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ESL forum >
Grammar and Linguistics > HOSTEL - A OR AN HOSTEL
HOSTEL - A OR AN HOSTEL
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LCristina
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HOSTEL - A OR AN HOSTEL
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Hi There! I �m confused .... should I say a hostel or an hostel?! Could you help me ?
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17 Oct 2013
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pauladco
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Hi Cristina,
You should say a hostel because of the sound of H. In English, this consonant is usually voiced, apart from one or two exceptions. So, if you say the sound of H, you have to use "a".
I hope I have helped. Kisses |
17 Oct 2013
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Claunika
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Hi Cristina! I agree with Paula, but I have seen �an hotel � a couple of times and I was also confused. I concluded that they were pronouncing a silent h in that case. I guess we need some native-speaker help at this point. Regards |
17 Oct 2013
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cunliffe
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I think saying �an hotel � is old-fashioned. You very rarely hear it nowadays. |
17 Oct 2013
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mahdmahd
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hi dear, It is true that when we pronounce the "h" we don �t have to use an. |
17 Oct 2013
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MoodyMoody
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There are several words in English that begin with a silent h, and you use "an" with those words, like "an hour" or "an honest woman." If the h is pronounced (i.e., not silent), as in hostel and hotel, you must use "a." I have never heard "an hotel."
A similar situation occurs in words beginning with u. If the word begins with /ju/, such as university, you use "a," not "an." However, if the word does not start with /j/, you use "an." Examples: a unique house, an uncle, an unusual car.
When I teach this in class, I always point out that it �s about the sound, not the letter. That said, the only problem letters are the h and the u. If you or your students aren �t sure, look up the pronunciation in a dictionary. |
17 Oct 2013
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cunliffe
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Great answer from MoodyMoody. As an English speaker, I know how to pronounce all these things, but sometimes, I don �t know the explanation. |
17 Oct 2013
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MoodyMoody
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 Thanks, Lynne! I was a linguistics major in college, and my favorite classes were in phonetics and phonology. Pronunciation is one of the things I like best about teaching ESL. |
17 Oct 2013
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Terri Lawson
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@ MoodyMoody - that explains a lot - I had wondered about your incredible knowledge of English grammar etc!!! |
17 Oct 2013
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alien boy
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Good explanations there everyone!
I �d just like to add one thing to the �a hotel �/ �an hotel � dicussion
New Oxford Dictionary of English, 1999, usage note for an:
"There is still some divergence of opinion over the form of the
indefinite article to use preceding certain words beginning with h- when the first syllable is unstressed: �a historical document� or �an historical document�; �a hotel� or �an hotel�. The form depends on whether the initial h is sounded or not: an
was common in the 18th and 19th centuries, because the initial h was
commonly not pronounced for these words. In standard modern English the
norm is for the h to be pronounced in words like hotel and historical, and therefore the indefinite article a is used; however, the older form, with the silent h and the indefinite article an, is still encountered, especially among older speakers."
A lot comes down to which dialect of English you speak for a/an when a word is spelled with h.
Cheers,
AB
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17 Oct 2013
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Claunika
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Very enriching, thanks to all!! :) |
18 Oct 2013
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