How do you pronounce the letter H?

[inlawsimnotsure]

How do you pronounce the letter H? Like ‘ach’ or ‘hhach’?

I work in HR and my name begins with H so I have confidently been saying ‘ach’ my whole life, but all of my colleagues say ‘hhach’ so I am starting to doubt myself.

We are all largely from the same region.

It’s driving me a bit crazy!

Aitch

Loads in the NW say haitch but that's, possibly, Irish influence.

“Please don't speak of aks. How can ask be pronounced aks. Just look where the letters fall”

Bingo! The other frequent Caribbean dialect pronunciation that attracts such hostility.

Haitch for me. I'm fine being a bit common.

My surname begins with h and I have h in my first name too. I say Haitch

Aitch. Often those who incorrectly say haitch also incorrectly say myself when it should simply be ‘me’. Discloses a fear of sounding ‘common’ and a huge lack of confidence/attempt to ‘get it right’. What a shame that it is a massive fail.

Although there are regional things in play with haitch also ?? Midlands ???

Not in my part of the Midlands!

I say haytch but my DH says aitch. I read something on twitter where Steven Fry said if he were ever in charge he'd stop people saying haytch. I'm usually really good will language etc but I just can't change this one 🙈

In Northern Ireland the Catholic population is distinguished from the Protestant by the former saying 'haitch' and the latter 'aitch'.

Aitch tho Irish say haitch. Once would of been used in NI to determine someone's religion. We are protestant and one son says haitch as he went to catholic school whilst other son went to protestant school and says it same as me

Reading aitch/haitch over and over has made me feel weird

But if your name is Hastings you wouldn't say Astings would you

Of course not, because the sound is HUH. The letter name is AITCH

Just as the T in Hastings is TUH not TEE. Sound not name.

I'm in Australia. I say aitch but so many people here (my husband included) say haitch. I hate it. It sounds so uneducated.

Haitch here, sorry. Am NE by way of Scotland if that makes a difference.

Aitch. If you say haitch I'll assume you're thick.

Aitch. If you say haitch I'll assume you're thick.

Yeah, it’s a good thing reciting the alphabet wasn’t on my entrance exam at Oxford or I would’ve been screwed

Haitch. I’m from Birmingham and everyone I know says Haitch

Aitch. If you say haitch I'll assume you're thick.

How can people read the thread, read how Haitch is correct in other dialects and not realise how much of a racist idiot this makes them sound?

It's Aitch.

Saying enn-haitch-ess (NHS)
haitch-ah (HR)
haitch-ess-bee-see (HSBC) just sounds weird and clunky and takes longer to say.

It’s not a dialect thing though. Maybe apart from Ireland. I’m from the North and say aitch.

It’s grammatically incorrect to say haitch. Therefore if you’re doing it you should correct it! It’s an education issue....

Sorry but every time you say ‘haitch’ someone will be cringing.

Delatron: If you prefer, it is more of an accent issue .

If the majority of the Catholic population in Ireland say Haitch, and Haitch is the common pronunciation amongst those of Caribbean background, then that is an accent.

And you may have your opinions on other people’s education but realise that every time you come out with it some of us will be thinking you are showing yourself up.

I know it’s correctly “Aitch” and I make a mental effort to stick to that but I often revert to “Haytch” don’t know if it’s because I’m Australian lol we seem to interchange it sometimes. It doesn’t bother me too much.

I’m in Ireland though and the teachers teach my kids haitch which drives me up the bloody wall. I give them death stares if they do it at home.

Why would you do that? It's not aitch in hiberno-Irish, it's haitch. Aitch is technically wrong in Ireland so maybe be a bit less erroneously condescending to your kids and their teachers.