Is it a or an?

[Iamnotausername]

As in "A HMRC employee" or "An HMRC employee"?

I say "a" because it's followed by a constanant and "an" just sound wrong.

Colleague says "an" because it's followed by a vowel sound.

YANBU - it's "a" obviously. Your Colleague is a (lovely) fool.

YABU - of course it's "an". Were you too busy reading Just 17 to pay attention to your English teacher?

It's about the sound, no?

An HMRC employee.

An MP.

A Minister of Parliament.

??

If you pronounce H as 'aitch' it should be 'an'. There are regional variations on how 'H' is pronounced, though.

YABU.

An, sorry OP

I was taught it’s ‘an’ before an H.

An

An

If you use ‘aitch’ it’s ‘an’

If you use ‘haitch’ it’s ‘a’

For me your colleague is correct as I was taught ‘aitch’ not ‘haitch’.

Depends where you’re from. I say “aitch” so it’s “an”. If you say “haitch” it’s probably “a”.

An. The vowel or consonant is a bit of a red herring as it is the sound that determines it. If it was hay or hat, then it would be 'a' as the H is sounded as a letter in its own right. However, in this case, we are dealing with a acronym where the names of the letters are used. As the name of the letter H is spelled aitch, and begins with a vowel then you need to use 'an'

It’s not in written form, or spoken if the h is sounded.

“Are you going to an hotel for your holidays?” Wrong.

”It’s an honour to be here.” Right.

“I’m a HR Director.” Right.

I would say a but I do pronounce it as haitch

Should be a as the h is being pronounced. An if it's not pronounced.

The use of an is dying out though.

@GCWorkNightmare I'd say 'I'm AN HR director' because I pronounce H 'aitch'.

An (I pronounce H aitch)

Surely its about how it rolls off the tongue. If it feels like effort to say one or the other then it's probably the opposite.

You wouldn't say "pass me an banana"
But you would say "a banana"

You wouldn't say "pass me a olive"
But you would say "pass me an olive"

Okay now you have confused me! Unsure why this is the case but for me its about ease of speaking something.

An

<former HMRC employee>

YABU. This clearly stems from you pronouncing H incorrectly OP.

I would say an HMRC employee but not sure if it’s grammatically right. It just sounds right. Some people say an Hotel which sounds odd to me but is probably grammatically correct so I think saying an before a word beginning with H is a thing.

An.

Some people say 'an hotel' as they pronounce it 'otel' though that's pretty old fashioned now and almost out of use.

The hotel example is not a good one as some people, particularly older well spoken ones, would not pronounce the "h" in "hotel", so in that case it would be "an hotel".

GCWorkNightmare - it’s an.

Former English Teacher

This. If you say ‘Aitch’ then ‘An’ is a no-brainer. And this is why I pick up DH in front of the DC when he says ‘Haitch’. He claims it doesn’t make a difference - it clearly does!

@Burgoo it's because before a vowel sound you need an, and before a consonant sound it's a.

Crucially this is about sound, not letter.

So it's 'an HMRC employee' (because the H is pronounced aitch)

But if you were for some reason not using the acronym and said you were 'a Her Majesty's Revenue and Customs employee' it would be a, because 'her' starts with a consonant sound.