The rule only doesn't appear to work in a written context when you're unsure how a word is pronounced since it's dependent on the pronunciation of the following word and not the spelling.
Examples:
A university (since university phonetically starts with a "yu" consonant sound).
An FBI agent (F phonetically starts with a vowel sound)
No British accent says "historic" with a silent H. And Americans like silencing an H more than Brits (see: herb). But yes "an historic" is sometimes said, with a non-silent H. More about emphasis than accent I think
I think it is a holdover from when French was the language of the upper classes, with dropping the "h" being more associated with the Normans, and dropping the "g" being associated with the Plantagenets. Similar thing with northern dialects and accents picking up Norweigan - "gan yem" sounding like "ga hjem" (going home) etc
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u/Aeroshe 19d ago
The rule only doesn't appear to work in a written context when you're unsure how a word is pronounced since it's dependent on the pronunciation of the following word and not the spelling.
Examples:
A university (since university phonetically starts with a "yu" consonant sound).
An FBI agent (F phonetically starts with a vowel sound)