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Quora
quora.com › How-would-you-phonetically-spell-the-name-of-the-letter-H
How would you phonetically spell the name of the letter “H”? - Quora
Answer (1 of 15): I spell it as “Q-U-E-S-T-I-O-N-S-P-A-M-M-E-R”, but that’s just me, of course.

H

8th letter of the basic Latin alphabet

standard h
isl h
H, or h, is the eighth letter of the Latin alphabet, used in the modern English alphabet, including the alphabets of other western European languages and others worldwide. Its name in English … Wikipedia
Factsheet
H H h
Usage
Writing system Latin script
Factsheet
H H h
Usage
Writing system Latin script
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Wikipedia
en.wikipedia.org › wiki › H
H - Wikipedia
3 days ago - In Spanish and Portuguese, ⟨h⟩ is a silent letter with no pronunciation, as in hijo [ˈixo] ('son') and húngaro [ˈũɡaɾu] ('Hungarian'). The spelling reflects an earlier pronunciation of the sound /h/. In words where the ⟨h⟩ is derived from a Latin /f/, it is still sometimes pronounced with the value [h] in some regions of Andalusia, Extremadura, Canarias, Cantabria, and the Americas. Some words beginning with [je] or [we], such as hielo, 'ice' and huevo, 'egg', were given an initial ⟨h⟩ to avoid confusion between their initial semivowels and the consonants ⟨j⟩ and ⟨v⟩. This is because ⟨j⟩ and ⟨v⟩ used to be considered variants of ⟨i⟩ and ⟨u⟩ respectively.
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Reddit
reddit.com › r/changemyview › cmv: h is not spelled a-i-t-c-h. letters cannot be spelled with more letters.
r/changemyview on Reddit: CMV: H is not spelled A-I-T-C-H. Letters cannot be spelled with more letters.
July 18, 2020 -

This morning my wife asked me how to spell the letter H. I said it is spelled H. She said it is spelled A-I-T-C-H and pointed me to a website. I am deeply disturbed by this. Here are my arguments against using letters to "spell letters."

1- If H is spelled aitch then why isn't it spelled aitcaitcaitcaitcaitcaitcaitcaitc... forever and ever?

2- The written H came before the written aitch. It's not a chicken or egg problem. Therefore why complicate a glorified hieroglyph with more glorified hieroglyphs?

3- If there is confusion about what letter is being used, we have a NATO phonetic alphabet to add clarity.

Spelling letters with more letters overcomplicates things and drives me crazy. Change my view.

