Matt Grigsby

1. "An" historic day?? I thought that the "An" referred to the "day"? Shouldn't it be "A historic day?"

2. "A delicious apple" - shouldn't that be "An delicious apple?" ( I know it sounds stupid!)

I would like to know - once and for all - the official rule for things like this and any exceptions to the rule. I am asking this question because I vaguely remember someone telling me that the "An" part of the sentence was dictated by the noun. Is that wrong? Or is that part of the sentence dictated by the word immediately following it? What dictates the format - historic or day? And it is very important for me to know any exceptions to the rules.

Please help me out with this, and I would appreciate clear examples of any exceptions to the rules. Please recognize that I don't know what adverbs or pronouns are, so speak to me with examples, not definitions using "nouns, pronouns, verbs, adverbs, dangling modifiers, conjugations, etc.:" I'm an engineer, not an english major, and I'm trying to get my english perfect! I don't want crazy opinions. I want someone who knows this particular rule. This is the first Yahoo question that I've asked, so if I am able to award points to all the good answers, I'll be happy to do that! By the way, I'm 28 years old and I am just now trying to stop ending my sentences in prepositions!