How to make the English sound h the native way, challenges for non-native learners and users, and some similar sounds used both in English accents and other languages.
Russian is an accent I love to use… it also has been difficult for me. I’ve becoming a voice actor. Great insight here. Scouse should be easy but I battle northern accents of all the many varieties. I can do Manchester/Leeds, although not at the clip my speedy friends go. Love English accents from all over, I just don’t know exactly what they’re doing (or saying!). The good Drs. videos help.
As someone who teaches in a trilingual school, (Eng/Spa/Rus), this was very helpful. I had never made the connection or comparison between the Spanish/Russian x/х phonemes.
Thank you very much! I never realized the difference between Spanish x and Russian x. Btw, there's quite a lot of native Spanish speakers who pronounce their x, j, ge & gi pretty much like English h. Also, quite a large number of native Spanish speakers pronounce their -s like an H, so you end up with words like "eHpañol" or "caHtellano" referring to the language.
Wow, I didn't know that substituting H for S was a thing in Spanish! I discovered the same phenomenon a few years ago in a totally unrelated language that I was looking into at the time, namely: Seychellois Creole (aka Kreol Seselwa). A phrase such as Komsa (derived from the French: Comme Ça) is increasingly being pronounced as Kom-ha in recent years (despite the H sound not previously even existing in that language!). Many other words are also losing their long-standing traditional pronunciation, such as "Desann" (originating from the French: Descendre) which is now being pronounced as "day-hun" instead of the traditional "day-sun". H seems like such an unlikely sound to replace an S sound with, so I assumed that no other languages would be likely to do it, but I have been proved wrong.
@@zyndr_ never heard it in Spain, the j/ge/gi sound has more air behind it than English h, but none of the Spanish English learners I talk to exaggerate h in English. In general they speak too smooth.
@@zyndr_ Historically, Proto-Indo-European *s has also turned into /h/ word-finally after a vowel in Sanskrit and word-initially before a vowel in Ancient Greek.
Now that I think of it, the [s] > [h] has a kind of a parallel in English. In Spanish, [s] jumping to [h] is an unvoiced spirant jumping from behind the teeth to the throat. In English, when the /t/ in a word like 'bottle' becomes a glottal stop it is an unvoiced stop jumping from behind the teeth to the throat.
Your foreign accents are so spot on, it's amazing! I'm sure it comes from years of experience teaching students of those languages, and in depth understanding of the linguistics involved. In particular, I adore your Russian accent, as I have NEVER heard a non-Russian English speaker get it so right! The intonation! Oh the intonation! Oh it's like the beautiful voice of my Russian mother! Молодец!
LOL I've been speaking fluent English my whole life and did the exercises and got excited when you said "and now, the fun part." I love these videos!! 😆😆😆
As a native speaker of Spanish from Spain, I think Spanish "j" isn't so strong for most speakers. Maybe it is in some particular areas in the centre. But I think that I and most of the Spaniards pronounce "j" the way you explained Russian "kh". In southern Spain and in Latinamerica, it is even just like English "h", or at least very similar.
I am Dutch and I will probably transfer my dutch g to the spanish j and I have been windsurfing in tarifa, so I learned that -H- as in ¡Hola! is actually pronounced in Andalucía as the only place in the roman empire where it has survived.
@@klaasdeboer8106 Not really. "H" in Andalucía is not pronounced, except by some people in some words that had "f" in Latin, not "h" in Latin. I never heard an andalusian person pronouncing /'hola/.
this is pure gold! Thank you very much for this great hint about breathing + whisper! I will now use it in comparison, especially with the Russian [х]: - English pronounce "hi" as if they are breathing freely and then vocalise their breath with joy and excitement! - Russians pronounce "hi" as if their breathing is troubled and then they vocalise the trouble...
As someone who grew up in the Merseyside area and have been learning Russian as a hobby for some years now, your pronunciation demonstrations in this video were a double delight!
Thank you for this informative video. I'm a native speaker of Germany and didn't have any problems with the English aitch sound but your demonstrations of the Spanish and Russian substitutes made me realize my pronounciation mistakes in Russian, because German also has [χ] but not [x].
Came to the comments to say how impressively accurate your foreign pronunciations of English words are only to discover lots of other people noticed too. Also thanks for covering the distinction between Spanish and Russian versions, TIL!
So pleased to find this. I was always taught aitch, and only a few months ago on utube got it some arguments with those that wanted to sound H, i could not make them see. I was always taught at school, many yeras ago now, that aitch was the only letter in the alphabet that did not sound its self.
Your Russian accent is perfect and the more I watch your videos, the more I see what it consists of. Here it's wrong h, wrong strong o in the end, and a wrong e too, and intonation. Just basically хэлло. And I've just listened to a video with a fluent Russian accent and realized there are no weak forms there, but instead some more random parts of words are muffled. That's what I should be improving in my own speech too.
Here in Southern California Spanish speakers tend to omit the H entire like French and Italian speakers do, pronoucing words like "highland" just like "island" and the sound they do have which is made by the letter J sounds just like the English H. That guttaral sound is made by the soft G like in the words Gila and general.
This is an excellent video for teachers and students alike. Your information is well sourced and extremely useful for teaching English pronunciation to non-natives. Thanks a lot for the video :=)
I'm really so glad to live on the same planet as a virtuoso of english language like Dr. Geoff Lindsey. If only I could find it while I was a student! I am less prone to English mistakes than my fellow Frenchs because I used to pay attention in class... But it is also true that I may fall back in what is easy for me, time to time when I am lazy. I think the thing that betrays first that english is a second language, is my non-typical stress pattern.
Hi @Dr Geoff Lindsey, Native Italian speaker here, I've just found out your channel and am really enjoying your content so far. I would like to make a little note about your pronunciation of 'ead, 'ands and 'ouse. It seems to me that you're putting a glottal stop in front of them which a native italian/french wouldn't do (if not for emphasis). A video about the use of glottal stop in English could also be very interesting.
Matteo Alberti -no problem with HJKX and Y in Italian -J K X and Y don't exist in Italian and can't think of H beginning any Italian words other than tenses of AVERE -ho ; hanno etc.
@@ronnieince4568 I think I don't understand your comment. H does appear in forms of "avere" just like you said, but (despite being etymological) it's silent and used only to discriminate words like o/ho, anno/hanno, ai/hai. H also appears in loanwords like "hamburger", "hobby", "hotel" and it's still never pronounced. Traditionally the article would be elided in front of words like these only if the H wasn't pronounced in the language the word is borrowed from, so "lo hamburger", "lo hobby", but "l'hotel" (since it's from French "hôtel"). Nowadays the article is always elided. J, K, X don't exist in words coming from latin, but they're present in loanwords (edit: or neologisms from Ancient Greek) like "jet", "jeans", "koala", "kiwi", "xilofono", "xenofobia", but they are usually pronounced normally since they represent phonemes Italian has. X can sometimes be hard to pronounce since /ks/ is not allowed by Italian phonotactics and is sometimes pronounced with a schwa breaking the consonant cluster.