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You can one-up your wife by telling her that akshualy it''s spelled "e‍ɪt‍ʃ". Japes aside, it's spelled out because letters aren't pronounced the same way in every language. Take X for example. It's handy to have a phonetic description of the letter when learning another language.
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The number 1 is identified by the word “one.” The letter H is identified by the word “aitch.” Numbers aren't words. Letters aren't words. Nor any other symbol that has a word identifying it. You wouldn't say the word “degree” is spelled ˚ or that “dollar” is spelled $. To put it another way, the letter H is written as ‘H’ and the word identifying that letter is spelled “aitch.” Specific to the points you mention: 1- If H is spelled aitch then why isn't it spelled aitcaitcaitcaitcaitcaitcaitcaitc... forever and ever? The H in the word “aitch” is not expanded—the same as how the letters A, I, T, and C are not expanded. Words are spelled with letters, not with the words identifying those letters. 2- The written H came before the written aitch. It's not a chicken or egg problem. Therefore why complicate a glorified hieroglyph with more glorified hieroglyphs? When a symbol is invented, a word identifying that symbol is invented soon thereafter. The letter H is no different. It has a word identifying it, and that word is spelled “aitch.” In other words, spelling the word for H as “aitch” is a simplification because it follows the general rule that words are distinct from the things they identify. 3- If there is confusion about what letter is being used, we have a NATO phonetic alphabet to add clarity. I've never once seen confusion about writing ‘H’ or “aitch.” Typically people don't really care whether they're talking about the letter H or using the word for the letter H because the writer's meaning is clear from context. But the distinction exists, nevertheless. So use whatever you feel comfortable with, but know that the letter and the word identifying that letter are two distinct things.
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Englishpronunciationmadrid
englishpronunciationmadrid.com › portada
h - English Pronunciation
June 21, 2025 - hour honest honour heir shepherd vehicle annihilate · It is also silent in the name Graham . The name of the famous British writer Graham Greene, therefore, is /ˌgreɪəm ˈgriːn/ , very different from what we usually say in Spanish. This stresses the importance of being aware of the pronunciation of proper names. This is the type of work I do with my students in my one-to-one classes.
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YouTube
youtube.com › watch
Basic English: How to Pronounce the Letter H - YouTube
http://www.bearstearnsbravo.comThis video shows you how to say H. Learn the correct American English pronunciation of the eighth letter in the alphabet.
Published   September 12, 2010
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YouTube
youtube.com › watch
h as in heart, British English Pronunciation of the Phonetic Alphabet - YouTube
The sound h is an unvoiced consonant sound in English. As with other sounds in English, it doesn't always match the spelling of words! Watch this video to fi...
Published   September 29, 2021
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Cambridge Dictionary
dictionary.cambridge.org › us › pronunciation › english › h
How to pronounce H in English
Your browser doesn't support HTML5 audio · US/eɪtʃ/ More about phonetic symbols · Sound-by-sound pronunciation · Your browser doesn't support HTML5 audio · UK/eɪtʃ/ H · Your browser doesn't support HTML5 audio · /eɪ/ as in · Your browser doesn't support HTML5 audio ·
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YouTube
youtube.com › watch
Learn to Pronounce the Letter H - #SHORTS Quick English ...
Enjoy the videos and music you love, upload original content, and share it all with friends, family, and the world on YouTube.
Find elsewhere
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English Language Club
englishlanguageclub.co.uk › home › pronunciation › h sound: how to pronounce the h sound (/h/ phoneme)
h sound: How to pronounce the h Sound (/h/ Phoneme)
November 1, 2023 - The h sound is Aspirated, you don't vibrate your vocal chords but it is defined by their position, because it is a fricative.
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The Global Montessori Network
theglobalmontessorinetwork.org › all blogs › primary (kindergarten) › how to pronounce 'h'
How to Pronounce 'h' Sound | Montessori Language Lesson
March 30, 2023 - To create the h sound, the deep back of the tongue slightly contracts within the throat. The upper/front part of the tongue and the lips will often move into the shape of surrounding sounds at the same time as the /hh/ sound is being produced.
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Whichenglish
whichenglish.com › Better-English-Grammar › usage › haitch-or-aitch.html
grammar haitch or aitch
And, thanks to all of this linguistic meddling came the inevitable backlash, the reinforcement of h-otel, h-orse, h-ouse, h-ello and H-arry. As a result, aitch gained an h through folk etymology and many people made it h-aitch in both spelling and pronunciation.
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BBC
bbc.com › news › magazine-11642588
'Haitch' or 'aitch'? How do you pronounce 'H'? - BBC News
October 28, 2010 - Once upon a time, there were gales of laughter when Frank Spencer in Some Mothers Do 'Ave 'Em pronounced harass with the emphasis on the second syllable. Now, according to the British Library, evidence suggests that for people under the age of 35, it is becoming the favoured pronunciation.
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Carnegie Mellon University
cmu.edu › hub › registrar › docs › phonetic-spelling-instructions.pdf pdf
Phonetic Spelling Instructions
is pronounced in a special way, please use the key below to advise us how your name should be pronounced. Indicate either the phonetic spelling of your name OR a familiar word that rhymes with your name.
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There are such things as pronunciation guides, which are basically sets of made-up words used to stand for the letters of an alphabet to show how they should be sounded, but these show all letters, not just 'H'. To my knowledge, there is no special word for 'H' that would make it unique from all other letters, and I think you are mistaken.

The only reason why I can think you might believe 'H' is the only letter to have its own phonetic spelling may be because it seems to be discussed more than most, firstly for the reason you quote, namely that some people mistakenly "drop" the letter when pronouncing words that begin with it (eg "I'm 'ungry!"), and secondly, because there are some disagreements over the pronunciation of the letter 'H' - in some regional dialects, natives pronounce it "aitch" while others say "haitch" (the former is considered to be the correct, scholarly pronunciation).

For these reasons there is arguably more discussion over the pronunciation of this letter than any other (or at least a close second to the "zee" and "zed" variations of the letter 'Z') so you may well have seen 'H' represented phonetically more than any other.

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In response to OP's specific reference "drop one's aitches":

If I were to write this myself after hearing someone say it I would write "Drop one's h's" as spelling out the names of letters phonetically is very uncommon in writing. This phrase refers to not pronouncing the "H" sound at the beginning of some words (ex. (h)erb vs. herb).

I would follow the same pattern and type:

"cross your t's and dot your i's" as opposed "cross your tees and dot your eyes"

The second is sort of ambiguous and might be used in a humorous way.

