'An hotel' or 'A hotel'?

[Zeock]

Which one do you say? The overwhelming majority of people I know say 'A hotel', but there are a couple that don't. Also, in 'Pride and Prejudice', 'an hotel' is what is written, although that book is quite old, so the English language might have changed in that regard.

 

[MattyH]

I understood it was A unless it begins with a vowel such as An Orange coloured rollercoaster.

 

[Zeock]

I understood it was A unless it begins with a vowel such as An Orange coloured rollercoaster.

Some people still say that an H is a vowel. It certainly was at one point.

 

[rob666]

I say Chained Oak.

 

[Matt N]

I would always say “a hotel”, without a shadow of a doubt.

The only way I could think of saying “an hotel” is if someone didn’t pronounce the h in “hotel”, so it sounded like “an ‘otel”.

 

[D4n]

I understood it was A unless it begins with a vowel such as An Orange coloured rollercoaster.

The rule is very close to this.

If the following word stars with a vowel SOUND then we say 'an'. If not it's a.

For example, we say an hour because it stars with an 'ou' sound.

Thereare precious few exceptions to this and I've certainly never heard anybody say 'an hotel' in modern times - it sounds completely wrong.

 

[Thameslink Rail]

I'm the only person who's put an. I think I use either depending on how posh I want to be, dropping the h when using an.

 

[rob666]

I have "posh" fun with my customers...
In the posh Ribble Valley, they store their firewood in the "garage", with a soft second g.
I live a whole two miles away, in a common, grim northern town with sheds, but those lucky enough to have one, have a "garridge".
But I still say the Chained Oak.

 

[Matt.GC]

If I was writing it Id put "a hotel". If saying it however because I'm a local working class scrubber I'd say something along the lines of "stayin' inan'otel" or "stayin' in one of them 'otels". I don't think I know anyone posh enough to actually say "a hotel", too much hard to work to say that.