H (letter)
H is a letter of the Latin alphabet. It is the eighth letter of most variants of the Latin alphabet, being placed after G and before I: for instance it is the case in the English alphabet. Its English name is pronounced [ˈeɪtʃ], that is aitch, as in 'he drops his aitches', referring to the habit of some speakers, notably cockneys, not to sound initial aspirated h in words like hòuse and héad (the accents show stress and pronunciation: see English phonemes).
Use in English
h between vowels, and usually initially, is a breath outwards, English’s only aspirate. But it also combines with a number of consonants to form other consonants, and sometimes it is merely silent.
The aspirated h is most common initially: háppy, hôme, hélp, hínder, hurrây, héaven, héll, hŷpe.
When not initial, it sometimes looks misleadingly like a combination with another consonant, as in adhêre and dishàrmony, but this is accidental and the h is sounded separately from the preceding consonant; h is also found between vowels as in rehëarse, ahŏy, ahéad and ahém.
Silent h occurs initially in hónest, hónour, hóur time (= our we), héir fortune (= ãir breathe) and in their derivatives: hónourable, hòurly &c; and also in nìhilist (or nîhilist), exhåust, in the suffix -ham in names of towns or surnames: Béckenham, Péckham, Twíckenham, Tóttenham, and in Jóhn (= the less common Jón).
A silent h is also used to lengthen vowels, usually in interjections: àh! ôh! èh? or words from German: Kôhl, Kûhn, àùtobàhn (*òutobàn) and unstressed in Méndelssohn (*Méndəlsən) and unstressed finally in Sãrah, parîah and verándah - all pronouncing ah as schwa.
In vêhicle, silent h separates the i from the preceding ê, making the í a syllable: *vê-í-kle – or as a schwa: *vêəkle, *víəkle. And in names like Côhen and Mêehan the h is not naturally pronounced as such: *Côwən and *Mêeyən.
h combining with preceding letters
A mere breath when pronounced on its own, h is silent after vowels and before consonants and thus does not begin clusters; instead, it shows great versatility in combining with preceding letters:
àh, with silent h, is used in interjections and the like: àh! - bàh! - blàh blàh blàh! -pàh! - yàh bôo!
In German words, it shows the long à sound: Màhler, Stàhl, Bràhms, àutobàhn (òwt-), and in Bahrèin the h can be pronounced.
ch as in choôse, bêach, chéck verify = BrE chéque money, chàr, cóckroach, chát, chêek, chín, côach.
Very often it is preceded by a redundant t: ẁatch, wrétch, cátch, bátch, kétchup, ítching, wítch (for many speakers = whích).
But in some words taken from French, it is pronounced like sh: chìc, machìne, AmE moústáche, BrE moustàche.
Elsewhere, the h is redundant: ch as k: Bucharést (Bùka-), chŏrd, psychólogy, schoôner - while in chémist, àrchive, schême it at least prevents the following e or i from making the c sound like s.
The optional sound [χ] occurs in words from Scottish Gaelic (as also in German Bàch): lóch, Sássenach - though these are often, by non-Scots, pronounced with a final 'k' sound.
dh represents the voiced th sound in Rìyadh. èh is usually foreign, except for èh? (h silent).
gh: see GH
hh occurs accidentally in withhôld, withhéld and hítchhîke, where in each case the second h is aspirated as if beginning a new word.
ih occurs in nìhilist (or nîhilist) where the h is usually silent or has the consonantal y sound.
kh appears in words from Arabic, Persian, Urdu and so on. The pronunciation is the same as that of ch in lóch (a rasping in the back of the throat) - and thus many speakers do not distinguish it from k: Khàlid, Khàn, shèikh (or -k). But in Khmér (*Kəmãir) h is, uniquely, a vowel, schwa.
ôh! oôh! poôh! are interjections (also: Winnie the Poôh) and, from German, ôhm: silent h.
ph = f: nýmph, phrâse, phâse, Dáphnê, phoênix, grāph (but Stêphen = Stêven). rh = r: Rhôdes, rhôdium, rhodedéndron, rhêsus, rhêtoric. There are more examples in the section on r.
sh is the normal way of showing the very common sound spelt ch in machìne: shoòt, frésh, cásh, shêet, fâstish, Bangladésh, ásh, pólish, Pôlish, áshen, díshwasher, shùsh! sssssh!
th represents two sounds, one the voiced version of the other. Voiced th is used in certain functional, and therefore in many cases very common, words: thís, thát, thére, thén, thôugh, althôugh, thús, thérefore, thòu, the/thê article = thêe you, and in òther, mòther, fàther, bròther, rāther, lāther. Unvoiced th is not uncommon either, especially at the beginning and end of words: thínk, thŏught, throûgh, thòrough (*thúrrə), thrôw, móth, bôth, ẁrath (-ó-), fífth (*fíth - though some pronounce the second f), fílthy. but the h is redundant in Thaîland (*Tîland).
úh (h silent; or pronounced schwa) is used as in húh? úh? - same interrogative meaning as èh? - and (mostly AmE) úh-húh yes, and in other improvised interjections - otherwise it appears in German names as ûh: Kûhn.
wh = w in British English but hw in American and some other varieties: what, whére, why, whén, whéther (cf. wéather) sòmewhat, sòmewhere, anywhere (én-) nôwhere, whísky, whîte, Whítsun, wháck, whám.
zh has the sound of -si- in vision or -su- in léisure, which are the usual spellings. As zh it occurs only in words from Arabic, Russian and other languages: Brézhnev.