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

[ViscountessPetitLapin]

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

We have that battle too. Plus "up" and "oop".

Ahem, there is NO R in the "southern" pronunication of bath!! People always write it like that to make it look as if they are doing a phonetic rendition, but if you listen to the long A, that' all it is - a long vowel sound.

My sister, who is a southerner born and bred, still says "newcassel" rather than "newcarsel", just because she went it uni there!

I used to love going on the Metro - "Mind the doors please!" sounds so much better in broad Geordie!

Haitch....Choo! (Bless you!)

Also, the correct pronounciation (pro-nuns-ee-ay-shun) of yesterday is meant to be "yesty", or so I heard....

Mind you, I live in Brissle in Wescunry. We all know crek waiter's peak down yer!!

OH god...we better never meet up, that is how I pronounce my Haitches....am sure that is how I learned it at school...hm...and we were meant to have learnt Oxford English...wouldn't surprise me if they got it wrong though!
The stuff they teach ys, lol....

Key class divider, by your aitches are you known. By all means stay on the divide with which you're comfortable but realise what others think.

So "Aitch" is the correct way...proper english and haitch is dialect/slang???
confused?
Cut me some slack please...afterall I am german, lol!

Trust Xenia to bring a sensible aspect

3andnomore, you're excused, you being a furriner and all .

Actually, it's embarassing how germans and dutch people often speak better English than native speakers!

English is a language designed to trip up the unwary and unnative speakers s as she remembers Americans asking for 'Lie-chester Square' in London. Cruel to laugh really - I'm sure I'd be stumped asking for some places in America.

And the River Thames ( as in )

When I was at uni in the States, they used to get me to say things like "aluminium", "tomato" and "oregano" and then just PTSL

Or Berkeley Square

Yeash, well they are WRONG.

I couldn't believe it the first time I heard Captain Picard asking for a "BOO-EY" to be sent out. Oh, and having an "ink-werry". An ENGLISH ACTOR forced to mangle the language FGS!!

Was "haitch" where I grew up so doubt if I'll change my ways now!

And I was brought up to believe that it was very bad manners to comment on other's manners or ways of saying things!

well, I wouldn't say to you, KTeePee, but I think I'm OK to shout at the telly (they can't hear you, you know )

Well Captain Kirk started it all with 'to boldly go....'.

Obviously the scriptwriters had skipped lessons on split infinitives.

Split infinitive isn't as horrible as some linguistic crimes. Some experts argue that it isn't even wrong, and that in terms of style it sometimes sounds better than the other options!

I'd have to wholeheartedly agree, UQD

Don't be too hard on our friends across the pond. We must sound like pompous twats to them quite a lot of the time...

K, we don't comment but we notice, just as we notice who writes it's for its. Matters if you have job interviews, need to create the right impression with people at work etc but then I suppose it depends what work you do - I doubt call centres train them on that and nice employers would never comment - they would just simply not hire people in some areas, however wrong that is which is why my mother in 1950s rough Newcastle state schools could get all those 40 a class boys and girls knowing how they ought to speak even if they chose not to follow those grammatical etc rules - you was/you were etc.

Grr..the aitch thing annoys me too. Especially as my name begins with one and when I spell it out on the phone, I often get 'you mean HAitch..'.
No, I know how to spell my own name!!!!

FF but you're not telling me people don't assess others at work or in general on the basis of accent, grammar, education and looks?

The other thing that annoys me that I see on here is 'I could of done such and such'.
(Haven't read the whole thread)
Also, 'bare with me' and 'nothing to loose'.

I agree with Xenia. I have definitely been judged on the basis of my accent, both positively ("sounds educated") and negatively ("posh snob").

I used to do a Tony Blair and deliberately try and be less well-spoken when I was talking to some of the traders, as I knew "posh birds" got their backs up.

Similarly we had some very bright female traders who would never have been sent to see corporate clients because of their broad Essex accents.

I am not saying this is right, BTW, just that that was the way things worked.

I think it's [sic] less to do with accent and more to do with the command of the English language. Just because people aspirate their aitches doesn't make them stupid....

Agreed, but there definitely IS a public perception. Received pronunciation and all that.

My favourite accent at the moment is that announcer on Radio 4. Neil Nunes . He has a spectacular voice!