Is there a silent H in the English language?
H is always silent in HONOUR, HOUR, HONEST, HEIR, VEHICLE & VEHEMENT. You don’t say it after ‘g’ in GHOST, GHASTLY, AGHAST, GHERKIN & GHETTO, or after ‘r’ in RHINOCEROS, RHUBARB, RHYME and RHYTHM. It’s normally silent after ‘w’: WHAT?
Which letter is silent in most dialects?
h
In most dialects, the letter ⟨h⟩ is almost always silent, except in the digraphs ⟨ch⟩ and ⟨ph⟩.
Why H is silent in English?
H is silent in many English words, for various reasons. Sometimes it is because of the word’s derivation (e.g. messiah from Hebrew or rhapsody from Greek); sometimes it is as a result of elision (e.g. shepherd, exhaust). Not all such words that have come into English from French still have a silent h, however.
Do British pronounce H?
British English dictionaries give aytch as the standard pronunciation for the letter H. However, the pronunciation haytch is also attested as a legitimate variant.
Is the H in white silent?
In my region we don’t say “hwite”…. instead the “h” is completely silent. We say, “wite” and the “w” is exactly the same as the “w” sound in “wife”. However, I have heard quite a few people (maybe they were from the Southeastern US) pronounce the “wh” sound as though it were written “hw”.
Is the H silent in Vehicle?
The H in the word vehicle doesn’t have a strong /h/ sound. Some people may use an /h/ sound, but you really don’t need to. If you say ve➝hicle with a distinct /v/ sound and a long clear vowel in the first syllable, Americans will understand you when you say it! Dropping the /h/ sound is up to you.
Which letter in the English language is never silent?
V
There is only one letter in the language that is never silent. Can you guess what it is? The letter is V! There are various very valuable v-words, and that V is never silent!
Can Z be silent?
Even unusual letters like Z and J are silent in words that we have adopted from foreign languages, such as marijuana (originally a Spanish word) and laissez-faire (French). But as Merriam-Webster Dictionary points out, one unusual letter is never silent: the letter V.
Do you pronounce H aitch or Haitch?
For most English speakers, the name for the letter is pronounced as /eɪtʃ/ and spelled “aitch” or occasionally “eitch”. The pronunciation /heɪtʃ/ and the associated spelling “haitch” is often considered to be h-adding and is considered nonstandard in England.
Is the H in huge silent?
1 Answer. Your premise is incorrect. Most people pronounce the /h/ in both human and huge. And out of those people who drop the /h/ in human, most of them also drop the /h/ in huge, humor, humid, and so forth.
Is the H silent in historic?
They have their accented, or stressed, syllable second, not first. It used to be that an initial “h” was not pronounced in many such words, which is how “an historic” and “an historical” came to be used in the first place. Both words are now, however, typically pronounced with an audible \h\.
Is the H silent in whooping?
Whooping is correctly pronounced as “hoo-ping.”
What is the difference between a vowel and a h in English?
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 ). and are represented in English spelling as GH. Which is why words with GH in them are so perplexing. the vowel is voiced, whereas the /h/ is voiceless.
What is the difference between no/h/ and /H/ dialects?
Dialects in the regions marked no /h/ feature (variable) H-dropping, while those in the regions marked /h/ generally do not, although there is some local variation within these regions.
Where does the letter H come from in English?
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 ). and are represented in English spelling as GH. Which is why words with GH in them are so perplexing.
What is the southern dialect?
From London down the Thames and into Essex, Sussex, and even Kent, a new working and middle class dialect has evolved and is rapidly become “the” southern dialect. It combines some of the characteristics of Cockney with RP, but makes much less use of Cockney slang. t between vowels usually becomes a glottal stop.