Oliver Müller asked Jodi Taylor:

Hi Jodi, simple question: In the St. Mary's books, why did you go for "an historian" instead of "a historian"? I get it that "h" is a weak consonant, but for other combinations like "a hideous" or "a hindrance", you use "a" (thank goodness my ebook reader has a search function). I'm not an English native speaker (I'm German) but I'm very interested in details like this. Is there a quirky rule that I'm not aware of?

Jodi Taylor Hello Oliver - good question. At some point in my education, I was taught that if the emphasis is on the first part of the word ... hula-hoop ...horrible ... helpful ... house and so forth, then 'a' should be used. A hula-hoop, a horrible week, a helpful person, a house, etc. But if the emphasis is on the second part ... hotel ... historian ... then it's an hotel, an historian. Although having said that, in my other series, I do say the more conventional a historian. I do hope you've enjoyed this fortunately brief glimpse into the murky tangles that are my thought processes. Best wishes.

flag