Active discussions

Help protect children from gaming harms.

Take our survey

Please or to access all these features

Talk
AIBU?

Share your dilemmas and get honest opinions from other Mumsnetters.

Original poster

To be irritated when people on television say "Haitch"?

157 replies

ViscountessPetitLapin · 18/04/2007 22:59

This wretched woman just said "Haitch Emm Ess" (HMS) and it drives me NUTS!

OP posts:
AitchTwoOh · 20/04/2007 20:01

(i think she did, fio.)

Gay Chicken - GAME ON!

FioFio · 20/04/2007 19:57

This reply has been deleted

Message withdrawn

DrDaddy · 20/04/2007 19:22

Ye Gods! Is this thread still going??

Rantum · 20/04/2007 19:03

I moved around the English speaking world growing up and now I have the most bizarre accent that even I, myself, have ever heard (and I hear myself everyday).

As I went through different school systems where I invariably sounded odd to the majority of other children, I picked up different ways of saying things to fit in. Now in my thirties, I hear my own accent change according to who I am talking to, like it has a mind of its own and I can't seem to do anything about it!

I always find these threads interesting because they seem relevant to my own experiences of hearing many different pronounciations for the same words around the world - and illustrate the power that language has to unite and divide. Hmmmmm. [insert reflective emoticon here]

(Have always said "aitch", though - never encountered "haitch" til arrived in UK)

KTeePee · 20/04/2007 18:43

But Xenia - it is normal to say "haitch" in some areas so schools there ^wouldn't" correct it....

stleger · 20/04/2007 18:39

I think an Irish accent is confusing in England as it seems classless. I am from NI and worked in England in the eighties - as I am very posh (!) and don't yell like Ian Paisley, I was assumed to be Scottish. (Hate drawring for drawing).

babyonboard · 20/04/2007 18:29

My friend who has the broadest of broadest yorkshire accent always says aitch and gets really cross when others don't.

Hilllary · 20/04/2007 18:25

I dont have an accent

Judy1234 · 20/04/2007 18:23

In that case perhaps I should be going after women on line, F. Trouble is I'm not a lesbian

AitchTwoOh · 20/04/2007 18:13

xenia, i was just joshing. i know how to pronounce it...

FioFio · 20/04/2007 18:12

This reply has been deleted

Message withdrawn

Judy1234 · 20/04/2007 18:11

I just meant all - that I was not unique in the UK at hating haitch.

What is incredible is some people didn't even know it wasn't normal to say aitch. Why don't school tell them? My children's school tells them.

If you are irritated by people with a "better" accent then that's fine too - in some lines of work a better accent is career death.

Hilllary · 20/04/2007 18:07

I hate aich what dose that mean?

AitchTwoOh · 20/04/2007 18:06

"But just look at all the women on this thread who hate aitch."

xenia, what have i ever done to you?

Judy1234 · 20/04/2007 18:05

..ha, I rejected one man on the phone because I just couldn't stand the Liverpool accent. My loss no doubt.

FioFio · 20/04/2007 18:02

This reply has been deleted

Message withdrawn

Judy1234 · 20/04/2007 18:00

But just look at all the women on this thread who hate aitch. It's not just me that cringes. We are all too polite to say of course in practice to someone in front of us but it would be unacceptable to many employers to employ staff who say haitch I'm afraid. I would hope a strong Liverpool accent wouldn't put them off too but it depends on your clients and what accent/kind of person they expect to be dealing with.

powder28 · 20/04/2007 17:33

It annoys me when people say ideal instead of idea as in 'oh thats a good ideal!'

KTeePee · 20/04/2007 17:31

Then again, maybe having a "foreign" accent means that employers can't make our if I'm posh or common!

KTeePee · 20/04/2007 17:30

Well, Xenia, having an Irish accent and speaking "Hiberno-English" ( and so saying "haitch") has never done me any harm at interviews .

I am quite in favour of speaking in a grammatically correct way (and thanks to my excellent teachers at state school, have no trouble doing that ) but I personally think the "haitch" think is snobbishness....

Hilllary · 20/04/2007 17:21

'haitch in this house'

Judy1234 · 20/04/2007 17:16

In business although sometimes you try to trail blaze it's generally wiser to give clients what they want, whether that's the clever pretty blonde or the harrassed working mother because the client is a harrassed working mother or whatever. It's quite an interesting science to getting it right which is why employers should have a range of people they employ so they can match people up whether by life, colour, class or whatever, assuming all your staff can do the job brilliantly as well.

FioFio · 20/04/2007 16:01

This reply has been deleted

Message withdrawn

DrDaddy · 20/04/2007 15:58

Oh yes. I remember the first time I went to Leeds and a taxi driver called me "love". I couldn't get out the cab fast enough, until I was told it's normal there

UnquietDad · 20/04/2007 15:55

Big burly blokes call each other "love" up here !