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Interesting. As I said - my view is from the UK - I should have put 'often' or 'sometimes' before it (although I was taught 'an hotel' at school).

• twic 12y ago
  As a southern Englishman, i would say, and expect to hear, "a hotel". I associate "an hotel" with Northerners, Cockneys and speakers of Estuary English, and perhaps also posh people (although maybe that's Northerners or Cockneys trying to be posh, in the mode of Hyacinth Bucket).
  • dspillett 12y ago
    "an hotel" is just wrong in my experience, which I think is where "people trying to sound posh" comes into it. The south and the "posh" (there is quite some overlap there as there is a perception that the south is more posh and the north more rough) use "a hotel" which is also technically correct, as you move north the "h" gets dropped so "an" becomes correct, though if you are writing that you should have a apostrophe to indicate the dropped letter (an 'otel) - in fact the 'postrophe is sometimes even pronounced by way of a very small pause (this is often a clue when decided if someone has a particular accent or is just imitating it).
  • sambeau 12y ago
    I was taught 'an hotel' in Scotland by a very old-fashioned teacher. She could, of course, have just been plain wrong and I've been carrying this with me for decades repeating the mistake. Checking the UK newspaper style guides they seem to all insist on 'a hotel'.