Writing Tip for Words that Start with Vowel Sounds

Silent H

Today’s Writing tip is one of my favorites, and a pet peeve of mine. There is nothing worse then hearing someone using the word “a” before a word that starts with a vowel, or a vowel sound. The rule is, if a word starts with a vowel sound and you are going to use “a” or “an” in front of it, then you should select “AN.”

You would never say, for example, “a apple,” or “a owl,” because the vowel sounds from the first letter “a” would blend together with the vowel sound that starts the next word, and thereby cause confusion in the listener’s ear. You would say “an apple,” or “an owl,” however, because the letter “n” in “an” allows for a break up in the sounds.

One side note on this writing tip. A lot of confusion about this concept comes as a result of the letter “h.” While the letter ‘h” is pronounced silent in some words, it actually has an “h” sound at the beginning of other words. If the ”h” sound is pronounced, there  will be no blending of vowel sounds, but if the “h” is silent and followed by a vowel sound, then the word is the same as if it started with a vowel – because, in effect, it does.  So, you would correctly say “a horse,” but you would also correctly say “an honest man,” rather than “a honest man.” Both secondary words start with “h,” it’s just that “horse” is pronounced with a hard “h” sound, and “honest” is pronounced with the silent “h.” Notice in the last sentence the “h” in honest is silent, and the secondary sound is a form of the ”o” sound, so in effect, the word starts with a vowel sound.

Here is a list of a few “h” words that start out with a vowel sound. You will want to watchout for these, as your preceeding word will need to be AN instead of A.

Heir, honest, honour, hour, and  herb.

Remember this writing tip - If the word you want to use has a vowel sound, and you are trying to decide between “a” and “an” to go before it, choose “an,” and that includes those silent h words.

Happy writing

Justin