@@matteoalberti602 yes but I did say real Italian words -not foreign words like hotel ; yacht , Jacuzzi etc My Italian dictionary has about 12 words beginning with H but all foreign words like hockey, handicap , hostess etc .For J only jazz, judo ; juta and Juventus etc K has only a dozen words -all foreign X the same and Y again all foreign words My teacher used to say Italian has 22 letters and 22.5 if you include all HJKXY borrowed words -only ever meet H in.avere tense. !!!
@@ronnieince4568 You're right, but I still don't get what your point is, I was talking about the pronunciation of the English phoneme /h/ by Italian natives. What does this have to do with the alphabet?
For what it's worth, I'm Irish and I grew up with everyone naturally saying it as the letter "haitch" and to be absolutely honest, it is logically and phonetically how it should be pronounced everywhere. And I still always and intentionally will say haitch because it just makes sense and hiberno english has got it right as far as I'm concerned on this one. When I visited my English cousins or vice versa and accents and pronunciation came up, I usually shut them up by making fun of ow they ad an ard time with everything that began with an "aitch" like 'arry or 'arold and so on. OK, so I had to work on my own "h" difficulties with pronunciation of "tree hundred and tirty tree" but I've kinda more or less got that nailed now. Although the cousin's "free undred and firty free" was always vomit even to my ears. Seriously, they made Eastenders sound like the Royal Shakespeare Company.
Sir you are a great teacher I appreciate your teaching technique, I request you to mention transcriptions as well, it will be more helpful for us Non-native speakers Thank you, I owe you one
I've noticed the pronunciation of the letter H itself in Ireland can be a little different, it sounds more like "haitch" than "aitch", so it has a somewhat more pronounced beginning. This is noticeable when speaking initialisms - for instance "a HTTP request" instead of "an HTTP request". I'm guessing this has something to do with the influence of Irish language pronunciation at some level. Would love to know more about it!
I clicked on this video thinking it was actually going to be all about this phenomenon - i.e. "aitch" or "haitch"! The latter is a common thing here in South Wales as well, and in some parts of England (I think it's traditionally more a 'lower class' thing, maybe?) too for that matter. I was brought up saying "aitch" by my London-born parents and had never heard "haitch" before we moved to Wales when I was a kid, but quickly realised it was a distinct difference in the way my new peers spoke after the move. Oddly, although I've always continued to use "aitch" myself, my mum these days will sometimes slip into "haitch" - she appears to have gone native after all this time!
We say it as "Haitch" in parts of Newfoundland, too. But, we also drop the "h" sound in words like house and head so it sounds like 'ouse and 'ead lol. And then, we add h to some words, too, that DON'T have them. 😅
From Newcastle and usually you hear 'Haitch', most of us are aware that southerners will consider our pronunciation incorrect or improper but it's so common up here that you'd pretty much be considered an arsehole for bringing somebody up on it. Just consider it a dialectical variation, at least that is how I feel about it.
Es muy cierto lo que usted dice sobre el uso de la H en cuanto a que nos crea confusión a los hispanohablantes. Ver sus vídeos y escuchar vuestra enseñanza es realmente interesante para una persona con 52 años que intenta aprender un poco de inglés. Gracias por compartir vuestra sabiduría lingüística! Le envío cordiales saludos desde Uruguay
Ese sonido de la H que el dice solo aplica al español de España, en Latino America la hacemos mas suave. Honestamente la J española ni yo la puedo hacer.
@@Tony32 there are variations in Latin America as well. My wife used to travel to most countries in Latin America, and encountered many variations in Spanish pronunciation.
I don't know if the russian [x] is pronounced in different words with the "k" more emphasized or if it's just about dialect, but for example the хорошо (kharashoo) found its way to finnish loan words (or funny words, I don't know what you'd call a word that you don't use as your common vocabulary but because of the close proximity and interaction with the neighbours and you either make fun or adopt the word for some situations) as "harasoo" because it can be so subtle. And sometimes there's definite "kh" in the russian words.
foolishly I started making those exact hand and arm movements when talking to people recently using those words. They appeared mildly disturbed, but tolerated me. Some actually walked away thinking I was suggesting they move on. Oh well...
Great guide, though it leaves out the assimilation of [hjuw]->[çuw] in words like "human" and "huge". Makes those particular sound sequences much easier to pronounce.
I'm not a native but I thought I could say the "h". I burst out laughing with the whisper-loud method, never saw an "h" coming and there it was, and it made me realize my "h"s are a bit harsh (castellano speaker)
In Ireland the "h" is always pronounced -- like as in "hay". We even say haitch instead of aitch. Because it is pronounced, for me, it's "a house", "a horse", etc..
@@sdrtcacgnrjrcI think that’s due to the way it’s taught, or not taught in school. Whilst phonetically it might make sense to use ‘haitch’ because of the examples you cited like ‘house’ or ‘horse’, we don’t apply the same logic to the letter ‘s’, pronouncing it as ‘ess’ rather than ‘sess’, even though that’s the phonetic sound.
Being a native English speaker who has been learning both French and Russian, I think it’s pretty cool how the same sounds are represented by different letters in each language. The French R closely matches the English K and/or W. The Russian Р closely matches the Spanish D. The Russian В closely matches the English V. The Russian Х is like the English H and the French R had a baby. Russian uses a У for the English U, but the French U is more like the English YU or the Russian Ю. Etc, etc.
> The Russian В closely matches the English V I mean, they would be the same letter if the Greek had one back in the day and then the Romans refrained from shuffling Greek letters around so much when borrowing into Latin. > The Russian Р closely matches the Spanish D. Did you mean Russian ‘Д‘? Which again is a borrowing from Greek Δ (delta), mangled by Etruscans and then Romans in Latin. Russian/Greek ‘Р’ properly corresponds to Latin-languages ‘R’, but with caveats. Close to rolled/trilled ‘R’ of Italian and Spanish. > Russian uses a У for the English U These both descend from Greek ‘Υ’ (upsilon), but via ‘V’ in Latin before they developed ‘U’.
Some years ago I was told by my Russian teacher that the one place that Russian does have the "h" sound is in the interjection "Ага!," which is pronounced like English "aha!" (The letter "г" is otherwise pronounced like a "g.")
I'm bilingual (French and Portuguese) and I'm an English learner. I know all the IPA symbols of these three languages. I would like to learn how to say others sounds such as : [c] and [ɟ], [q] and [ɢ], [ç] and [ʝ], [x] and [ɣ], [χ] and [ʁ], [ħ] and [ʕ]. At last I would like to be able to say this Dutch sound [ʋ]. Can you show me how to produce all these sounds? Among all these sounds I referred wich ones are Arabic sounds? Thank you very much!
