[Grammar] using of articles

[aushadi]

When you are using the article "an", usually you use it before vowel sounds. Eg: "an hour", but my problem is when you are using words like "historical", "hotel", can you use an in front and what is the reason for it.
Eg: an hitorical, an hotel

I need an answer very soon please help!!!!!!!!

[pstars]

I am not a teacher, just a native English speaker, but 'h' is not a vowel, it has a distinct sound, for example, 'hotel' sounds different from 'otel' and 'istorical' sounds different from 'historical' (I assume you meant historical instead of 'hitorical', in which case it would be 'a historic hotel'). The 'h' sound is generally pronounced in English, except in a few words like 'honest'. But for those you would use 'an', e.g. 'an honest man'.

[anupumh]

Originally Posted by pstars

I am not a teacher, just a native English speaker, but 'h' is not a vowel, it has a distinct sound, for example, 'hotel' sounds different from 'otel' and 'istorical' sounds different from 'historical' (I assume you meant historical instead of 'hitorical', in which case it would be 'a historic hotel'). The 'h' sound is generally pronounced in English, except in a few words like 'honest'. But for those you would use 'an', e.g. 'an honest man'.

/h/ is a glottal consonant. Words which /h/ at the starting, can have different pronunciations. In some places in US, Hotel or Herb may be pronounced as "otel" or "erb", and in that case the word will be preceeded by "an" and not "a". Thus in those pronunciation where the first /h/ gets engulfed, "an" is used and in rest where the first /h/ is distinct, "a" is used.