Originally posted by lauseyYeah I agree, you are right as far as historical goes.
I didn't think the "h" was silent so "a historical event" is correct. Unless it is like the word "herb" where in the UK the "h" isn't silent, but in the US it is.
Only pretentious chefs and the like pronounce herb with a silent 'h' here [uk]
Originally posted by Moldy CrowWhat is deemed proper with respect to historical events has changed in the past two decades. I am a historian, although I was an historian when I graduated from college more than twenty years ago. I find this change a bit unsettling because ahistorical means unrelated to history. A historical perspective, therefore, is not ahistorical one. (Say that aloud, and you, too may become a defender of a certain historical relic now considered pretentious by most lexicographers.)
Why is "an" used preceeding a word starting with a vowel, like "an apple, an orange,"etc . ; and "a" preceed words starting with a consonant, like "a deer, a moose" BUT it is proper to say,"an historical event"?
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Originally posted by XanthosNZnice explanation ...
Imagine you are emptying a pool of water at a rate of 2 units per second. This is obviously the same as filling the pool at -2 units per second. Now if I were to film this and then later watch the tape in reverse at twice the speed what would it look like I was doing to the pool? It would appear to be filling at 4 units per second (according to time counted while watching).
-2 * -2 = 4
alternatively ...
if some people eat two biscuits ....
and we are missing two people, each of whom should be eating two biscuits, then we have 4 biscuits too many.