Answer to English Grammar Question 423
Is it correct to use a and an interchangeably in the following sentence? That is a/an historic part of town. If not, which would be the correct determiner?
From member: Carol in USA
Answer
The 'h' in 'historic' is known as an 'h' aspirate and this is usually preceded by 'an'
AN historic...
AN hotel
However, it is more and more common to hear people saying 'a hotel' and 'a historic novel' and it seems that this is an example of usage in transition - it could be that the use of 'an' with aspirates will disappear from English in the future. For now, the grammatically accepted answer is use 'an'... on the streets it seems you can take your pick!
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