Dear Mr DA:

You wrote:
> Which is correct?
>
> “A hotel” or “An hotel”
>
> “A hedgehog” or “An hedgehog”
>
> I would be most grateful for your advice.
>
> Kind regards
>
>DA
>
This depends a lot on local pronunciation. There are a few words that can go either way–“historical” is probably the most common example. In most dialects of English, one would say “a hotel” or “a hedgehog”; in most writing you would find that standard. The “H” is pronounced. However, some dialects in English do drop the “H” in pronunciation and would be inclined to say “an hedgehog” or sometimes even “an hotel.” If you were showing this in dialogue, you might spell it “an ‘edgehog” or “an ‘otel” with the apostrophe to show that the “H” is not pronounced. In the case of “hotel” like
“historical” the word comes from the French Norman which did not pronounce the “H” and with some of that still influencing the pronunciation of English in England, you might be more likely to hear “an hotel” in England than in
North America. (The Norman aristocrats were less likely emigrate…)