Im not sure how this goes, but id guess its an british things, so for those members who are from other countries, im sorry, you may not understand the following rant 😀
While I realise that this is ridiculously anal but im getting royally peeved with people saying “Haych” instead of “Aych” when saying the letter H.
Ive been told now that saying “Aych” is wrong by all of my friends and many teachers from school who say “Haych”
It wasnt until I was about 15 that I heard “Haych” so is it some stupid fashion that has been indoctrinated into children now (im only 21) but I hear teachers saying it and think that it just cant be right
What do you say?
Does it annoy any of you? lol
By: Nashio966 - 19th January 2010 at 10:54
im glad im not the only one!
thats said I was taught to sound the letter, but all my family pronounce the letter “Aitch” so I guess I just copied the way that they say it?
By: Sky High - 19th January 2010 at 08:44
A leading H is often silent in English.
Many such words are derived from French, and English took over the French pronunciation as well as the word. But we have come to pronounce the h over the centuries for certain words: horrible, hospital, host, hotel, human, humour and it now looks like it is being done to Aitch, probably at the behest of know-nothing teachers who are trying to simplify things they don’t understand.
Moggy
Exactly so. I suspect it is in part due to the fact that children are now taught the alphabet by sounding the letter rather than saying it. They spell out a word phonetically and presumably “haitch” is the phonetic sound for the letter “h”.
I find it irritating and odd, because it has been “aitch” all of my life. But then I find much about modern speech forms and word usage irritating but that is due to age and the inevitable evolution of the language. I will fight for “aitch” but doubt that I will win in the long run.
The most recent irritation is as in this exchange:
” How are you today?”
” Oh, I’m good, thanks”.
Well perhaps you are good but are you well?:(:(:(
By: DazDaMan - 19th January 2010 at 08:33
It’s always been “aitch” to me.
By: Moggy C - 19th January 2010 at 08:23
A leading H is often silent in English.
Many such words are derived from French, and English took over the French pronunciation as well as the word. But we have come to pronounce the h over the centuries for certain words: horrible, hospital, host, hotel, human, humour and it now looks like it is being done to Aitch, probably at the behest of know-nothing teachers who are trying to simplify things they don’t understand.
Moggy
By: Grey Area - 19th January 2010 at 07:37
The only correct pronunciation is “aitch”.
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January 19, 2010 at 1:18 am