So, 1 and 8 would be preceded by 'AN' and 2,3,4,5,6,7,9,10 would be preceded by an 'A' because they sound out with beginning with a vowel?

[seekeerz]

that's the way I'd go with it, wildwood

[Quizmonster]

‘An hotel', with the ‘h' silent, is perfectly correct, though somewhat dated nowadays. British people of a certain class and age still do use it...it's as simple as that.
It is optional whether or not to pronounce the opening ‘h' in words in which the first syllable is unstressed...eg habitual, horrendous, hotel, historian, horrific etc and therefore whether 'a' or 'an' is used before it. The five words just listed commonly have ‘an' before them.
It is the lack of stress rather than any French provenance - as some claim - that matters. Hackney, hearse, homage and hostage all came to us from French, too, but I do not know of any evidence that British people - other than Cockneys etc - ever said 'ackney, 'earse, 'omage or 'ostage. It is probably because of such words that the relevance of French pronunciation has been doubted as regards the 'an (h)otel' usage.
Much more significant surely is the fact that all four of these words open with a stressed syllable which 'hotel' etc do not. It seems most probable, therefore, that stress-pattern is far more important than French origin in this matter. The final nail in the coffin of ‘The French Connection' is the fact that Fowler's Modern English Usage - the ‘bible' in such matters - does not even mention a French factor here. On the other hand, it does indicate the relevance of the unstressed opening.
...cont)

[Quizmonster]

(cont...
The Americans have an example which we do not, in that they pronounce ‘herb' as if there were no ‘h' present. Thus, they refer to ‘an (h)erb' just as we say: ‘an (h)our'.
I'm sure all of us of a certain age will recall the judicial voice-over to the opening credits of Ronnie Barker's <i>Porridge</i>..."Norman Stanley Fletcher....you are <u>an h</u>abitual criminal who accepts arrest as an occupational hazard and presumably accepts imprisonment in the same casual manner...."
A London society lady in earlier times would have been utterly mortified if anyone had heard her demanding: "Fetch me an ‘ackney." Anyone who heard her would have assumed she was a recidivist Eliza Doolittle! It has to be said, though that Mark Twain once wrote: "As soon as the Jubilee was over we went to what is called in England ‘an hotel'. If we could have afforded an horse and an hackney cab we could have had an heavenly time flitting around."

[Quizmonster]

Oh, dear, I forgot to remove the html stuff above! Suffice to say the judge actually said, "an abitual criminal."