Thanks, that was interesting) In Ukrainian, in addition to the consonants g and h ("ґ" and "х" in Cyrillic alphabet), we have a bonus-letter -- "г" -- that is something in between. It sounds a lot like English h, in contrast to Russian "х". Soft and breath-like. English h is just a bit lighter =) So, for Ukrainian speakers it's so much easier to pronounce English h.
This is misleading. I know because I'm from Ukraine and I teach ESL, the American variety. Ukrainian h & gh (х, г) are both far too harsh to stand in for an English 'h' sound. I stll have a rough edge to my h after many years in the US and have to work hard with my students to wean them off that Khome, Khands pronunciation.
@@mentalitydesignvideo are you a native speaker? Ukrainian has these three letters, Kh, strong H, and G (Х, Г, Ґ). If you listen to Ukrainian diaspora pronunciation, you can hear that their Г is similar to H. Anyway, that's the closest letter we have.
They are from Birmingham. Seriously, though, II am from the South and speak RP or whatever it is called now.. I live in Gloucestershire now and my children were taught by a teacher from Birmingham. They now say "haitch" despite my protestations. It is ingrained. Isn't it funny though that the name of the letter does not have the breathy "h" initial sound in our world? A bit like "abbreviation" being a very long word!
@@pdmayton Oh no, don't take my anecdote as gospel! There are those who say in Northern Ireland it is Catholics who say "haitch" and Protestants who say "aitch". It could just as easily be a class thing. There is an article on this subject available on line by Michael Rosen on the subject you might find interesting. He wrote a book Alphabetical: How Every Letter Tells A Story a lovely read.
@Legion I'm with you. Adding an aspiration in the front requires more effort. It is true that it adds the sound of the letter at the front, that may be the best argument for. That being said, I'd rather go for efficiency.
i didn't know that scottish "ch" is pronounced exactly like german "ch"! "Loch" is german for "hole", so every time i've heard "Loch Ness", i thought about a "Water hole named Ness"
Damn, I didn’t know h is like an initial whisper to a final phonation, so preserving the resonance of the “next” (since it is only phonemically separated) vowel. Is this what is called offsetting?
As a native Yorkshireman, I find myself in the same camp as the French. What is this mysterious aitch of which you speak? I'm 'olding my 'ead in my 'ands, 'ere in my 'ouse, 'appy to 'ave no use for such a sound!
I would be interested to hear your views about use of the indefinite article before words beginning with an aspirated aitch. Is it "a hotel" or is it "an hotel"? Is it "an horrific attack" (as recently appeared on the BBC news website) or is it "a horrific attack"?
I think both are possible. The key issue is the stressing of the following syllable. You might like to look at a blog post I wrote on this topic some time ago: www.englishspeechservices.com/pronunciation/an-wholehearted-assurance/
@Legion Thanks for your very interesting comments, even though I don't entirely agree with them. The fact is that, except for the word 'honourable', in modern English the 'h' is pronounced and so the word should be preceded by 'a' and not 'an'. Those (Latin?) words that came to English via French have long since been anglicised and should be treated accordingly. You'll have to go a long way to find an Englishman who's prepared to accept advice from the French about how he should speak. Here's HW Fowler on the subject in 1926, (revised by Sir Ernest Gowers in 1965): ' "A" is used before all consonants except silent h (a history, an hour); "an" was formerly usual before an unaccented syllable beginning with h and is still often seen and heard (an historian, an hotel, an habitual offender). But now that the h in such words is pronounced the distinction has become anomalous and will no doubt disappear in time. Meantime speakers who like to say "an" should not try to have it both ways by aspirating the h.'
@Legion I think most native English speakers nowadays would say 'a hotel'. Again, I go with 'Fowler's Modern English Usage' which has a brief entry under the word: 'The old-fashioned pronunciation with the 'h' silent is almost dead, though 'an otel' may still be heard, perhaps because it is less trouble to say than 'a hotel'. My 'linguistic politics' lean heavily towards the Queen's English which I believe usually aspirates the 'h', except in heir, hour, honour etc..
@@stephenpain9236 The word 'herb' is usually pronounced differently between the American and British versions of English. Even though it is French in origin, in the UK I have almost never heard it pronounced as erb.
@@tt-ew7rx You're absolutely right. The only people in the UK who say 'erb are Rastafarians; and they're not talking about parsley, sage, rosemary and thyme.
The demonstrated contrasts between the pronunciations and mispronunciations really drive home the lesson that there is a correct way to pronounce English sounds and other ways that are understood but which immediately call-out to people, “He’s a native speaker of a language other than English.” The only point here is that this minor distraction can move the focus of the listener from the meaning of the message to, “I wonder which country he’s from?” When we’re simply trying to be understood, waving a placard above our head “Guess Where I’m From” doesn’t help. And, from my point of view, it’s the only reason to speak standard blank-English…I prefer British English even as a European-born American. Thank you Dr. Geoff for nailing the teaching of pronunciation - the functional component and the excellent and effective method of comparison (more accurately contrast) which really drives home the point: Does pronunciation matter? Do you want to sound like this (standard English) or like that (using sounds from one’s mother-tongue)? Epiphany here!!!!!!!!!!
And then there's haiche. I've heard it used by an English immigrant to Canada and also Aussie in Australia who may well have emigrated from the same local area.
Aspirated consonants have an open glottis, and ejectives have a closed glottis. Please see my video on ejectives: czcams.com/video/rP0-MfE4zbA/video.html
@@mattt.4395 perhaps you are. If it's transliterated "k" or "h" it is pretty much guaranteed to be pronounced wrong. "Kh" at least indicates it's not a regular English phoneme.
I'm a non-native and I pronounce i.e. HR like "eighth aa(r)", which I always thought is a correct way for letter H, however I've noticed that most of native English speakers pronounce like "heighth aa(r)" so they do pronounce the sound H. I hope you know what I mean
That's right - the 'standard' way of saying the letter H is "aitch" but a lot of people say "haitch" instead. Both ways are perfectly fine but "aitch" is a more formal way of saying it 😄
I'm Irish and in hiberno english we say haitch and in every way as far as I'm concerned it makes much more sense and logic than aitch. So it's always "haitch arr" here in Ireland and never "aitch arr". Now of course we do have our own difficulties with pronouncing the "h" in things like "tree hundred and tirty-tree" but at least we don't end up with "free undred and firty-free" like some of my english cousins.
@@abheeforeveryoung Unfortunately not. I don't seem to have it myself; I will try to contact the producer. Of course it was a long time ago. Did you see it when it was first shown?
