Tuesday, April 5, 2011

"A" vs. "An"; a mini rant

There are two things that seem to annoy me more and more lately. The first is when celebrity chefs - or really anyone on TV - have a completely American accent, but choose to pronounce certain words in their original accents. Some of the very best examples of this are "ricotta" and "prosciutto".
Dear Bobby Flay,
You are not Italian. You do not have a remotely Italian accent. You do not need to pronounce every Italian word like you are Vinny Guanagnino's uncle. Please stop. Thanks.

The second is the (apparently) grammatically correct use of "an historic". Every time I hear it, its like nails on a chalkboard. Why? Because I think it's wrong. *GASP*
The letter H is a consonant. If I wanted to say "an 'istoric" and pretend I have a cockney English accent, then by all means, I would use "an", but as long as the H is present, I maintain that we English-speaking-folk should just say "a".  The rule is to use "an" where there is no consonant present, so why add an extra one? The H is there and that should be enough.

2 comments:

  1. HA! Both of these things are pet peeves of mine as well! So alike, you and I.

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  2. Haha! I always have to say something about it when I hear either of them! I can't just let it slide.

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