Grammar Moses: Why is an H a hard letter to handle?

George Knickerbocker of Elk Grove Village inquired a while back whether it is correct to write "an historic accord" or "a historic accord."

It's pretty simple.

Which indefinite article you use depends upon the pronunciation, not the spelling, of the word that follows. Unless you're pre-makeover Eliza Doolittle, whose Cockney accent would lead her to pronounce historic without an aspirated "H," you do pronounce the H. So, it's a historic accord.

What about "herb?" The "H" is silent, so it's a vowel sound. So it's "an herb." How about "herbal"? It's "an herbal" remedy.

So, what do you spray your lawn with to kill the weeds?

"A herbicide"! Don't you love trick questions? It's because you pronounce the "H" in herbicide. At least normal people do.

In short, it's a if you follow it with a consonant sound; an if you follow it with a vowel sound.

Concepts, quantities

Bev Cherney of Kildeer wrote to tell me that she and her husband have taken in 14 foreign exchange students. Let's assume that these visits were not concurrent.

At any rate, the students' English skills have run the gamut.

And they all had questions about English usage and grammar that required some research.

"Our latest, a native Russian speaker from Kazakhstan, posed a question we have never been able to adequately define," Bev said. "Why does English use definite and indefinite articles sometimes but not others?

"For instance, why do we say: 'I gave a speech yesterday' but 'I gave blood yesterday'? Or 'I saw lightning in the sky' but 'I saw a bird in the sky'?"

Don't try to duplicate the string of punctuation in that last paragraph at home. It could be dangerous.

Bev continues: "If that is the case, then why do we say 'I go to school' or 'I go to church' but 'I go to the library' or 'I go to the doctor'?"

It has to do with the quantifiable and conceptual nature of these things.

First, the quantifiable stuff.

"A speech" has a defined length and content. "Blood" is not easily divisible, unless you're in the medical field and you're breaking it down into red and white cells, platelets and plasma. But you get the idea. You don't give "a blood" but you can give "a pint of blood."

Similarly, you can't see "a lightning" but you can witness "a bolt of lightning."

So you need to apply a measure of some sort to stuff that doesn't naturally occur as a unit.

Now for the conceptual.

"I'm going to school," for instance, is more of a concept than a building when the sentence is uttered by a college student.

In this case, "going to school" is a pursuit.

But if you're a parent who has to go to a conference with the principal, you'd say, "I'm going to the school."

"The school," in this case, is a building you are headed to, presumably with your sobbing child in the back seat.

"I have a problem with math" is problematic (though not egregious) on a couple of levels. First of all, math is composed of many problems. Second, one could interpret it as one interprets "I have a problem with you" or "I have a problem with bands that cover Beatles songs."

That, to me, implies a difficulty in accepting or abiding something, rather than a difficulty comprehending something.

My preference would be to simply be more specific. "I have difficulty with math" or "I have trouble understanding math."

Write carefully!

• Jim Baumann is assistant vice president/managing editor of the Daily Herald. Write him at jbaumann@dailyherald.com. Put Grammar Moses in the subject line. You also can friend or follow Jim at facebook.com/baumannjim.