when do you use "a" and "an" in a sentence

<p><em>Gives Techy233 a high-five and copy of FFXIII</em></p>

<p>Final Fantasy X is one of my favorite games of all time. My brother owned it for like 6 years before I played it. It's nearly flawless in every way.</p>

<p>Now FFX-2 on the hand, is....decent. The story was just an atrocity, and the garment grid was strange and a bit of a hassle. The combat, was fun, though. :D</p>

<p>FFXII is one game that I cannot stand. It's just terrible in gameplay and story.</p>

<p>Final Fantasy kicks ass!</p>

<p>On topic: Whether or not H's are "supposed" to be silent or not is clearly a subjective term. I don't really know how else to put it.</p>

<p>Real advice: Use "an" in front of a word that begins with a vowel sound. Examples: An apple, an egg, an hour, an uncle. Use "a" in front of a word that begins with a consonant sound, including "h" and certain "u" words.
Examples: A bean, a halfwit, a unicorn.
There is ONE "h" word that you will occasionally hear "an" used with: historic, as in "This is an historic occasion." This isn't wrong, but it's archaic and a bit stuffy. It's perfectly OK to say that it's "a historic occasion." If you say "I'd like an hot dog," though, you'll sound like a idiot.</p>

<p>The "h" is clearly audible in almost every spoken English word. Saying they aren't "supposed" to be pronounced is like saying one is "supposed" to write "s" as "f."</p>

<p>Languages evolve over time, which means the "rules" change as well. Otherwise we'd still be speaking in grunts.</p>

<p>A few other words are "heir," "honor," "honest"</p>

<p>Oh god look a debate about the silentness of h and when to use A/an.</p>

<p>I think the real crime here is saying that FFX-2 is decent and FFXII is terrible. I didn't like it as much as FFX, but it's still good. I liked the combat a lot more in FFXII (I just think it's more realistic than going into a whole new screen), but the I loved FFX's sphere grid and wasn't a huge fan of the license grid. I didn't mind not naming Vaan- I never ever change the name of the characters. FFXII was probably easier than FFX (main story line, not including optional bosses- haven't finished those in FFXII). FFVII had a great story line, disliked FFVIII's story, and never finished all of FFIX. Same for VI and V. Should get on that.</p>

<p>Erm, anywho, back on topic: Yup, I go by "an" before a vowel sound. Sound, not letter. I don't know if it's proper or not, but that's what I do. And the sound of a hard y (like in you), doesn't count as a vowel sound.</p>

<p>I loved FFX, and was happy to get FFX-2, although I thought it was kind of like a giant FFX mini-game (if that makes sense).</p>

<p>Making the "h" in "history" (and any other word of such derivation) silent is utter debauchery.</p>

<p>I agree, unless you are giving a speech in which you can appropriately use the following sentence: "This is an historic occasion."
Edited to add: people who say this don't exactly make the h silent in this sentence, although you don't hear it clearly. It sounds like "anistoric" not "an istoric."</p>

<p>Truthfully, if someone referred to "an historic occasion" I would walk out on his or her speech. I don't hold any truck with such pretentious nonsense.</p>

<p>Oh my goodness.</p>

<p>Yeah, it totally depends on where you live. In the Midwest, we pronounce the h's in "huge" etc.</p>

<p>Don't forget the exception with honor. Since the h is silent, there an is suppose to be used.</p>

<p>An honorable award.</p>