An honor vs the honor

articles

How do you correctly choose article for "honour/honor"?
For example, in the dictionary Collins I see these examples:

Michael said: 'It's an honour to finally work with her.'.

Perhaps as it is so close to noon, you would do me the honour of having lunch with me.

Why do we have the different articles here? What's the difference?

And my example:

To be drafted into the army is an honor for everyone.

As I see it from NGram, "is the honour for" is used very rarely, but NGram2 "is the honor for" isn't used. Is it because everyone has their own honor and honors can't be the same or why?

Best Answer

It differentiates between a conceptual honour (an) and a specific one (the).

Presenting the prizes at the school fete is an honour.

It's one of many possible honours.

I had the honour of presenting the prizes at the school fete.

This time it focusses on the particular case you're looking at.

You can use "delight" in the same way.

It was a delight to see her doing so well.
The delight of meeting her caused him to smile.

In general if you're saying something is/has been/will be you'd use "an honour".

Related Topic