Is pronounced aitch. AITCH. No "h" sound at the beginning! I swear I'm starting to hate the "haitch" pronunciation almost as much as my least favorite word. Apparently haitchers argue that the pronunciation of the letter should start with the sound the letter makes, but then I ask, why not say feff, lell, memm, nenn, rarr, sess, wubble-you, xex and yawhy?

Go and do a survey.

I've found those who went to catholic school, pronounce the "h" at the beginning, those who didn't, do not.

ZombieKitten said:

Feff you!

PunkMistress said:

only the haitch

ZombieKitten said:

Well, somebody needs to teach these haitchers how it is.

I swear that when my kids are ready for school, I'll ask their prospective teachers to pronounce the letter H. No haitcher will teach my children. I will not expose them to such filth!

http://dictionary.referen...owse/aitch

http://dictionary.referen...wse/haitch

I rest my case!

You're not living in the US, are you? Nobody here pronounces it like that.

i pronounce the letter Z as 'zed'. am i evil?

whistle said:

[Edited 8/28/09 4:07am]

PunkMistress said:

Not anymore. Every haitch I hear makes me question my sanity, though.

whistle said:

Not evil, but a bit suspect.

Moonbeam said:

I am British but I always refer 2 Z as "Zee" instead of "Zed"!!!

Also it annoys me when people, particularly in the UK, miss the H at the beginning of words!! Its HAND not 'AND, and HERE not 'ERE!!!!!

But it depends on where u live whether u pronouce H as Aitch or Haitch!! In certain parts of the Uk they do say H as Haitch!!!

I mean why bother putting a haitch at the start of herb, why not spell it erb

Desire2006 said:

Yeah, the wrong parts!

ZombieKitten said:

Aitches can be silent!

whistle said:

I think that many places pronounce "z" as "zed". I think it is that way in Canada as well.

Darwintheorgangrinder said:

Yeah, it's much more common than the "zee" pronunciation.

Ooooh I like this thread.

I have a friend who went to Catholic school who was also taught haitch.

It is WRONG! As is zee (unless you learn American English)

H, along with Y used to be classified as a vowel, or at least a semi-vowel.

Grammatically it is correct to use the indefinite article 'an' before a word starting with h, like 'an hotel', 'an herb' etc.

So those who drop the h sound at the beginning of herb are doing it as a left-over from when we used to say 'an herb'.

I always shake my head when I read the newspaper and it says 'a horrific accident' instead of 'an horrific accident' and think the writers should go back to school and the editors should be replaced.

And no offence to US orgers but I'm never giving up my zed.

Zombie, you're spot on with the Catholic school thingo.

Moonbeam

I'm not alone. I've actually joined a Facebook group dedicated to this very atrocity, and the horror stories are plentiful:

H is 4 punks.

connorhawke said:

That depends on pronunciation. The official word on the use of articles is that it depends on the way you pronounce the following word. So "an historic" is fine if you don't pronounce the H at the beginning of "historic", but "a historic" is fine for those who do.

Moonbeam said:

Really? Is this official in the journalism field? Because unless the grammar rules have changed since I had it drilled in to me, this might mean that I was taught incorrectly!

Edit - actually I remember my grammar teacher mentioning this (the based on pronunciation thing) but he emphatically said that it was incorrect, regardless of it being common usage.

Maybe he was just waaaaay old school and refusing to give up the past?
[Edited 8/28/09 4:57am]

ZombieKitten said:

I went to catholic school and I dont pronounce the "h"...

We say "hoo".

Call me crazy but that makes a whole lot more sense than "aitch".

novabrkr said:

Crazy!

tinaz said:

ZombieKitten said:

We pronouce the "h" in "herb" in the UK!

connorhawke said:

connorhawke said:

This site teaches the rules as I know them, but later says:

connorhawke said:

co-