The alphabet and 'H'.

[Thatbliddywoman]

So we say
Ay.
Bee
Sea
Dee
Ee
Eff
Jee
Aitch. Except we don't. We say 'Haitch'.
Why?
We make the aitch have its own letter as the sound of the word for it
We don't do that with any other letter. Why H?
We don't say 'wubbleyew' do we, It's 'doubleyew'?
I don't understand it.

@SummerSummerSummertime

Sounds fine to say Haitch if you're Irish. It's a regional thing.

But it sounds really awful in a London accent though. Because it's just WRONG!!!

Aw, but I have to pick up all those haitches I drop and put them back somewhere, why not when reciting the alphabet?

I am also from Devon. I say 'aitch'. It was a big deal as a child along with 'pardon?' not 'what?' and ,must have' not 'must of', etc

My partner says haitch - I say aitch.
A mixed marriage then

I used to say haitch but 10 years ago in my late 20s I started saying aitch. Can someone help me interpret what this means?

I agree that it's totally illogical to say haitch. I don't understand why people who justify it by saying it must begin with the "h" sound don't also say feff, lell, mem etc.

I say 'aitch' and it's a hill I'm willing to die on.

It’s aitch. If you say haitch my guess is you may also say “it appens “h”and I don’t fink it should of”.

I say haitch I’m from the midlands and my family are a mix of catholic and Protestant

@WeBuiltThisBuffetOnSausageRoll

Careful - you'll have people lining up to ask you to tell them

@Pobblebonk

I agree that it's totally illogical to say haitch. I don't understand why people who justify it by saying it must begin with the "h" sound don't also say feff, lell, mem etc.

I was spelling something out over the phone and accidentally said “Y for Wankee” and it was only then that I realised the name for the letter Y doesn’t start with a yuh sound

Thinking about I think I say both?

Not sure what my son says but I don't think I taught him one way or the other

lol I am thinking way to much about this now!

I say Aitch. My parents would have a fit if I said Haitch. It’s a class shibboleth like many other words are.

I say haitch

I say 'aitch'. It was a big deal as a child along with 'pardon?' not 'what?' and ,must have' not 'must of', etc
This is odd because while I was taught that “aitch” and “must have” are correct, my parents also taught me that “pardon” is a word I should never dare to utter!

@Thatbliddywoman

So we say Ay. Bee Sea Dee Ee Eff Jee Aitch. Except we don't. We say 'Haitch'. Why? We make the aitch have its own letter as the sound of the word for it We don't do that with any other letter. Why H? We don't say 'wubbleyew' do we, It's 'doubleyew'? I don't understand it.

Er, we don’t say haitch...

I say 'aitch'. It was a big deal as a child along with 'pardon?' not 'what?' and ,must have' not 'must of', etc
This is odd because while I was taught that “aitch” and “must have” are correct, my parents also taught me that “pardon” is a word I should never dare to utter!

Yes me too. “Pardon” is in the “haitch” camp!

I can’t get bold to work though so what do I know!

I've always said haitch but recently discovered I was wrong so trying to train myself out of it, but it feels weird. It feels like I'm not talking properly like when people say 'what's 'appening?' or 'ows it going?'

In my mind the letter H should start with a h sound. But I understand it's not correct.

Colleagues always argue in work when there's an abbreviation that starts with H - for example in the civil service one of the grades is HEO, so when writing it down is it 'please speak to a HEO' or 'please speak to an HEO'

I say aitch, and used to cringe when people said haitch. Then my son started saying haitch and I just realised it wasn’t worth bothering about. And I just didn’t want to criticise him over it, so I didn’t, and also stopped cringing about how other people said it. Much more relaxing and much nicer really. It doesn’t matter at all.

Clearly this snobbery will continue as you all teach your kids it's your way or the highway. Or is that ighway? Get a grip

They do the H sound in Haitch in phonics, don't they?

Because the kids a learning the 'h' sound for like house or head?

As adults we wouldn't say it but it's hardly the end of the World.

@vapeinafleshlight

Clearly this snobbery will continue as you all teach your kids it's your way or the highway. Or is that ighway? Get a grip

Yes, that's right, we're all pronouncing words AT you, and will deliberately teach our children to speak like we do (instead of just picking it up from hearing adults talk like normal children) in order to consolidate our grasp on global power.

We hare the hilluminati, be hafraid, be very hafraid.

Hay chai jay kay elemenopeeeeee.

It’s aitch, it’s a huge bug bear of mine when people say haitch. I mean no one says n, haitch, s do they. Like app it’s like nails down a blackboard fir me.

Stannis, that's funny. I always got murder eye for 'what' not pardon, my husband hates 'what' too, thinks it sounds overly aggressive. Doesn't stop me. We're common as owt though. :) What's interesting is nobody actually said 'pardon' to me, they just made me say it. Perhaps if I pronounced the T at the end it would have been less jarring coming from a 5 year old. Ha.