3:36 what's wrong with I [əv] to ask? Moreover, in fluent American speech, I almost never hear the h sound in expressions like "I have sth, I have to."
I'm so glad you did this video and showed the correct pronunciation of the letter itself with the spelling Aitch. I've lost count the number of people who pronounce it Haitch and then try and correct me when I pronounce it properly. I try and tell them they're wrong but they don't believe me. I'll direct them to this video in future.
Its been called haitch for a thousand years and almost every other letter contains the sound (or atleast one of the sounds) it makes A,B,C,D,E,F,G,(H?),I,J,K,L,M,N,O,P,Q,(R depends on accent),S,T,U,V,X,Y,Z Just missing W which used to be Wynn So why would H be any different And just to be more clear letters no long in use did it as well Þ (used to be a letter that mad TH sound pronounced as thorn),& (used to be a letter that made the sound and and would be used to replace the word and it was pronounced Ampersand), and Ƿ (Wynn as mentioned above), Đ ( different Th pronounced as That (in old english (but more commonly know as Eth))), Æ ( the a in Ash) So why would H be different
English is not my first language. I work in an international team. They say my English is quite good, but one of my British colleagues had no clue what I was talking about when I used the word "aitch". When she figured it out, she corrected me and said that it's pronounced "haitch". 🙃
I used to get my students to pant like an overheated dog, to try to understand the sound. I noticed that Spanish speakers also had trouble with W. Somehow they would often through in a bit of a G, so you get Gwould, not Would.
Is it a local variation how the actual letter is pronounced, not in a word but in the alphabet? I've heard multiple English people pronounce it with the h in the beginning and was very surprised...
@@hughn May i ask why? Is it an accent or uneducated or posh or what? I'd love to understand, please! English is not my first language, I'm genuinely interested
@@bacul165 It was the case that 'haitch' indicated that the speaker was uneducated and teachers used to correct instances of 'aitch'. Over time, the increasing use of 'haitch' is just another degradation in diction and pronunciation in the UK - whatever is easier for the speaker to say, rather than what might be easiest for the listener. In written text it is punctuation that is the writer's courtesy to the reader; in spoken communication it is the speaker's diction and pronunciation that is a courtesy to the listener. Nobody cares anymore! 😞
@@hughn OK thanks a lot for your answer! Although I don't really get your point as I don't see how "haitch" would be easier to pronounce or harder to understand. (Seems more a bit of a class/generational thing from the outside.)
It's because some uneducated people mistakenly think the word "aitch" begins with an h. It doesn't. They reason, "It must begin with an h because it describes an h", which is nonsense. If that were true, where's the w in double u?
I would think that H is an H everywhere except when it sounds like your throat has been slit. Your impression of Russian has a normal H followed by an "evil E". If there is a difference between the H, it is overshadowed by the other properties of the accent.
But I heard words derived from Spanish language that have letter 'j' is pronounced with the sound of 'h' instead of 'j' sound. For example: jalapeño, Fajita and Mojito etc.
![IELTS Listening Practice Test 2024 with Answers [Real Exam - 494 ]](http://i.ytimg.com/vi/OjpfMYrYHu8/mqdefault.jpg)
that russian accent mimicking was uncannily accurate......... and the intonations..
Same with the Scouse! Though, I suppose you being a native helps!!
Perhaps we could get a video on Scouse in the future? :)
Русский акцент был идеальным! Браво!
Yes. As a former student of Russian, in high school, I can confirm: It’s very Russian. 🇷🇺
Russian is an accent I love to use… it also has been difficult for me. I’ve becoming a voice actor. Great insight here. Scouse should be easy but I battle northern accents of all the many varieties. I can do Manchester/Leeds, although not at the clip my speedy friends go. Love English accents from all over, I just don’t know exactly what they’re doing (or saying!).
The good Drs. videos help.
@@papadopp3870 There are 2 main accents in Leeds, one is Leeds and one is Yorkshire 😂
Your second language accents in this video were absolutely nailed, not at all caricaturistic, and genuinely helpful for comparison purposes. Love it!
Especially Russian, wow
Thanks so much.
@@Muzikman127 Да! I agree. 🇷🇺
I hope I'm not being disrespectful, but I can't help but think "that is a big fat yes". 😄
As someone who teaches in a trilingual school, (Eng/Spa/Rus), this was very helpful. I had never made the connection or comparison between the Spanish/Russian x/х phonemes.
Thank you very much!
I never realized the difference between Spanish x and Russian x.
Btw, there's quite a lot of native Spanish speakers who pronounce their x, j, ge & gi pretty much like English h.
Also, quite a large number of native Spanish speakers pronounce their -s like an H, so you end up with words like "eHpañol" or "caHtellano" referring to the language.
Thank you! Yes, it's simplistic to describe only one form of jota. I've made several trips to Argentina so I've heard a lot of "caHteSHano"!
Wow, I didn't know that substituting H for S was a thing in Spanish!
I discovered the same phenomenon a few years ago in a totally unrelated language that I was looking into at the time, namely: Seychellois Creole (aka Kreol Seselwa). A phrase such as Komsa (derived from the French: Comme Ça) is increasingly being pronounced as Kom-ha in recent years (despite the H sound not previously even existing in that language!).
Many other words are also losing their long-standing traditional pronunciation, such as "Desann" (originating from the French: Descendre) which is now being pronounced as "day-hun" instead of the traditional "day-sun".
H seems like such an unlikely sound to replace an S sound with, so I assumed that no other languages would be likely to do it, but I have been proved wrong.
@@zyndr_ never heard it in Spain, the j/ge/gi sound has more air behind it than English h, but none of the Spanish English learners I talk to exaggerate h in English. In general they speak too smooth.
@@zyndr_ Historically, Proto-Indo-European *s has also turned into /h/ word-finally after a vowel in Sanskrit and word-initially before a vowel in Ancient Greek.
Now that I think of it, the [s] > [h] has a kind of a parallel in English. In Spanish, [s] jumping to [h] is an unvoiced spirant jumping from behind the teeth to the throat. In English, when the /t/ in a word like 'bottle' becomes a glottal stop it is an unvoiced stop jumping from behind the teeth to the throat.
Your foreign accents are so spot on, it's amazing! I'm sure it comes from years of experience teaching students of those languages, and in depth understanding of the linguistics involved. In particular, I adore your Russian accent, as I have NEVER heard a non-Russian English speaker get it so right! The intonation! Oh the intonation! Oh it's like the beautiful voice of my Russian mother! Молодец!
I love how the Doctor breaks accents down to their component parts, showing how the locals of… everywhere…sound as they do.
