Is it 'a' or 'an' before 'holistic'?

[milkysallgone]

I'm writing my personal statement at the moment so it needs to be right. Thanks

Basic rule of thumb - but bear in mind this is a debated topic, and others have different opinions - if you pronounce the "h", then it's "a". It's tricky, as "a" + "h" doesn't sound too good, but "an hotel" for example, sounds very artificial.

iirc, the h wasn't pronounced in many of these words in earlier times (would have to look this up), so people would say "an 'otel", which is easier to articulate, but now makes people think you're "dropping" the consonant. Think it's still a common upper-class pronunciation.

So - I'd go for "a holistic", but others may disagree. Bet you're less confused now!

I'd say 'an holistic'

Yes I'd naturally assumed it would be 'an' until 'word' picked it up.

It's like the thread on SAE, though - it's about the pronunciation, and I think the "an" harks back to an earlier pronunciation. That said, my university tutor wrote "An historical study of English"...

It's a before a word starting with a consonant sound. a dog, a man. An beofre a word starting with a vowel sound. Hotel is an odd exception because it used to be pronouced the french way 'otel so some people still say an hotel even when they pronounce the h.
So it's a holistic.

God, terrible spelling and grammar to be posting in pedants' corner! Sorry!

but the word is holistic, and the H is pronounced, therefore , a holistic.
however presumably the people receiving your personal statement probably wont know either

Use "an" before a silent h: eg "an hour". The use of "an" before the sounded h was just a piece of Victorian snobbery: as I understand it, it has no basis in grammar, though it remains widely used, usually by snobs.

Thanks all. I have now changed it to 'a'.

I think a holistic

I tend to 'an historical' though

This is such an interesting topic, I felt compelled to register and voice an opinion.
Both options are technically valid. So we have to move away from technical determiners and into sentence structure and context.
Over hundreds of years, 'an' has been evolving into 'a'. So we get a feeling from usage. An being slightly more formal.
I found an holistic practitioner.
It was a holistic approach.