An hotel or a hotel ?

[ginandbearit]

Just seen on another thread a number of posters using the phrase "this is not a hotel" which looks ok but I have always said 'an' hotel ..which feels more correct ..though maybe a bit archaic
Any opinions please ?

[28282ooooh]

"It's a house"
"It's an house"

^ that's me working it out in another context. So for me it is a hotel. Said it out loud a few times as well.

[MsHomeSlice]

if you say the "H" in hotel I think it's fine to say "a hotel" ...if you are going to use "an" then you have to go the full Basil Fawlty and say "an 'otel" imo :o

[BellaJessica]

A hotel. A car. A house.

An instrument.

[donquixotedelamancha]

.if you are going to use "an" then you have to go the full Basil Fawlty and say "an 'otel" imo

Exactly that. A for consonant sounds and an for vowel sounds, e.g.

• A hotel
  
• An hour

[PippilottaLongstocking]

Surely the rule is if it starts with a vowel or vowel-sound it’s ‘an’, if it starts with a pronounced consonant it’s ‘a’
So it depends if you say hotel or ‘otel

[PippilottaLongstocking]

Aha someone else beat me to it

[BackforGood]

What Pippilotta said.

'An' is to be used if the words starts with a vowel.
Hotel doesn't, it starts with an 'h', so it is "a hotel"

[TheNumberfaker]

I don't understand at all why anyone would say an hotel or an historic...

[Fifthtimelucky]

I think "an 'otel" is a bit archaic these days. I'm in my late 50s and never use it, though my parents did.

[Squeegle]

An hotel has traditionally been the right way to say it, but it feels a bit archaic now. In truth I would always say a hotel.

[pigsDOfly]

I'm old enough to be familiar with an hotel, an historic but I tend towards a hotel nowadays as using 'an' does sound very dated.

[Gran22]

I was ridiculed as a child by a teacher in the 50s for saying 'an hotel' with a silent 'h'. I'd read it and my parents used it so I thought it was fine.

Wouldn't use it now.

[justilou1]

I read somewhere that the use of “an” before words starting with “H” began when the aristocracy decided to copy the French-style silent “H” at Court, claiming it was “hunpronouncable”. This was then emulated by the Cockneys and of course promptly dropped by the courtiers, but still taught erroneously by English teachers. (*Please note, I haven’t actually researched these “facts”.)