Chat? Why's "an" here? Shouldn't it be like that only if the next word's first letter is vowel?

Первый звук должен быть гласным, не буква. Honest читается онэст, первый звук о - гласный. А, например, в history исторически h не читалась, но сейчас читается, но кто-то может всё ещё не читать, даалектов-то полно в английском, и тогда пишут an history, а некоторые h читают, но всё равно пишут an history "потому что так заведено".

This works in the other direction as well. We say "a ukulele", "a unique situation", "a ewe", etc. because, in these cases, the vowel is *pronounced* like a consonant y. (And, yes, y is a vowel sometimes. English phonetics are a bit convoluted.)

It's a vowel sound. Like an hour, or an honour

Because the H is silent

'Honest' starts with a vowel sound. This rule is about pronunciation.

We use “an” when it has a vowel sound, not when there is an actual vowel.

Vowel sound. So "An honest man is a unique person" is a correct sentence, because the h in honest is silent and the "you-neek" pronunciation of unique doesn't count as a vowel sound.

I’m an aa·nuhst man. Get used to it

h in honest is silent because it comes from french. in french an comes before a vowel or 'h' so the same was done in english when it borrowed the french word

Вкратце: мы ставим "an" не когда слово пишется с гласной, а когда произносится. В случае с "honest" мы не произносим эту h, идёт сразу o

because the "h" is silent. A horror movie. Here the H isn't. An honorable man. it was an honor. an hour and a half

It is according to the actual pronunciation, no matter how the word is written. There are some words that are written with an initial H that is actually silent.

The article 'an' is used before vowel sounds, not letters. Some of these words are 'heir', 'hour', 'honest', etc. where 'h' is silent and the initial sound is of a vowel. Similarly, 'an' is also used for words like SUV where the initial sound is 'es' which mimics the sound of a vowel. So, 'an SUV' is correct rather than 'a SUV'.

An is used before a vowel sound. In this case, the H is silent so the sound after the article is a vowel sound. You would also use an before a Y that is pronounced as a vowel, though at the beginning of words it mainly occurs in words of technical or scientific origin where Y begins the word followed by a consonant. Example: "An yttrium barium copper oxide superconductor." I think it is important to note that consonants and vowels are not letters, but sounds. Sometimes a letter is always used as one, but sometimes it can be used as both. In English, Y is the only one that is used fully as both, but W can function as a vowel in certain diphthongs like "ow" which is basically the /au/ diphthong, though it is always a consonant at the beginning of a word.

Because the “h” in “honest” is not pronounced. You say it like “onest”. it’s the same reason that you say “a unicorn” and not “a unicorn”. The “u” is pronounced “yew”, which makes a consonant sound. It’s all about how it sounds, not how it’s spelled.

Is vowel sound not vowel. Honest starts with a vowel sound. This is also why UK English has "a herb" and US English has "an herb"

One odd exception to the 'sound of the word' rule is the word 'hotel'. In French it's said like oh-tel but even though most English people sound the H you will still see "an hotel" used and written a lot.

It’s based on the first sound of the following word, not the actual first letter.

because the H is silent and it's pronounced onest not h-onest

It isn't because of the translator, and it's not because you're stupid! In English, we use "an" before words starting with vowel *sounds*, and we use an "a" before words starting with consonant sounds. It doesn't actually matter if the word starts with a vowel or consonant. So since "honest" is pronounced "awe-nest" (at least here in Canada), it gets an "an" despite not actually starting with a vowel.

The "h" in "honest" is not prounouced.

Smh

Sound, not spelling. A unicorn. An IBM computer. An hour. A university.

its because the beginning of the pronunciation is an "O" sound. there isn't an H sound when you say it out loud.

Word has a silent h, probably borrowed from French; an is used before a phonetic vowel not consonant. Some dialects of English drop h- before words which are supposed to have it and they probably also say an before those words.

It's a common error, because of the way the rule is commonly taught, which is actually about phonetics, not spelling per se: it's actually that "a" becomes "an" before a vowel *sound,* not before a vowel. Unpronounced letters are therefore ignored (and in some cases even *formerly* unpronounced letters, like the initial 'h' in "historic"). The same applies in reverse, where words that begin with vowel letters but with consonantal sounds do *not* take "an," so it's "a hotel," but "an honest mistake," and "an umbrella," but "a unique experience."

It’s to do with how the H sounds. You will often find words that begin with H are often treated the same as a vowel. “I’ll see you in an hour” “it would be an honour to do….”

Its also why Americans say "an herb", becuase they don't pronounce the "h", while an Australian will say "a herb" because the "h" is not silent.

Vowel sound. H is silent, so the word starts with an O sound.

The next word must start with a vowel SOUND, which it does. The 'h' is silent.

Using chat is very funny, but yeah this is a situation where a letter is silent The pronunciation is “ ‘onest” with the apostrophe being a glottal stop, this is likely a French loan with the way the word is pronounced.

H is slient

“an” is placed in front of any word that starts with a vowel *sound*, not just the literal vowel. the opposite happens with acronyms that start with “U”, pronounced “you”, to which it would be “a UNC” (or whatever acronym it is). in this case, honest is pronounced with a silent h, meaning it starts with the “o” sound, which has the “an” in front. english is weird.

Honest starts with a vowel (h is silent). An for a vowel, a for a consonant

"an" and "a" are applied phonetically rather than letters used. This means it may start with a vowel but use "a" or vise versa. Example: "an honest man" vs "a happy man" "an oboe" vs "a ukulele"

The h is silent. Honest is pronounced "on-est" not "hon-est" Hope this helps.

the h in honest isnt pronouced, its silent

Its because the H is silent in honest

This is actually a rule I find pretty cool (if sometimes annoying to remember). It's based off of the sound of the next thing said. So, it's not just that the h is silent. You would say "an 'h' is the first letter of 'honest'" because the pronunciation of 'h' is 'aitch', which starts with a vowel. The same rule applies for the pronunciation of the word 'the'. It is 'thee' before a vowel sound and 'thuh' before a constant sound.

It’s not about the letter, it’s about the syllable. Speech came before text

Vowel sound, the 'h' is silent.

because honest is actually onest

Even as a native speaker I've been told I was wrong both ways. In theory words that start with a vowel should be proceeded by "an" and consonants with "a". However words that start with H are treated like honorary vowels and as such get proceeded with "an"

You've been taught incorrectly. It's about the sounds not the spelling.

Some people even use "an" when the H is NOT silent. On Australian news shows you will occasionally hear the phrase "An horrific accident". It sounds weird and is only used in formal speech.

Finally! A post where I can ask this question; When abbreviating something that uses “a”, do I use “an” if the abbreviated term requires an “an”? For instance, a real-time analyzer uses “a”, but would RTA be an RTA for a real-time analyzer or a RTA for a real-time analyzer? -Native English speaker

Because the H is silent so its an O sound which is a vowel :)

Ah, yes. One of the many rules in English that go like “It’s like this ALWAYS, until it isn’t”. The H is silent, so it’s sounded out like “on-est”, so you use ‘an’ because of the O.

Whoever wrote the rules for Englishes are a asshole. I'm starting my own dialect, these are rediculous.

H is a silent letter.