October 28, 2010 - In the 19th Century, it was normal to pronounce hospital, hotel and herb without the h. Nowadays "aitch anxiety" has led to all of them acquiring a new sound, a beautifully articulated aitch at the beginning.

2 days ago - H, or h, is the eighth letter of ... European languages and others worldwide. Its name in English is aitch (pronounced /eɪtʃ/ ⓘ, plural aitches), or regionally haitch (pronounced /heɪtʃ/, plural haitches)....

June 14, 2018 - Like Dr Seuss’s Star-Belly Sneetches and Plain-Belly Sneetches, there are two types of creatures – haitchers with H on their 8th letter name and aitchers with “none upon thars”.

First, you won't find 'haitch' in the dictionary, only the correct spelling aitch. The name of the letter comes from Old French ache of the 1500s and first spelt so in English, when it was related to the Old English word ache, from æce. At this time it was pronounced "ache" or "aitch".

Answer (1 of 49): In the U.K.. received pronounciation (BBC English) dictates that ‘H’ Is pronounced “aitch’ in many words.. especially those borrowed from the French.. So as recently as 50years ago, the word Hotel was pronounced with a silent ‘H’ so correct English is to talk about ...

I was educated in a Catholic school in Australia, and taught to say 'aitch'. Me thinks previous a bitter lapsed RC ... Well, each person is unique, so imagine if everyone said every thing with the same accent (it would be awfully dull). Any how, I had best run off, nanny is calling. ... Lads - let's face it - it's pronounced 'haitch'.

I say 'haitch', as in the phonetic ... of the single letter match the pronunciation of the letter within the word, others don't. So I guess 'aitch' is the correct pronunciation....

Skip to main content · Uri Plum, Portsmouth, UK What's alarming about it? Where I live pronouncing the haitch at the start of haitch has always been common practice. Are we afraid of a little regional colour slipping in and tainting received BBC pronunciation

Answer (1 of 5): The name of the letter H is pronounced ‘aitch’. The SOUND of the letter H is a breathed hah (initial sound). SOMETIMES in English words, an initial letter h is silent.

October 4, 2018 - But it does — the tiny H on “(h)aitch” divides the nation. The pronunciation has become something of a social password, a spoken shibboleth distinguishing in-groupers from out-groupers. Those with social clout set the standards for what’s “in” and what’s “out” — no H has the stamp of approval. The best kind of people are people without! Shibboleths die hard — the opprobrium attached to haitch probably derives from its long association with Irish Catholic Education.

February 4, 2007 - I had a Catholic education of go to whoa, and we were taught to say 'aitch' for the letter H. And kids who dropped Hs, or dropped Gs were corrected. [Dropping H is when you say 'ot instead of hot, and dropping G is saying comin' instead of coming]. ... I ad a math teacher in the ninth grade (pupils~age 12) who pronounced the letter "haitch" to the great amusement of the students.

They shouldn't be discouraged from saying "haitch". After all, its the letter which represents the "h" sound. ... It's spelt 'aitch', is it not? Anyone pronouncing it as "haitch" just sounds ignorant to me.

February 23, 2022 - In spoken English today, the accepted thing is to pronounce the H for most words beginning with H – as in historian, hotel, hammock, herbs, hiccough, highway etcetera. But English being the perverse language that it is, there are of course ...

April 15, 2024 - But nowadays, the worm has turned and haitch is a "misaimed, try-hard attempt to sound posh", so he has "an awful feeling that when I carefully say 'aitch', younger people think it's me that's ignorant". Rajan has been "bullied" into moving to aitch by a "handful of pernickety viewers who have bridled at what they regard as a mispronunciation", said Craig Brown in the Daily Mail. Rules about correct speech "come and go", and "there is no right or wrong" on the aitch/haitch debate. "To my mind, you can pronounce them any hold 'ow," he said.

Answer (1 of 23): Some words have a silent “h” aitch and some words the “h” is pronounced. I say herbs, some say erbs. I say have done say av. Is it really difficult to grasp?