WHERE? So.. Watch the video to unravel the mystery of the H in American English. And we don’t always say it after ‘ex’ –, The weak function words: HE, HIM, HIS, HER, HAVE, HAD & HAS all tend to lose the H if the word doesn’t appear at the beginning. What do you think? These speakers are known as ‘H Droppers’ and it’s a clear feature of most regional British accents – London included, altogether now: “Harry has hairy hands”. The standard or ‘correct’ version in GB is /eɪtʃ/, and this is the pronunciation the BBC recommends to its broadcasters as being “less likely to attract audience complaints.” The reality is that both pronunciations are commonly used and some native speakers will switch between both. Vote in our Twitter poll: Do we need /h/ in English pronunciation? Sometimes it is because of the word's derivation (e.g. (e.g. WHEN? You don’t say it after ‘g’ in GHOST, GHASTLY, AGHAST, GHERKIN & GHETTO, or after ‘r’ in RHINOCEROS, RHUBARB, RHYME and RHYTHM. H is silent in many English words, for various reasons. H is always silent in HONOUR, HOUR, HONEST, HEIR, VEHICLE & VEHEMENT. You can unsubscribe in one click. – “Who’d have thought it?”. Do you have more words in mind with silent H? H is always silent in HONOUR, HOUR, HONEST, HEIR, VEHICLE & VEHEMENT. The weak function words: HE, HIM, HIS, HER, HAVE, HAD & HAS all tend to lose the H if the word doesn’t appear at the beginning. It’s normally silent after ‘w’: WHAT? but it’s pronounced in WHO? Altogether now: “Harry has hairy hands”. In this lesson I’ll be talking about the H in American English. WHICH? also includes “h”-less pronunciations of “humid,” “huge,” and “human.” And the other standard dictionaries we checked generally agree with M-W. Although, some people with strong accents pronounce it that way. Vehicle . Otherwise, it’s highly doubtful. messiah from Hebrew or rhapsody from Greek); sometimes it is as a result of Elision [the omission of a sound or syllable when speaking (as in I'm, let's ).] https://theaccentsway.com/find-conversation-partners/, Your email address will not be published. So are you making a mistake by not pronouncing the “h” in the names of your brother and your son? Not all such words that have come into English from French still … Here’s a list of words that have the letter ‘h’, but there is no H consonant sound (silent H) Honest Honor Hour Heir herbs/herbal ‘Gh’ – no H sound Ghost Ghastly Ghetto ‘Rh’ no H sound Rhythm Rhinoceros Rhyme ‘Xh’ – no H sound Exhausted Exhibition Exhaust Rhubarb . Necessary cookies are absolutely essential for the website to function properly. The H isn't silent.. And as Alexander Pope observed, “To err is human, to forgive divine.”, Check out our books about the English language. It combines with ’t’ to make the two dental fricatives /θ/ in THINK and /ð/ in THIS. You don’t say it after ‘g’ in GHOST, GHASTLY, AGHAST, GHERKIN & GHETTO, or after ‘r’ in RHINOCEROS, RHUBARB, RHYME and RHYTHM. Many British English speakers never, ever say /h/; so they pronounce ‘hill’ and ‘ill’ identically – /ɪl/. Could u help me ? If you’re going to pronounce H, imagine you are steaming up a mirror /h/. Sometimes ‘gh’ is also /f/ at the end of a syllable ENOUGH! Rhubarb, In the following words the H drops when the word is NOT stressed: WHY? WHY? Her. The rule goes that the article ‘a’ is used before a consonant and ‘an’ is used before a vowel, so with silent H we would say “an honest” and with pronounced H we would say “a hotel”. GB cooks like the H in HERBS, whereas they prefer /ˈɜːrbz/ across the pond. H droppers tend to always use ‘an’, so cockneys would say “Give us an (h)and” and “She’s renting an (h)ouse”. You also have the option to opt-out of these cookies. If they are Spanish words, yes. So glad you enjoy them , mam i am not pronounce ર GUJARATI R SO GIVE ME SOME ADVISE. Your email address will not be published. If you’re going to pronounce H, imagine you are steaming up a mirror /h/. It’s a voiceless fricative in the throat, it isn’t made in the mouth /x/ or on the lips /ɸ/. The standard or ‘correct’ version in GB is /eɪtʃ/, and this is the pronunciation the BBC recommends to its broadcasters as being, We use cookies for usage and preferences - to find out more please see our, https://pronunciationstudio.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/09/H1.mp3, https://pronunciationstudio.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/09/H2.mp3, https://pronunciationstudio.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/09/H3.mp3, https://pronunciationstudio.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/09/H4.mp3, https://pronunciationstudio.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/09/H5.mp3, “less likely to attract audience complaints.”, https://pronunciationstudio.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/09/H6.mp3, https://pronunciationstudio.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/09/H7.mp3, https://pronunciationstudio.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/09/H8.mp3, https://pronunciationstudio.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/09/H9.mp3, MLE (Multicultural London English) – the Urban Accent. Exhaust WHICH? But opting out of some of these cookies may affect your browsing experience. You see, I notice that people DROP the H when it shouldn’t be dropped, PRONOUNCE the H when it shouldn’t be pronounced and I that people don’t even KNOW that sometimes they don’t HAVE to pronounce the H (it really depends on the position of the word in the sentence)…. The words hour and honest come from French, and in these cases English took over the French pronunciation as well as the word. It is mandatory to procure user consent prior to running these cookies on your website. Out of these, the cookies that are categorized as necessary are stored on your browser as they are essential for the working of basic functionalities of the website. Pronounce it in “Have you finished”, but not in “You must have done”. Let’s Practice! Oh and let’s not forget the /p/ in HICCOUGH. When you consider words like ‘hospital’ dropped their /h/ to /ˈɒspɪtəl/, then got it back again, and the fact it simply doesn’t exist in most regional accents, you may wonder whether /h/ is just a fashion accessory bandied around by elocutionists elusively seeking ‘correctness’.