LOL I've been speaking fluent English my whole life and did the exercises and got excited when you said "and now, the fun part." I love these videos!! 😆😆😆
As a native speaker of Spanish from Spain, I think Spanish "j" isn't so strong for most speakers. Maybe it is in some particular areas in the centre. But I think that I and most of the Spaniards pronounce "j" the way you explained Russian "kh". In southern Spain and in Latinamerica, it is even just like English "h", or at least very similar.
I am Dutch and I will probably transfer my dutch g to the spanish j and I have been windsurfing in tarifa, so I learned that -H- as in ¡Hola! is actually pronounced in Andalucía as the only place in the roman empire where it has survived.
@@klaasdeboer8106 Not really. "H" in Andalucía is not pronounced, except by some people in some words that had "f" in Latin, not "h" in Latin.
I never heard an andalusian person pronouncing /'hola/.
@@SantiagoLopez-fq4eb Uhh Dutch doesn't have /h/ either, it uses /ɦ/
Yeah and most Spanish speakers here in Southern California seem to omit the H entirely like French and Spanish speakers do.
@@ShonnMorrisThat is a general feature of Spanish. H’s are not pronounced.
this is pure gold! Thank you very much for this great hint about breathing + whisper!
I will now use it in comparison, especially with the Russian [х]:
- English pronounce "hi" as if they are breathing freely and then vocalise their breath with joy and excitement!
- Russians pronounce "hi" as if their breathing is troubled and then they vocalise the trouble...
"HI HAM 'APPY" ... I've heard that phrase soooo many times in Italy!!!
As someone who grew up in the Merseyside area and have been learning Russian as a hobby for some years now, your pronunciation demonstrations in this video were a double delight!
Thank you for this informative video. I'm a native speaker of Germany and didn't have any problems with the English aitch sound but your demonstrations of the Spanish and Russian substitutes made me realize my pronounciation mistakes in Russian, because German also has [χ] but not [x].
Came to the comments to say how impressively accurate your foreign pronunciations of English words are only to discover lots of other people noticed too. Also thanks for covering the distinction between Spanish and Russian versions, TIL!
So pleased to find this. I was always taught aitch, and only a few months ago on utube got it some arguments with those that wanted to sound H, i could not make them see. I was always taught at school, many yeras ago now, that aitch was the only letter in the alphabet that did not sound its self.
Your Russian accent is perfect and the more I watch your videos, the more I see what it consists of. Here it's wrong h, wrong strong o in the end, and a wrong e too, and intonation. Just basically хэлло.
And I've just listened to a video with a fluent Russian accent and realized there are no weak forms there, but instead some more random parts of words are muffled. That's what I should be improving in my own speech too.
Here in Southern California Spanish speakers tend to omit the H entire like French and Italian speakers do, pronoucing words like "highland" just like "island" and the sound they do have which is made by the letter J sounds just like the English H. That guttaral sound is made by the soft G like in the words Gila and general.
This is an excellent video for teachers and students alike. Your information is well sourced and extremely useful for teaching English pronunciation to non-natives. Thanks a lot for the video :=)
You're awesome! I really like your comparisons between Italian, Spanish and Russian.
In Latin America we use a jota softer than in Spain. Furthermore, the Caribbean jota is pretty close to the English h.
True.
There are some English dialects that do say thing like "hever 'appen" but they're very regionalized
Great video very helpful
I'm really so glad to live on the same planet as a virtuoso of english language like Dr. Geoff Lindsey.
If only I could find it while I was a student!
I am less prone to English mistakes than my fellow Frenchs because I used to pay attention in class... But it is also true that I may fall back in what is easy for me, time to time when I am lazy. I think the thing that betrays first that english is a second language, is my non-typical stress pattern.
That's an incredible explanation
Thank you
SE Louisiana here. I use hard h for hat and head. I recommend your videos.
This was great to watch.
Fantastic differentiation between the Spanish and the Scottish [x]!
As a portuguese speaker from Brazil learning english, that was super useful! Thank you so much! Congrats for the job!
Isn't it the same as a Brazilian Portuguese r at the start of a word, like Rio?
Thank you Dr. Geoff.
Hi @Dr Geoff Lindsey,
Native Italian speaker here, I've just found out your channel and am really enjoying your content so far.
I would like to make a little note about your pronunciation of 'ead, 'ands and 'ouse. It seems to me that you're putting a glottal stop in front of them which a native italian/french wouldn't do (if not for emphasis).
A video about the use of glottal stop in English could also be very interesting.
Matteo Alberti -no problem with HJKX and Y in Italian -J K X and Y don't exist in Italian and can't think of H beginning any Italian words other than tenses of AVERE -ho ; hanno etc.
@@ronnieince4568 I think I don't understand your comment. H does appear in forms of "avere" just like you said, but (despite being etymological) it's silent and used only to discriminate words like o/ho, anno/hanno, ai/hai. H also appears in loanwords like "hamburger", "hobby", "hotel" and it's still never pronounced. Traditionally the article would be elided in front of words like these only if the H wasn't pronounced in the language the word is borrowed from, so "lo hamburger", "lo hobby", but "l'hotel" (since it's from French "hôtel"). Nowadays the article is always elided.
J, K, X don't exist in words coming from latin, but they're present in loanwords (edit: or neologisms from Ancient Greek) like "jet", "jeans", "koala", "kiwi", "xilofono", "xenofobia", but they are usually pronounced normally since they represent phonemes Italian has. X can sometimes be hard to pronounce since /ks/ is not allowed by Italian phonotactics and is sometimes pronounced with a schwa breaking the consonant cluster.
@@matteoalberti602 yes but I did say real Italian words -not foreign words like hotel ; yacht , Jacuzzi etc My Italian dictionary has about 12 words beginning with H but all foreign words like hockey, handicap , hostess etc .For J only jazz, judo ; juta and Juventus etc K has only a dozen words -all foreign X the same and Y again all foreign words My teacher used to say Italian has 22 letters and 22.5 if you include all HJKXY borrowed words -only ever meet H in.avere tense. !!!
@@ronnieince4568 You're right, but I still don't get what your point is, I was talking about the pronunciation of the English phoneme /h/ by Italian natives. What does this have to do with the alphabet?
@@matteoalberti602 ah yes Italians don't use the H sound as in English 'hydro becomes 'idro" the H is mute .
I'm a spanish speaker, and I never thouht of it this way. I just threw air into it and hoped for the best.
By the way, your "jelo, jau ar iu, i am veri japi" was perfect
Awesome video. Genius imitation of Russian pronunciation. It was absolutely identical. My native language is Russian.
It was of a great use, thank you!
Brilliant! I would like to see more of these. Maybe some vowels and different types of consonants?
Many thanks for the comment. Meanwhile happy holidays!
After too long a break, I thought you might like to know that I've made some new videos!
