Please indulge me - is it an historical or a historical? Same goes for a history/an history. I've been pondering over it for months; people give me different answers (maybe it's personal preference?). Thanks.
'A historical'. When the indefinite article proceeds a word that starts with a vowel sound you are supposed to use an 'an' instead of an 'a', and the opposite is true of consonants.
'an' is often used with 'historical' since the 'h' is not heavily expressed... while in 'history' it is, so 'a' is mandatory...
Not true. If the word begins with a vowel sound, precede it with an, otherwise a. An honorable man is a hard thing to find. An FBI (pronounced eff-bee-eye) Special Agent will call on you shortly. Some words are pronounced differently by different people. Historical is one of the most common of these, with the H either silent or not.
It's more complicated than it should be. In theory it's down to whether you (or the person speaking) pronounces the 'h' in 'historical'. But saying "an" with an aspirated 'h' has become a class marker in the UK (and maybe elsewhere). If you listen to Queen Elizabeth II you will note that she does it. So "Queen's English" has "an" before an aspirated 'h', "standard English" doesn't. What you do depends on what you want to say about the person speaking.
This reminds me of Monty Python: "... a license for my pet fish, Eric. He's an 'alibut." "What?" "He is an hhhhhhhalibut."
