Holy Holy Holy .......I love this word. Hi my name is Emmelda and today we will be talking
about the role of "H" in English. It’s pronounced as ‘A-CH’ and not Hay-Ch, well some countries
do pronounce it as "Hay-Ch" but recommended pronunciation wound be "H" which is "A-CH".
"H" is…whenever it’s paired up with a vowel, you know what vowels are, which are
A, E, I, O, U . It has a very particular sound as in
Ha or Ha-ha, Ha, Huh, He, Hi, HOH, HU or Huh. So "H" you have to bring a lot of air – H-Ah.
However some European and somewhere in Southern America they do not really pronounce the "H"
letter. For example in Spanish there is a word called "Hermana", Hermana means sister
in Spanish but they just remove the "H" and says Er-mana , However in English we are very
vocal about the letter "H" in English. So let’s see how " H" when paired up with vowel
produces different sounds.
So let’s see how "H" when paired up with vowel produces different sounds. H+A- Hair,
Hang, Hammer Hair... feel the gush of air. Hair, Hang, Hammer. If you are…If you are
citizen of one of those European countries or those countries which do not pronounce
"H" you can change the meaning of the word if you are saying something…For example
- I could feel your hair, this means hair. If you don’t pronounce "H" - I could feel
your air probably you are talking about your breath. So please be very careful cautious
and take that little extra effort whenever you are pronouncing the alphabet "Hair" or
the alphabet H, so it’s Hair, Hang, Hammer. The next is H+E- Heart this is pronounced
as Haa-rt. Heart, Henry ,usually the H+E will be as /HE/ sound for e.g. Hen or Hell so it
is ,Henry ,Hell, Heart. If you don’t pronounce the "He" you will say ‘Art’, Art means
Art work or a drawing or a picture. So the next would be "I"
H+I - Hill...Hill Hill if u drop the sound you say ill as in you are not feeling well
..so it is hill , the mountain or a shorter form of the mountain ..it’s not ill as in
ill-well or ill weather. Then let’s see and now you see, If "H" comes
in between the words. It’s Behind you still fell the air you don’t say "beind" you say
Behind, Behind Hive. The next would be H+O, Holiday, Holiday, Ohio (O-HI-O) Ohio, and
the most confusing word in English would be Honest. Well this is one of the few words
one of the very few word where "H" is silent an you straight away go to the "Onest " sign
"Onest" word, so you don’t say Ho-nest . I am an Honest man You say "I am a Onest man.
Onest but not Honest) One more thing you want to note is anytime you talk about "A" you
wanna put Article as let’s say a Hammer " you do not put the article as "An" However
whenever you use this word then you put the article "An" I am an honest woman.
I am an honest man. Otherwise " A" is always preceded by the article sorry "H" is always
preceded by the article "A". The last vowel that we have is "H" with "U" Hunt, Hungry,
Hustle Very simple Hunt, Hungry, Hustle So that how "H" when paired up with vowels its
brings different sounds Dropping the "H" sound could actually means
something else For e.g. :-“Hair you drop the "H" sound you say "Air" as in "Air". Ok
Now let’s see how if "H” combines with other consonant changes the sound of those
consonants
So now let’s see how “H" is "H" changes the consonant sound if its paired with the
consonant. More often than not "H" comes or is paired with six consonant. C, G, P ,T,
S, and W Now let’s see how "H" changes them C+h - The examples we have is Character here
the sound as (k) k-aracter Church now the sound comes back to the original or the intended
sound which is (Ch.) Church Cha - Character, C-h-u-r-c-h (church) The
next one we have here is Chandelier the sound is of (S and h)
so it’s is (k) Character , (Ch) Church, (Sh)Chandelier.
So if you pair "H" with "C" there are three different sounds that you may get, you need
a lot of practice, specially listening practice for you to identity when to change the sound
. The next we have is a Gh - "Gh" again has the three sound, the first is regular "GH
" you don’t say gha-nna or gay-na or "Ghana " And then you have "No" sound where you actually
cant here the sound where you actually say "Weigh" Weigh ..."Gh" says Weigh and you have
the "GH "and the "weigh" where there is no sound and finally you have the "F" sound Gh
sometimes can be pronounced as "F "Laugh " you don’t say "Lah" or " Laug " its laugh laugh
laugh. Moving on to the next alphabet Ph becomes "F" Philip philip ,you actually
would say "F" F-ilip, Phoenix (,F-ee-nix) , and finally Philadelphia (f-iladal-f-ia)
Philadelphia is a place in United States of America
so it is Philip , Phoenix ,and philadelphia(f-iladalf-ia) You don’t say "ph" ..PH doesn’t mean "Ph"
it means "F" The next consonant we have is "Th" "Th" again
has three different sounds one is "Th" this sound is very tricky specially if you are
learning English and if you are at the very starting stage this is how you are supposed
to pronounce "keep your tongue between your teeth don’t bite it until you bleed ,but
just slightly. Now pronounce the "Th" sound blow the air out. Think, Think, it’s the
same when you say “The" however "The” is more voice you can feel the vibration.
Think “..you don’t feel vibration here "Think" so try to bring out that tongue think,
The/The here its more voice and you can feel the vibration , so the trick for "Th" is bring
your tongue in between your teeth ( think ,think ,the ,that and finally Strength so
its "Th", one more word we have is Thomas this is not pronounced as tho-mas where you
bring your tongue out but (Tomas) so this noun is pronounced as Tomas
My name is Tomas and not Thomas so T" again has
T with H has three sounds "Th" where it is unvoiced "The" where it is voiced this could
be "This , That Though, Thus, The and ..TH/Thomas Thomas
Practically "h is silent or you have to aspirate your "T " a little more ,Finally. Not finally
but the second word. The next word we have here is SH - sh is a very simple sound shh
/shh like (Shh) Shake.. Shh/shake ,Usher..,Usher ,Polish.. Polish , Shake ,Usher ,Polish
Finally we have WH- wh also has two sound one is I will not say "V" but "w " when "H'
is silent in these words "When" whisky it’s not phis-key or phus-key but whisky you do
not pronounce "Here finally you have one word which is very confusing " as "whole" in this
word one of the exceptional word were you let go of the "w" but just say "Hole" this
is different from the word hole Because whole means a whole like a complete
thing and hole mean hole maybe a hole in the boat
Now u see " H" when combine with different consonant produces different sounds
I hope you enjoyed this lesson and I hope I was able to clarify some doubt about the
"Ch, Sh ,and the Wh ,and also Th"
I hope you like my lessons and if so please leave your complements below i will be coming
back with another lesson. Until then see you. Have fun and have fun learning English ..Good bye.