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?

agree with @Whatafielddayfortheheat said. You wouldn't say "an uniform" for instance.

An. There are some quirky rules around a/n and H.

For example an hotel, an historian, but a helicopter, a house, a horse.

It is definitely an HMRC employee and an HR Director.

Did I say my colleague said "an"? Obviously I meant I said that. 🤣🤣🤣

Hmph. I might just start saying "a His Majesty's Revenue..." instead then I wouldn't be wrong.

That's because uniform starts with a y sound.

It's an for HMRC.

@Theala that's what @TwoProngedFork meant I think.

Sorry, I see that was your point. Apologies.

Sorry I was trying to place emphasis on the sound and not the actual letter itself.

YABU.

@Iamnotausername the crucial question is, how do you personally pronounce the letter H? It's officially spelled 'aitch' and is 'meant' to be said that way too. But lots of people do say it 'haitch', and if you do, you'll obviously be wanting to repent of this awful crime and begin saying aitch as the good lord intended say 'a HMRC employee'.

Your colleague is correct.

I was always taught that the letter 'h' is pronounced aitch.

an! Obviously.

I would avoid the whole issue by writing it as "An employee of HMRC".

Correct

Well, HMRC use "a HMRC" and "an HMRC" interchangeably, but "a HMRC" more often.

They also treat HMRC as singular, e.g. "HMRC has" which I've never quite liked, because to me, the acronym stands for HM Revenue and Customs, i.e. the merger of the two Inland Revenue and the Customs and Excise departments. I suppose they've merged into one entity, but direct taxes and indirect taxes are handled very differently by very different teams, so I don't see it...

@anotheruser173 that's a good point. I've just checked and it seems "a" is used more often by them.

Of course it’s “an HMRC employee.” YABU

Thinking further about this HMRC and HR are abbreviations for His Majesty's Revenue and Customs and Human Resources so written down probably a is in fact correct. But orally I think both would be pronounced an.

I do however think it was historically an hotel which was by my grannies generation pronounced "an 'otel"