DOOL Discussion Group -- another quick grammar question

DOOL Discussion Group

Topic: another quick grammar question

Topic Posted by: miranda
Date Posted: Mon Jul 14 17:54:05 2008
Additional Comments:

Hi--

Which is correct? a Hispanic girl OR an Hispanic girl...

I am making changes to a copy-edited book ms. and our editor changed a to an. Tried to find it on the internet but I couldn't. And, sadly, I'm not moving my sorry a** at the moment to look at a real book.

thanks!

Posted by: Carissa
Date posted: Mon Jul 14 20:19:29 2008
Message:

As an aside, I've been told by friends of Mexican heritage that 'Hispanic' is meaningless and deragotory, since it covers Mexicans, Spainards, Puerto Ricans, Cubans, Hondurans, etc., and just because so many groups speak the same language (or a dialect thereof), doesn't make them similar in any way.

I know you mean nothing by it, I'm just letting you know an opinion I've heard.

Replies: (list all replies)

Then does this mean that Asian is not acceptable? I get all confused over this because even though I may know someone is Asian I don't know if they are Chinese, Japanese, or whatever else. Guess I just won't call them anything LOL. sandy.

As far as I know, Asian is correct but 'Oriental' is not. Subject to change over time, of course.~Carissa

Posted by: ingyandbert
Date posted: Mon Jul 14 18:35:36 2008
Message:

I looked this up when I was in junior high and was reading a book with the words ''an historical'' in the subtitle. I had never seen that usage before then.

My understanding is that an Hispanic is correct. While it's true that some h's are silent and some are not, whether to use a or an comes down to whether the pronounced ''h'' is hard or soft. In the case of a word like hotel, it's hard. But words like Hispanic or historical are considered a soft pronounciation and therefore an is used.

However, it also depends on how technical you want to get. It's like anything else these days, conventional rules are becoming more and more lax all the time.

Posted by: Paulsmom
Date posted: Mon Jul 14 18:18:56 2008
Message:

http://www.answerbag.com/q_view/496667

This makes sense. If the word is ''honor'' then you'd use AN because the H is not pronounced.

If you say ''happy'' or ''Hispanic'' then you should use A. A Happy Christmas to all!

A Hispanic girl was waiting for the store to open.

That's Paulsmom's take on it.

Replies: (list all replies)

I could have used you in 11th grade English. Oh that's right, you weren't born for many years later!~~sandy

Posted by: Anne
Date posted: Mon Jul 14 18:15:03 2008
Message:
I agree with susienews. If the letter h is pronounced like a vowel (honorable), then use "an." Otherwise, "a" is correct.

Posted by: susienews
Date posted: Mon Jul 14 18:07:47 2008
Message:

I would use 'a' instead of 'an.' I don't understand why so many people treat the letter H as if it is a vowel. 'An' preceeds words beginning with vowels and 'a' comes before words starting with consonants. Last I checked, H was still a consonant. It drives me batty when people say 'an historic moment,' or some such thing.

But honestly, I don't know if I'm right. Hopefully Paulsmom will pop in with an answer. :)

Replies: (list all replies)

Paulsmom is poppin' in with the same answer because she thinks it is also stupid to put ''an'' in front of an ''H.'' But what does Paulsmom know about that? Paulsmom is going to google it. eom/pm