208. How to pronounce the H and Silent H

English words can be really confusing sometimes. In these how-to-pronounce episodes published on Fridays, I’ll help you with the pronunciation of confusing words and common names. This week we’re going to talk about the words with the H sound as well as words with a silent H.

Here’s a loose transcription of the words as explained in the episode: hello: huh-low [IPA: həˈloʊ] hi/high: hai [IPA: haɪ] here: heer [IPA: hɪəɹ] home: howm [IPA: hoʊm] house: haws [IPA: haʊs] hair: her [IPA: heəɹ] hate: heit [IPA: heɪt] hotel: how-tel [IPA: ˌhoʊˈtel] hospital: haas-pi-t’l [IPA: ˈhɑːspɪtəl]

hour (=our): aw’r [IPA: ˈaʊəɹ] honest: aa-n’st [IPA: ˈɑːnəst] honor: aa-n’r [IPA: ˈɑːnəɹ] heir (=air): er [IPA: eəɹ] herbs: uhrbz [IPA: hɜːɹbz]

he: when stressed – hee [IPA: hi], when unstressed – ee [IPA:i] him: when stressed – him [IPA: hɪm], when unstressed – im [IPA: ɪm] her: when stressed – h’r [IPA: hɜːɹ], when unstressed – uhr [IPA: ɜːɹ] his: when stressed – hiz [IPA: hɪz], when unstressed – iz [IPA: ɪz]

You can watch the video version here: https://hadarshemesh.com/magazine/the-h/

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