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!

No! The aitch in hotel is not silent. Nor horrific nor horrendous. It’s a hotel. The aitch in hour is silent therefore treated as a vowel. An hour is correct. A horrific situation is correct.
An hotel is incorrect.

The link that was posted explains all this.

Frogsandsheep I hope your googling convinced you you shouldn't be correcting either pronunciation in children you teach!

Having an uncommon surname beginning with H, I've ended up spelling it 'haitch,' just because people on telephones understand it better. Otherwise they sometimes assume aitch is AC or AT or A.

I've tried the phonetic alphabet but that's worse.

I pronounce the h in hotel unless I'm reading Agatha Christie, who's the most recent author I can think of to write 'an hotel'.

Silent H

Hhach

@ilovepixie yes! So true, people find this hard to believe on the mainland! It's just another example of entrenched differences.

The word "hotel" came into the English language in the middle ages, from the French, where of course, along with the other "silent letter H" words we now use in English, it had no H. Thus, "an 'otel".
Subsequent language changes over the centuries added an orthographic H, (academics are divided as to why that was) which, in turn, in SOME words, including "hotel" and "herb" (British usage) acquired a pronounced /h/ whilst others didn't.

Both "an" and "a" are fine, depending on the preferred pronunciation, and despite what the first couple of blogs/forums on Google might say.

Obviously, "hotel" pronounced without the /h/ is pretty much only found in very upper class accents these days. The Queen says it William doesn't.

Sorry about the typos!

canterbury
The people who enjoy calling others uneducated on threads like this always show themselves eventually to be the least knowledgeable about language. Which is satisfying.

can only reiterate what others have said, pronunciation isn’t grammar.

I’m born and bred abroad with one Irish parent. I say aitch, but I’ve probably changed this pronunciation myself because when everyone around you says it’s pronounced aitch and only one person says haitch you doubt yourself don’t you. I don’t pronounce the letter R as “or” either, I say it “are” (but I do pronounce the letter in words).

Don’t know why this would annoy people that much when it seems like all of England is full of people using an intrusive R - now that’s a fucking annoying pronunciation. God the English mangle their language. Priorities people.

Huh- aitch

Frogsandsheep because a cursory google will show that Haitch is correct in Hiberno English. In a classroom in the UK there will likely be several students with Irish heritage. I'm sure as a teacher you wouldn't want to be implying that they are correct to speak in their own dialect.

*incorrect

If they are being taught through the medium of Standard English, then the use of “dialect” is inappropriate.

In a lesson situation.

This was a question designed to intimidate and threaten when I was growing up in Belfast in the 1980s.

Apparently from the response, others can judge your religion and political persuasion.

Taught me just how ridiculous it is judge people on how the say a letter (aimed at all you with the itchy teeth)

It is AITCH!!!

If you live in N.I
Haitch = Roman Catholic
Aitch = Protestant

How funny that people are still posting on this thread and repeating everything that's already been said way too many times, RTFT

@TheCanterburyWhales, the French word hôtel, with h written but silent, was borrowed in the 17th century. It’s derived from the Old French ‘hostel’ and was never spelt ‘otel’. The h was not added later, as you seem to imply.

I say aitch, but like @argumentativeaardvark the local accent is itch followed by eye and jeye to rhyme with the eye...

Yes, I know. I'm talking about the relationship in English between spelling and pronunciation and the phenomenon of adding a pronounced /h/ to a word because it begins with "h".
I didn't mean the letter "h" had been added to a word which didn't have one.

I'm not being a bitch. I'm pointing out that you've said you declared the pronunciation Haitch to be wrong to a classroom of young students when it isn't. Please imagine how this thread is reading to Irish posters.