Is it "an historian" or "a historian"?

I'm always puzzled when I hear people say "an historic."  I think this is grammatically incorrect and it sounds odd to my ears.

"An" is an indefinite article, which is used directly preceding a word that has a vowel sound (not to be confused with a word which starts with a vowel).

Examples:

• It's been an honor to meet you
• I've been waiting for an hour
• He was an heir to the throne

The 'h' is silent in honor, hour and heir and would be pronounced onor, our and eir, respectively -- all words which begin with a vowel sound.

I believe "a historian" is the correct usage, not "an historian," since the 'h' is not silent in this particular word.

---

context: American English

Read other answers by

Garrick Saito on Quora:

• Is "I'm not fazed by the pressure" a grammatically correct sentence?
• What does OCF mean? How do you use it in a sentence?
• It seems something is omitted in this sentence, but what is it?

Read more answers on Quora.

from Quora http://ift.tt/292cjVn