I should know this, think I'm having a senior moment-
Is it AN hallucination or A hallucination?
Thanks!
Is it AN hallucination or A hallucination?
Thanks!
which is it?
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I believe this is a question of style and dialectic speech patterns. I like "an hallucination" but with some accents and manners of speech, "a hallucination" is the better choice.
... a. Words starting with consonant sounds are preceded by a's, and words starting with vowel sounds are preceded with an's.
Here's an orange.
Here's a boat.
It's an honor. (Because honor starts with a vowel 'sound.' H is sorta silent.)
ps The term 'senior moment' is a worthless stereotype, imo.
Here's an orange.
Here's a boat.
It's an honor. (Because honor starts with a vowel 'sound.' H is sorta silent.)
ps The term 'senior moment' is a worthless stereotype, imo.
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Ken is right. The use of 'a' or 'an' depends on how one pronounces a word. If a word begins with a vowel sound, then one uses 'an' as the indefinite article. If it begins with a consonant sound, the one uses 'a'. It may be completely correct for different people to use different indefinite articles, if they use different pronunciations.
Ken is really sensitive about his age. In his stats, he wrote he was born in 2002. The '02 part may be right, but I think it was a previous century.
Or he was having an (
Instead of older than dirt, around here we say, "Older than Ken."
... was speaking on behalf of all seniors. It's just wrong to brand seniors with having bad memories. Many I know here are sharp as anything and have a great wealth of knowledge and facts at ready disposal. So if the term 'senior moment' must be retained it should instead refer to an incident in which an individual is acting very wisely
Seeing that age is an asset I'll take that as a compliment ;-)
... was speaking on behalf of all seniors. It's just wrong to brand seniors with having bad memories. Many I know here are sharp as anything and have a great wealth of knowledge and facts at ready disposal. So if the term 'senior moment' must be retained it should instead refer to an incident in which an individual is acting very wisely
Seeing that age is an asset I'll take that as a compliment ;-)
Huh, I always thought a senior moment meant something about actually wetting your pants when you heard a good joke
Naturally there's a rule, although it's seldom taught in the US. Native speakers rarely use an before an H-word in casual conversation, and I expect the practice will be considered a quaint eccentricity before I'm dead. It’s already limited in spoken English in the US to those whose speaking style could be considered elevated or even pompous.
The rule is that for an H-word to be preceeded by an, it must have all of the following:
--a pronounced H (ruling out words like hour, heir, honest, honorable, honorific--which have an an because they begin with a vowel sound);
--three or more syllables;
--a primary accent on the second syllable (heroic, historic, historical, horrific, hysterical, etc., but not heroism, highlander, hillbilly, horrible, hospital, humanitarian, or hysterectomy);
--the role of a noun or an adjective immediately before a noun, so an article (a, an or the can naturally precede it (which excludes however);
--the ability to accept the indeterminate article (the one that isn’t the because it means a specific one, which leaves out humanity); and
--a formal or academic context, usually. Most US newspapers' and magazines' style standards have long-since dropped an H-word usage.
All that said, though, you'd always want to go with whichever usage fits the character, or the narrative voice. I'd only want to be positive I was officially correct in business or academic writing. Since I do neither, I'm pretty much free to write however I want.
Maryn, who does just that
The rule is that for an H-word to be preceeded by an, it must have all of the following:
--a pronounced H (ruling out words like hour, heir, honest, honorable, honorific--which have an an because they begin with a vowel sound);
--three or more syllables;
--a primary accent on the second syllable (heroic, historic, historical, horrific, hysterical, etc., but not heroism, highlander, hillbilly, horrible, hospital, humanitarian, or hysterectomy);
--the role of a noun or an adjective immediately before a noun, so an article (a, an or the can naturally precede it (which excludes however);
--the ability to accept the indeterminate article (the one that isn’t the because it means a specific one, which leaves out humanity); and
--a formal or academic context, usually. Most US newspapers' and magazines' style standards have long-since dropped an H-word usage.
All that said, though, you'd always want to go with whichever usage fits the character, or the narrative voice. I'd only want to be positive I was officially correct in business or academic writing. Since I do neither, I'm pretty much free to write however I want.
Maryn, who does just that
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... I've always thought Wayne was attention-starved.
Not a bad chap, though, as far as people go.
Not a bad chap, though, as far as people go.
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