Way back when, when I was in school or high school, (can’t remember which it was that long ago), I can swear my English teacher taught me that ”an” only goes before a word starting with a vowel.
An apple, an egg, an orange, an igloo, an unusual object.
Either way, my bitch is that so many tv presenters and hosts over the last few years drop the ”h” from words and put ”an” in front of them when they shouldn’t.
”An” orrible (a horrible)
”An” orrific (a horrific)
EXCUSE ME!!!!
HAVE YOU SINGLE HANDEDLY CHANGED THE ENGLISH LANGUAGE?????
And I know they put ”an” in front of more words they believe they can drop the first letter off of, but seriously you have to have some sort of communications, journalism, and English degree to get into the media and reporting.
So I should bloody hope that you all know how to speak ”actual” English, even though so many of you don’t seem to know ”simple” English and where to put the word ”an” and how not to drop ”h” off of words.
Seriously people, SPEAK ENGLISH!!!!!!!
Cynthia B. Demented says
That's why I get so confused with English sometimes lol
I bitch about the same problem here with our reporters. Their grammar is fucked up! The wrost I heard was (in French but I'll translate) : "The man was found dead, without life."
DOOOH!!!!!!!!!
Cyn says
The word "an" is used a lot in speech before words such as holistic and hysterical in my area of the world as well. Drives me nuts because writers often put it in their manuscripts! According to Editing Canadian English: "The editor should normally regard this 'an' as a phenomenon of speech and change it to 'a' in text."
I have also found that journalists have their own school of pronunciation that no one else in the country uses!
Anonymous says
well, since we use "an" before hour, i can see their logic
Anonymous says
I think logic dictates that you use "an" before a word that begins with "H" only if the sound of the start of the word itself does not start with a "H" sound, but instead a vowel-like sound.
Example:
An hour
A hat
An heir to the throne
A horrible and trashy self-designed dress for the Alan Border medal
JacJacJacqui
L.J. Diva says
Jacqui – you make sense, I can def see how an hour would work, but cripes, these people that drop ''H'' off of horrible and horrific annoy me.
ChinkyGirLMeL says
Isn't it so annoying when media people suddenly forget when to use "an" in a sentence. I mean, how hard can it be, right?! Geeez… Oh, by the way, my cousin was telling me about how her friend's mom said something like "A apple a day, keeps the doctor a way!" lols… how sad.
Anonymous says
Absolutely! Shits me too! Or those people who really overpronounce the H in WH words. Like
wHen
wHere
I hope you know what I mean, my boss used to do it all the time. It's so pretentious..
JacJacJacqui