These ones / those ones?

‘Off of’ is another one that annoys me, eg ‘I took the coat off of the hanger’. It is also common now for people to say ‘breakfastses’ instead of ‘breakfasts’ and ‘textses’ instead of‘texts’. Just some of the things that annoy me in everyday speech, don't get me started on the correct use of ‘less’ and ‘fewer’.

Oh Lord Jane ‘off of’ really is the worst

‘Text’ instead of ‘texted’ gets me. ‘So I text him and told him …’. Why do people think ‘text’ is the past tense?

For a modern word like text I think whatever the majority/younger people say goes. If it's what becomes normal amongst the young text will become the past tense. There are lots of anomalies in English.

Shep Texted is quite hard to say.

And, I’ve just realised that the word ‘text’ has only recently become a verb; previously it was just a noun.
So that might be why the usage is so clumsy.

MaizieD

Oldnproud

Either a hotel or an 'otel.

An hotel always seems like a curious mixture of French and English to me.
It's not as if we say an horse or ^an hair brush^

That's because horse and hairbrush aren't French words. Hotel and history (and hospital) come from French, where they'd be 'otel and 'istoire. The use of 'an' before them made sense then because you would use it before any noun that started with a vowel sound. Now everyone says them with a 'h' sound...

'These ones' and 'those ones' have a bit of logic to them. After all, you'd say 'this one' or 'that one'. I suppose people think you need to extend it to the plural. I dislike it and would never say it..

"That's because horse and hairbrush aren't French words. Hotel and history (and hospital) come from French, where they'd be 'otel and 'istoire. The use of 'an' before them made sense then because you would use it before any noun that started with a vowel sound. Now everyone says them with a 'h' sound..."

Your last sentence is exactly why I consider an hotel wrong.
As you say, everyone (almost everyone, anyway) now pronounces the 'h' of ^hotel'.

It has happened naturally, and just as naturally, most people have also adopted the article that is grammatically appropriate in the English language for words with an aspirated 'h^.

You won't change my mind on this, so we'll just have to agree to disagree

Oldnproud

MaizieD

Oldnproud

Either a hotel or an 'otel.

An hotel always seems like a curious mixture of French and English to me.
It's not as if we say an horse or ^an hair brush^

That's because horse and hairbrush aren't French words. Hotel and history (and hospital) come from French, where they'd be 'otel and 'istoire. The use of 'an' before them made sense then because you would use it before any noun that started with a vowel sound. Now everyone says them with a 'h' sound...

'These ones' and 'those ones' have a bit of logic to them. After all, you'd say 'this one' or 'that one'. I suppose people think you need to extend it to the plural. I dislike it and would never say it..

"That's because horse and hairbrush aren't French words. Hotel and history (and hospital) come from French, where they'd be 'otel and 'istoire. The use of 'an' before them made sense then because you would use it before any noun that started with a vowel sound. Now everyone says them with a 'h' sound..."

Your last sentence is exactly why I consider an hotel wrong.
As you say, everyone (almost everyone, anyway) now pronounces the 'h' of ^hotel'.

It has happened naturally, and just as naturally, most people have also adopted the article that is grammatically appropriate in the English language for words with an aspirated 'h^.

You won't change my mind on this, so we'll just have to agree to disagree

And indeed the same argument would make it 'an hostel' as hostel is (or probably more accurately was) a French word.

I have no problem with people saying 'an hotel' if they prefer but in my mind it belongs in the category of the grammar that was taught in schools that makes no sense. Like split infinitives, or shouting 'you can't end a sentence with a proposition' when - in most of the cases - the word is not functioning as a preposition but as a particle of a phrasal verb.

Or indeed starting a sentence with ‘and’ or ‘or’ as I’ve done twice in this post.

Esspee

BBbevan

Georgesgran do you say ‘an’ hotel?

An hotel is correct. At least that was what I was taught.

I was taught this too, but have never understood why it’s ‘correct’ - unless it’s because it was originally a French word and in French the ‘h’ would be silent.
We don’t say an house, or an husband.
Makes no sense to me.