For what it's worth, I'm Irish and I grew up with everyone naturally saying it as the letter "haitch" and to be absolutely honest, it is logically and phonetically how it should be pronounced everywhere. And I still always and intentionally will say haitch because it just makes sense and hiberno english has got it right as far as I'm concerned on this one.
When I visited my English cousins or vice versa and accents and pronunciation came up, I usually shut them up by making fun of ow they ad an ard time with everything that began with an "aitch" like 'arry or 'arold and so on.
OK, so I had to work on my own "h" difficulties with pronunciation of "tree hundred and tirty tree" but I've kinda more or less got that nailed now.
Although the cousin's "free undred and firty free" was always vomit even to my ears.
Seriously, they made Eastenders sound like the Royal Shakespeare Company.
Sir you are a great teacher
I appreciate your teaching technique, I request you to mention transcriptions as well, it will be more helpful for us Non-native speakers
Thank you, I owe you one
Thank you for your kind words and suggestion. By the way, I've uploaded some new videos on stress and intonation.
Great job.
I've noticed the pronunciation of the letter H itself in Ireland can be a little different, it sounds more like "haitch" than "aitch", so it has a somewhat more pronounced beginning.
This is noticeable when speaking initialisms - for instance "a HTTP request" instead of "an HTTP request".
I'm guessing this has something to do with the influence of Irish language pronunciation at some level. Would love to know more about it!
I clicked on this video thinking it was actually going to be all about this phenomenon - i.e. "aitch" or "haitch"!
The latter is a common thing here in South Wales as well, and in some parts of England (I think it's traditionally more a 'lower class' thing, maybe?) too for that matter. I was brought up saying "aitch" by my London-born parents and had never heard "haitch" before we moved to Wales when I was a kid, but quickly realised it was a distinct difference in the way my new peers spoke after the move.
Oddly, although I've always continued to use "aitch" myself, my mum these days will sometimes slip into "haitch" - she appears to have gone native after all this time!
you hear "haitch" as opposed to "aitch" in scotland as well
We say it as "Haitch" in parts of Newfoundland, too. But, we also drop the "h" sound in words like house and head so it sounds like 'ouse and 'ead lol. And then, we add h to some words, too, that DON'T have them. 😅
A lot of Australians pronounce "Haitch", New Zealanders; no
From Newcastle and usually you hear 'Haitch', most of us are aware that southerners will consider our pronunciation incorrect or improper but it's so common up here that you'd pretty much be considered an arsehole for bringing somebody up on it. Just consider it a dialectical variation, at least that is how I feel about it.
Es muy cierto lo que usted dice sobre el uso de la H en cuanto a que nos crea confusión a los hispanohablantes. Ver sus vídeos y escuchar vuestra enseñanza es realmente interesante para una persona con 52 años que intenta aprender un poco de inglés. Gracias por compartir vuestra sabiduría lingüística! Le envío cordiales saludos desde Uruguay
Ese sonido de la H que el dice solo aplica al español de España, en Latino America la hacemos mas suave.
Honestamente la J española ni yo la puedo hacer.
@@Tony32 there are variations in Latin America as well. My wife used to travel to most countries in Latin America, and encountered many variations in Spanish pronunciation.
I feel like he's a yoga instructor, just for the mouth. And I get the same feeling watching yoga videos "yeah, right" 😂
I don't know if the russian [x] is pronounced in different words with the "k" more emphasized or if it's just about dialect, but for example the хорошо (kharashoo) found its way to finnish loan words (or funny words, I don't know what you'd call a word that you don't use as your common vocabulary but because of the close proximity and interaction with the neighbours and you either make fun or adopt the word for some situations) as "harasoo" because it can be so subtle. And sometimes there's definite "kh" in the russian words.
foolishly I started making those exact hand and arm movements when talking to people recently using those words. They appeared mildly disturbed, but tolerated me. Some actually walked away thinking I was suggesting they move on. Oh well...
Great guide, though it leaves out the assimilation of [hjuw]->[çuw] in words like "human" and "huge". Makes those particular sound sequences much easier to pronounce.
Thank you for this!
You're welcome!
I'm not a native but I thought I could say the "h". I burst out laughing with the whisper-loud method, never saw an "h" coming and there it was, and it made me realize my "h"s are a bit harsh (castellano speaker)
Lol you must be a great russian speaker))
And that loooch)) would definitely create feedback in Russia))
Thank you! I think it was a compliment :)
the way Italian speakers pronounce words with and without /h/ was very accurate too
Never knew I can consider myself lucky to have that h and even ch in my native language from the start.
Thank you for the brilliant lesson!
Thank you for your kind words!
You might like to know that I've made some new videos!
In Ireland the "h" is always pronounced -- like as in "hay". We even say haitch instead of aitch. Because it is pronounced, for me, it's "a house", "a horse", etc..
Probably also worth noting that in many English accents, the h isn't pronounced.
@@sdrtcacgnrjrcI think that’s due to the way it’s taught, or not taught in school. Whilst phonetically it might make sense to use ‘haitch’ because of the examples you cited like ‘house’ or ‘horse’, we don’t apply the same logic to the letter ‘s’, pronouncing it as ‘ess’ rather than ‘sess’, even though that’s the phonetic sound.
Brilliant!
This taught me more about how to sound Russian than English 😂
In Belfast, and other parts of N.I. it is an easy method to determine Catholic/Protestant background: haitch for the former.
Being a native English speaker who has been learning both French and Russian, I think it’s pretty cool how the same sounds are represented by different letters in each language. The French R closely matches the English K and/or W. The Russian Р closely matches the Spanish D. The Russian В closely matches the English V. The Russian Х is like the English H and the French R had a baby. Russian uses a У for the English U, but the French U is more like the English YU or the Russian Ю. Etc, etc.
> The Russian В closely matches the English V
I mean, they would be the same letter if the Greek had one back in the day and then the Romans refrained from shuffling Greek letters around so much when borrowing into Latin.
> The Russian Р closely matches the Spanish D.
Did you mean Russian ‘Д‘? Which again is a borrowing from Greek Δ (delta), mangled by Etruscans and then Romans in Latin.
Russian/Greek ‘Р’ properly corresponds to Latin-languages ‘R’, but with caveats. Close to rolled/trilled ‘R’ of Italian and Spanish.
> Russian uses a У for the English U
These both descend from Greek ‘Υ’ (upsilon), but via ‘V’ in Latin before they developed ‘U’.
This guy knows what he's talking about.
Some years ago I was told by my Russian teacher that the one place that Russian does have the "h" sound is in the interjection "Ага!," which is pronounced like English "aha!" (The letter "г" is otherwise pronounced like a "g.")
