An H or a H?

English for Today by Ganiu Abisoye Bamgbose (Dr GAB)

An H or a H?

Many speakers of English find it difficult to tell whether the article a or an should precede a word which begins with h. To clarify this, three kinds of words that begin with h will be discussed.

1. H-ful words: These are words that have the h sound which is called glottal fricative.They include: house, home, hat and haven. Such words should be preceded by the article a.

2. H-less words: These are words that begin with letter h but that do not have the /h/ sound. They include heir, honour and hour. These words should attract the article an.

3. H-variable: These are words where the initial h may either be dropped or retained. Such words may either take the article a or an. A known example in English is the word ‘hotel”.

As a clue, one should check up words that begin with h in a dictionary to be sure if the initial letter is articulated or not.
GAB