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Hadar Shemesh
hadarshemesh.com › home › the h in english (how to pronounce, silent h and more)
The H in English (how to pronounce, silent H and more)
October 4, 2025 - Today, we are going to talk about the elusive sound, the American H, also known as 'hhh'. In this video, we're going to talk about how to pronounce it, when to use it, when not to use it, when you can drop it, and what you're supposed to do around it.
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TikTok
tiktok.com › the english pros (@english_pros) | tiktok › how to pronounce the letter "h" #edutok #learnenglish #learnontiktok #learningisfun #english #learnenglish #fypシ #foryou #viral #trending #relatable
How to pronounce the letter "H" #edutok #learnenglish #learnontiktok #learningisfun #english #learnenglish #fypシ #foryou #viral #trending #relatable | TikTok
954 Likes, 50 Comments. TikTok video from The English Pros (@english_pros): “How to pronounce the letter "H" #edutok #learnenglish #learnontiktok #learningisfun #english #learnenglish #fypシ #foryou #viral #trending #relatable”. How to pronounce | H | aitch?
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Pronunciation Studio
pronunciationstudio.com › home › h
H - Pronunciation Studio
September 28, 2016 - If you’re going to pronounce H, imagine you are steaming up a mirror /h/. It’s a voiceless fricative in the throat, it isn’t made in the mouth /x/ or on the lips /ɸ/. Altogether now: “Harry has hairy hands”.
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Pronuncian
pronuncian.com › pronounce-h-sound
How to pronounce the 'h sound' /h
To create the h sound, the deep back of the tongue slightly constricts within the throat. The upper/front part of the tongue as well as the lips will often move into the shape of surrounding sounds at the same time as the h sound is being produced.
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A good question, and a very basic one that illustrates an important difference between Phonetics and Phonology (or, as it used to be called, Phonemics): They use different criteria for what's a vowel and what's a consonant.

First, an important caveat:

  • This is only true of English; i.e, it's the English phoneme /h/ we're talking about.
    (This is not, for example, true of the Malay phoneme /h/.)
    Phonemes and Phonology are localized to individual languages,
    whereas Phonetics is independent of individual language systems.

What that means is that when an English speaker pronounces the words

  • heat, hit, hate, hen, hat, hot,
    for instance,

they are pronouncing the phoneme strings

  • /hit/, /hɪt/, /het/, /hɛn/, /hæt/, /hat/

Phonemically, and using /h/ as a Phonological consonant.

Phonological consonants are sounds that pattern in some language

  1. on the borders of syllables,
  2. and that are not used in those languages as syllable nuclei, like voiced vowels are in English.

The key word here is Pattern.
Phonology is all about the patterns that sounds fit into in a given language.
In English, /h/ patterns as a consonant, and that's that.

However, in pronouncing those phoneme strings
-- which represent the way speakers hear the words --
the actual /h/ sounds that the speaker says can be classified physiologically as voiceless vowels,
because a Phonetic vowel is defined by how it's pronounced,
rather than how it patterns with other sounds.

Phonetic vowels are produced by passing lung air through the open mouth
and without significant contact between any articulators.
I.e, vowels are differentiated only by the positions of the tongue and the lips.

For historical reasons, English /h/ only occurs before vowels.
It never occurs before a consonant, or at the end of a word (i.e, before Zero).
It used to occur everywhere, but those /h/'s went silent or mutated,
and are represented in English spelling as GH.
Which is why words with GH in them are so perplexing.

Now, the biggest difference between an /h/ and a following vowel is that
the vowel is voiced, whereas the /h/ is voiceless.

Further, there is not much friction necessary to distinguish an /h/ from its absence, which is the only thing it contrasts with, so all that is really needed is a transition
between voiceless and voiced occurring after the vowel has started.
Rather like the Greek concept of a "rough breathing" (Greek only had /h/ before vowels, too).

And the easiest way to accomplish this reliably and efficiently turned out to be
to pronounce /h/ with a different allophone for every vowel it preceded, like

  • [i̥it], [ɪ̥ɪt], [e̥et], [ɛ̥ɛn], [æ̥æt], [ḁat]

A vowel symbol with a circle below represents a voiceless (whispered) vowel.
Any English speaker can prove this to themself easily:

  • whisper eat, it, ate, ett, at, ott, holding the vowel long, to hear its voiceless sound
    then whisper each vowel, but start voicing the vowel and continue with the word.
    You'll hear an /h/ in each case, if you're an Engish native speaker.
    And, if you're paying attention, you'll notice you don't move your tongue -- only your larynx
    which means you're saying a different voiceless vowel in each case.

English has no other uses for voiceless vowels,
so they're available as allophones for /h/.
Language rarely wastes resources.

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English h is not a voiceless vowel; it's a voiceless glide -- the non-syllabic counterpart to a voiceless vowel. (If it were syllabic, it would be a voiceless vowel.)

I disagree with Lawler's answer above only in regard to his omission of a non-syllabic mark on the first sound of [i̥it], [ɪ̥ɪt], [e̥et], [ɛ̥ɛn], [æ̥æt], [ḁat], which he writes as though each word had two syllables.