Grammer Question: Why sometimes an is used bofore consonant? Any idea?

It's quite simple to most native English speakers: the H is silent, and the word is pronounced "oh-er". By the way, grammar is spelled with no e at all. The silent letter concept must be really difficult for those who are relatively new to English. There are also sections of Britain and of the US where people do pronounce the H so, of course, we're back to the fact that English is difficult because it breaks its own rules incessantly!

"AN" is used before vowel sounds more than simply vowels. As the first responder stated, for that word and a few others in the English language, the 'H' is silent - therefore, the use of 'an' would apply. For a long time 'an' was used in front of the word 'historic', almost implying that all 'h' words required 'an'. But, in recent years, saner ideas have become dominant with 'A' being the article of choice before the word 'history', which has NO silent 'h'. English is confusing for native speakers, so never be afraid to ask about anything that is confusing if you are learning it. Many of us who grew up with it still stumble over it.

When the first letter is silent (when we do not pronounce it) then we use A or AN according to the first pronounced letter. Like, in this case,H is silent and O is a vowel so we say AN HONEST MAN. Thanks.

Well it's all about sounding good. Imagine saying that using "a" he is a honest man? Then it wouldn't sound that good right? also the same goes with using a for uniform rather than an because it really doesn't sound that good. So I think that's the main reason why we have to break that rule so that it would sound good

Hi, the use of "a" and "an" depends on the sound of the first letter of the word next to it. If it's a vowel, use "an". Example: an apple. If it's a consonant, use "a". Example: a tree. In the case of "honest", it should preced with "an" because you pronouce it as "a-nest" (the sound is vowel). If the word is "horrible", you use "a" because it started with the sound of "h" which is a consonant. hope that helps.