I swear when I was in primary school - bout 12 yrs ago, the pronounciation of this letter --> ‘H’ randomly went from ‘haich’ to ‘aich’ one day 😭😭🤣
I'm bilingual (French and Portuguese) and I'm an English learner. I know all the IPA symbols of these three languages. I would like to learn how to say others sounds such as : [c] and [ɟ], [q] and [ɢ], [ç] and [ʝ], [x] and [ɣ], [χ] and [ʁ], [ħ] and [ʕ]. At last I would like to be able to say this Dutch sound [ʋ]. Can you show me how to produce all these sounds? Among all these sounds I referred wich ones are Arabic sounds? Thank you very much!
pretty much all are somewhat arabic except for the first two and G
Thanks, that was interesting) In Ukrainian, in addition to the consonants g and h ("ґ" and "х" in Cyrillic alphabet), we have a bonus-letter -- "г" -- that is something in between. It sounds a lot like English h, in contrast to Russian "х". Soft and breath-like. English h is just a bit lighter =) So, for Ukrainian speakers it's so much easier to pronounce English h.
It is a voiced /h/, i.e. [ɦ]
@@troelspeterroland6998 yeah, I guess you're right)
This is misleading. I know because I'm from Ukraine and I teach ESL, the American variety.
Ukrainian h & gh (х, г) are both far too harsh to stand in for an English 'h' sound. I stll have a rough edge to my h after many years in the US and have to work hard with my students to wean them off that Khome, Khands pronunciation.
@@mentalitydesignvideo are you a native speaker? Ukrainian has these three letters, Kh, strong H, and G (Х, Г, Ґ). If you listen to Ukrainian diaspora pronunciation, you can hear that their Г is similar to H. Anyway, that's the closest letter we have.
@@Viky.A.V. yes and the diaspora talks funny anyway
Can you make a video on why we need a "t" in "aitch", "stretch", "stitch", etc
Brilliant thank you!
Thank you Bastien!
I hope you're well, Bastien. I thought you might like to know that I've uploaded some new videos.
If I hadn't been watching you I would have thought there were four people speaking.
I was hoping to finally learn why the Brits I've encountered all say 'heytch' instead of 'aitch'. I was disappointed. Someone educate me.
They are from Birmingham. Seriously, though, II am from the South and speak RP or whatever it is called now.. I live in Gloucestershire now and my children were taught by a teacher from Birmingham. They now say "haitch" despite my protestations. It is ingrained. Isn't it funny though that the name of the letter does not have the breathy "h" initial sound in our world? A bit like "abbreviation" being a very long word!
@@Lily-Bravo Thank you! Mystery solved!
@@pdmayton Oh no, don't take my anecdote as gospel! There are those who say in Northern Ireland it is Catholics who say "haitch" and Protestants who say "aitch". It could just as easily be a class thing. There is an article on this subject available on line by Michael Rosen on the subject you might find interesting. He wrote a book Alphabetical: How Every Letter Tells A Story a lovely read.
Aitch is traditional. Haitch is easier to say and includes the sound of the letter, so it's becoming much more common.
@Legion I'm with you. Adding an aspiration in the front requires more effort. It is true that it adds the sound of the letter at the front, that may be the best argument for. That being said, I'd rather go for efficiency.
Or for an example of the Spanish style aitch, listen to Manuel in Fawlty Towers.
Aitches are only used for job interviews and such in Yorkshire.
i didn't know that scottish "ch" is pronounced exactly like german "ch"! "Loch" is german for "hole", so every time i've heard "Loch Ness", i thought about a "Water hole named Ness"
Near enough ha ha
Don’t forget there’s a ch sound in Welsh too.
Damn, I didn’t know h is like an initial whisper to a final phonation, so preserving the resonance of the “next” (since it is only phonemically separated) vowel. Is this what is called offsetting?
Not sure I follow your whisper explanation for the aitch sound. I would call it more of a huff!
Lex Fridman still does this [х]ow instead of 'how'
Super! Thks
As a native Yorkshireman, I find myself in the same camp as the French. What is this mysterious aitch of which you speak? I'm 'olding my 'ead in my 'ands, 'ere in my 'ouse, 'appy to 'ave no use for such a sound!
I would be interested to hear your views about use of the indefinite article before words beginning with an aspirated aitch. Is it "a hotel" or is it "an hotel"? Is it "an horrific attack" (as recently appeared on the BBC news website) or is it "a horrific attack"?
I think both are possible. The key issue is the stressing of the following syllable. You might like to look at a blog post I wrote on this topic some time ago: www.englishspeechservices.com/pronunciation/an-wholehearted-assurance/
@Legion Thanks for your very interesting comments, even though I don't entirely agree with them. The fact is that, except for the word 'honourable', in modern English the 'h' is pronounced and so the word should be preceded by 'a' and not 'an'. Those (Latin?) words that came to English via French have long since been anglicised and should be treated accordingly. You'll have to go a long way to find an Englishman who's prepared to accept advice from the French about how he should speak. Here's HW Fowler on the subject in 1926, (revised by Sir Ernest Gowers in 1965): ' "A" is used before all consonants except silent h (a history, an hour); "an" was formerly usual before an unaccented syllable beginning with h and is still often seen and heard (an historian, an hotel, an habitual offender). But now that the h in such words is pronounced the distinction has become anomalous and will no doubt disappear in time. Meantime speakers who like to say "an" should not try to have it both ways by aspirating the h.'
@Legion I think most native English speakers nowadays would say 'a hotel'. Again, I go with 'Fowler's Modern English Usage' which has a brief entry under the word: 'The old-fashioned pronunciation with the 'h' silent is almost dead, though 'an otel' may still be heard, perhaps because it is less trouble to say than 'a hotel'. My 'linguistic politics' lean heavily towards the Queen's English which I believe usually aspirates the 'h', except in heir, hour, honour etc..
@@stephenpain9236 The word 'herb' is usually pronounced differently between the American and British versions of English. Even though it is French in origin, in the UK I have almost never heard it pronounced as erb.
@@tt-ew7rx You're absolutely right. The only people in the UK who say 'erb are Rastafarians; and they're not talking about parsley, sage, rosemary and thyme.
My Portuguese friend says harms ( arms) and highbrow (eyebrow)but can't use h when it actually is s the first letter in a eord
Un arabic there is a letter equivalent to H but is a bit différent it's هاء but I think the english H is a mixture between arabic هاء and حاء
The demonstrated contrasts between the pronunciations and mispronunciations really drive home the lesson that there is a correct way to pronounce English sounds and other ways that are understood but which immediately call-out to people, “He’s a native speaker of a language other than English.” The only point here is that this minor distraction can move the focus of the listener from the meaning of the message to, “I wonder which country he’s from?” When we’re simply trying to be understood, waving a placard above our head “Guess Where I’m From” doesn’t help. And, from my point of view, it’s the only reason to speak standard blank-English…I prefer British English even as a European-born American. Thank you Dr. Geoff for nailing the teaching of pronunciation - the functional component and the excellent and effective method of comparison (more accurately contrast) which really drives home the point: Does pronunciation matter? Do you want to sound like this (standard English) or like that (using sounds from one’s mother-tongue)? Epiphany here!!!!!!!!!!
