There is a poem labelled “A Hopi prayer”, Why is this not “An Hopi Prayer?

https://owl.english.purdue.edu/owl/resource/591/01/

http://www.quickanddirtytips.com/education/grammar/a-versus-an?page=all

Hard H gets an A

Soft H gets an An

Dropbear said:

Hard H gets an A

Soft H gets an An

What does Paul H get?

Peak Warming Man said:

Dropbear said:

Hard H gets an A

Soft H gets an An

What does Paul H get?

Crabs

I didn’t know there was such a rule, so cheers Bob I’ve learnt something today.

Peak Warming Man said:

I didn’t know there was such a rule, so cheers Bob I’ve learnt something today.

HTFU

roughbarked said:

Peak Warming Man said:

I didn’t know there was such a rule, so cheers Bob I’ve learnt something today.

HTFU

And my thanks for the info from all who provided it.

Dropbear said:

Hard H gets an A

Soft H gets an An

Hydrous
Anhydrous

Peak Warming Man said:

Dropbear said:

Hard H gets an A

Soft H gets an An

What does Paul H get?

The d

It is determined by whether the h is silent.

An heir
An hour
An honour
A hare
A hock
A hat

dv said:

It is determined by whether the h is silent.

An heir
An hour
An honour
A hare
A hock
A hat

yair, I wear an ‘at.

There is a trend, particularly among newsreaders, of saying “an historic”. I find this annoying.

Divine Angel said:

There is a trend, particularly among newsreaders, of saying “an historic”. I find this annoying.

It’s actually an old usage (as with “an hotel”). In the old days the initial “h” often wasn’t pronounced in “h” words where the stress was on the second syllable.

Divine Angel said:

There is a trend, particularly among newsreaders, of saying “an historic”. I find this annoying.

Ditto with “an hotel” and “an hospital”. I find this very annoying as well. It should be “a historic”, “a hotel”, “a hospital”, “a herb”. In the original French from which the words were borrowed, both “hotel” and “hospital” have a silent “h”, but that’s no excuse for pronouncing them with a silent “h” in English.

According to some websites, there are only four English words with an initial silent “h”. Those are “honour”, “honest”, “heir” and “hour”, and their variants.

But here’s the big question. Do you say “an aitch” or “a haitch”? According to the Cambridge dictionary online it’s “eɪtʃ” so it should be “an aitch”.

An “a” vs “an” confusion for learners of English is “a university” vs “an uninvited”. Because “university” is pronounced to start with a consonant “y” as in “you-niversity”.

PS. I find newsreaders annoying. Period.