To ask you how you say the letter 'H'???

[NowSissyThatWalk]

Okay.
So this may have been done to death, but I am a woman close to the edge.
I pronounce the letter H as 'Aitch', not
pronouncing any 'H' sound at the start.
I have always been told this is the 'right' way to pronounce it, and so it's stuck.
But I seem to never hear anyone ever saying it like this and instead pronounce the 'H', as 'Haitch'.
I can't take much more of it. My DP says 'Haitch' and corrects me every time I don't.
I should LTB shouldn't I????

Aitch. Where did she go btw? I miss her round up.

I try very hard to silence my darling mum's voice in my head but I'm afraid haitch sounds ignorant and common to me.

Of course, all the DNs say it constantly

I think it's aitch and that's what I say but, really, who cares? And if you do ... why for God's sake?

East of Scotland - it is ‘itch’ here.

Definitely aitch. DH used to say haitch, but I wore him down.

I say aitch which I think is considered correct in the UK. However I know in Ireland (and possibly other English speaking countries and regions) they say haitch which is correct for them.

When you think about it though, both aitch and haitch seem pretty illogical as a letter name for h.

Haitch

I say haitch despite knowing that aitch is correct. I blame my Irish parents.
I live in Ireland now so I can say haitch as much as I like because it's normal in Hiberno-English.

Where I live J is pronounced to rhyme with tie. Just let that one sink in,

Now I'm imagining MNetters around the world trying to figure out how to say it that way.

I pronounce it aitch, which is correct way.

I can't stand it when people say haitch, especially on the BBC, I always feel they should know better!

Aitch.

I wince when I hear haitch.

I remember in school we had to choose a word from the dictionary and make up meanings to fool our classmates. I chose aitch and I've always remembered it. My name begins with H so I feel irrationally invested because people sometimes abbreviate my name to the first letter. I never correct them if they say haitch because I'm far too polite but it's pronounced aitch. It's in the dictionary.

I'm normally quite tolerant about differences in speech/dialects etc.

But it's aitch. It just is.

Another with an Irish parent so it's Haitch. But I would imagine that it is declining because it's a bit of an anomaly to have a word describing a letter of the alphabet that doesn't include the actual letter it refers to. It's pretty counter-instinctive.

Anyway, it doesn't represent a law, only a convention and language is a constantly evolving thing.

Aitch

Haitch is perfectly right.

Aitch is perfectly right.

I wince when people get all pearl-clutchy about one being more right than the other. It just shows poor understanding of the English language outside their own regional bubble.

• 'Aitch' is declining, that should say.

I'm Irish and say haitch. We pronounce it haitch in because in the Gaelic alphabet the letter H is called héis and prounounced haysh.

I live in the UK though so am well aware of the horror that those who haitch incite in some of the British populace!

Another one we pronounce differently is R. Our R sounds like 'ore' whereas your sounds like 'arrgghhh', pirate style. I remember talking about (or at least trying to!) the TV show ER but my English colleague thought I was talking about Eeyore the donkey.

Aitch - as drummed into me by my mother. Husband says haitch - really annoys me that his Grammar School educated mother didn't drum it into him!
I have made him agree that he'll say aitch to the children!

I honestly had no idea Aitch was the correct way to say H. I've always said Haitch, thinking that's the way everyone says it!

The right way

Aitch.

Haitch' is a feature of many dialects. It's not wrong, unless you think anything other than RP is wrong.

Agree with this.

Definitely haitch to me. Thanks to squoosh for the excellent explanation of why it is haitch here in Ireland. Every day is a school day! ☺

Aitch

I'm even indoctrinating my phonics group but they're a wild and wonderful multilingual crew so I don't think I'll be changing the world anytime soon

I've even heard that it's another clue to which side of the sectarian divide one is on in parts of Scotland and Northern Ireland - not sure if I buy that.

Definitely aitch.