And then there's haiche. I've heard it used by an English immigrant to Canada and also Aussie in Australia who may well have emigrated from the same local area.
i'm curious about the aitch, but ended up having a russian accent
Tank you
Uncannily like Manuel!
What's the difference between aspirated consonants and ejectives?
Aspirated consonants have an open glottis, and ejectives have a closed glottis. Please see my video on ejectives: czcams.com/video/rP0-MfE4zbA/video.html
@@DrGeoffLindsey Thank you very much.
thats why dutch is the perfect language to start with. we have all the "sounds" its just a matter of adoptation
Dutch doesn't have aspirated consonants, which are explicitly required in English (Unless you're speaking Boer dialect)
Funny😁 Especially for a German
But do you say 'go to a hotel" or "go to an 'otel" ?
In Chinese, thw Mandarin "h" is pronounced like the Russian "kh", and the Cantonese "h" like in English.
am i the only one who cringes at the transliteration "kh" (and how English speakers pronounce it as "k")?
@@mattt.4395 perhaps you are. If it's transliterated "k" or "h" it is pretty much guaranteed to be pronounced wrong. "Kh" at least indicates it's not a regular English phoneme.
普通话的h感觉好像有后移的趋势？没有俄语的那么前
@@Boots_n_cats 是有的，不过目前还是在/x/的范围
As a Russian I was surprised how good his "Russian kh" was 😄 Sounded like a real Russian with a bad accent
I'm a non-native and I pronounce i.e. HR like "eighth aa(r)", which I always thought is a correct way for letter H, however I've noticed that most of native English speakers pronounce like "heighth aa(r)" so they do pronounce the sound H. I hope you know what I mean
That's right - the 'standard' way of saying the letter H is "aitch" but a lot of people say "haitch" instead. Both ways are perfectly fine but "aitch" is a more formal way of saying it 😄
I'm Irish and in hiberno english we say haitch and in every way as far as I'm concerned it makes much more sense and logic than aitch.
So it's always "haitch arr" here in Ireland and never "aitch arr".
Now of course we do have our own difficulties with pronouncing the "h" in things like "tree hundred and tirty-tree" but at least we don't end up with "free undred and firty-free" like some of my english cousins.
Will you please 🙏 upload David Beckham's lookalike video from celebrity double show?
My goodness, you remember that? I'll see, but I can't promise anything.
@@DrGeoffLindsey please 🙏
@@DrGeoffLindsey sir you found a video I've been looking for?
@@abheeforeveryoung Unfortunately not. I don't seem to have it myself; I will try to contact the producer. Of course it was a long time ago. Did you see it when it was first shown?
@@DrGeoffLindsey I was barely 14 years old when it was aired in India, so many years ago. I appreciate your efforts. 🙏 Thank you.
3:36 what's wrong with I [əv] to ask? Moreover, in fluent American speech, I almost never hear the h sound in expressions like "I have sth, I have to."
I usually say "I've got sth"
In general, /hav/ is used for the main verb meaning 'possess' and /(h)əv/ is used for the auxiliary ve
I'm so glad you did this video and showed the correct pronunciation of the letter itself with the spelling Aitch. I've lost count the number of people who pronounce it Haitch and then try and correct me when I pronounce it properly. I try and tell them they're wrong but they don't believe me. I'll direct them to this video in future.
Its been called haitch for a thousand years and almost every other letter contains the sound (or atleast one of the sounds) it makes
A,B,C,D,E,F,G,(H?),I,J,K,L,M,N,O,P,Q,(R depends on accent),S,T,U,V,X,Y,Z
Just missing W which used to be Wynn
So why would H be any different
And just to be more clear letters no long in use did it as well Þ (used to be a letter that mad TH sound pronounced as thorn),& (used to be a letter that made the sound and and would be used to replace the word and it was pronounced Ampersand), and Ƿ (Wynn as mentioned above), Đ ( different Th pronounced as That (in old english (but more commonly know as Eth))), Æ ( the a in Ash)
So why would H be different
(H)artford (Heatherford and (H)ampshire!♫♪ (Bravo, Eliza)
English is not my first language. I work in an international team. They say my English is quite good, but one of my British colleagues had no clue what I was talking about when I used the word "aitch". When she figured it out, she corrected me and said that it's pronounced "haitch". 🙃
Both have been used for a thousand of years there is no correct way of saying it
Ya get mih, fam?
jimmy carr needs to watch this.
Good video...
+Gabriel de Oliveira Almeida (Zaramoth) Thanks Gabriel.
You forgot Cockney! Halfred P. Doolittle: there is somethin in the hair ...
I used to get my students to pant like an overheated dog, to try to understand the sound. I noticed that Spanish speakers also had trouble with W. Somehow they would often through in a bit of a G, so you get Gwould, not Would.
When saying the alphabet, my brother would say h or aich, making 2 letters from the h sound.
Is it a local variation how the actual letter is pronounced, not in a word but in the alphabet? I've heard multiple English people pronounce it with the h in the beginning and was very surprised...
They make me cringe when they do that!
@@hughn May i ask why? Is it an accent or uneducated or posh or what? I'd love to understand, please! English is not my first language, I'm genuinely interested
@@bacul165 It was the case that 'haitch' indicated that the speaker was uneducated and teachers used to correct instances of 'aitch'. Over time, the increasing use of 'haitch' is just another degradation in diction and pronunciation in the UK - whatever is easier for the speaker to say, rather than what might be easiest for the listener. In written text it is punctuation that is the writer's courtesy to the reader; in spoken communication it is the speaker's diction and pronunciation that is a courtesy to the listener. Nobody cares anymore! 😞
@@hughn OK thanks a lot for your answer!
Although I don't really get your point as I don't see how "haitch" would be easier to pronounce or harder to understand. (Seems more a bit of a class/generational thing from the outside.)
It's because some uneducated people mistakenly think the word "aitch" begins with an h. It doesn't.
They reason, "It must begin with an h because it describes an h", which is nonsense. If that were true, where's the w in double u?
I think I had my first ASMoRgasm @ 2:10 [or it's the eticyclidone]
I would think that H is an H everywhere except when it sounds like your throat has been slit. Your impression of Russian has a normal H followed by an "evil E". If there is a difference between the H, it is overshadowed by the other properties of the accent.
My impression is that the Russian [x] has become slowly closer to [h] in the past decades. Is this true?
But I heard words derived from Spanish language that have letter 'j' is pronounced with the sound of 'h' instead of 'j' sound. For example: jalapeño, Fajita and Mojito etc.