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Most speakers want to make a clear distinction between the two words instead of just blurring them together. If you blur them together (as in a hour), you just get the word 'hour' with a strangely long vowel sound. Speakers who say 'an hour' find it easier to continue the vocal/vowel sound (the vocal cords are sounding without a stop) all the way through, and make the stop between words with the consonant sound of the letter 'n'. N makes a more liquid and less jarring stop than the full 'throat' stop (the vocal cords stop sounding for a very small fraction of a second) that is required if you say 'a hour'.
'A hour' has a very immature, even babyish sound to the ear of a standard speaker who says 'an hour'. That is probably because 'a hour' is the way a youngster would say it before picking up the easier, more fluid and more common stop with the 'n' sound.
Wiki User
â 13y ago
When we refer to units of time in English, such as "a hour," the correct usage is "an hour" because the pronunciation of "hour" begins with a vowel sound. The rule is to use "an" before words that start with a vowel sound, while "a" is used before words that start with a consonant sound.
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