OH MY GOSH!!! The Australian newsreader just committed a
grave English error!!
"... a historic event "
which is wrong cause it's a silent 'h' for 'historic' and
therefore, it should have been "AN historic event".
I'm sure I'm right...
You'd be surprised.
Many people think that it is correct to say, "an historic
event." Of course, the indefinite article is "a" when followed by a
consonant sound ("a boy"), and "an" when followed by a vowel sound
("an ace"). The sound is what is important, not whether the word
actually begins with a consonant or a vowel.
For example, "a uniform" is correct because "uniform" begins
with a "y" sound. Similarly, "an honest man" is correct because
"honest" begins with a vowel sound; the "h" is silent. In some
languages, Cockney English in particular, "h" is always
silent.
And so, we hear "an historic event" or "an historian." "H"
is a soft (the softest) consonant. The phrase should be "a historic
event." The American dictionaries and grammar books tell us that
"an historic event" is British or an attempt to sound educated or
superior.
