hello I'm Jill from engvid and today we have a lesson on pronunciation of the
letter H okay and in English we have to breathe air like that so I know that in
a lot of languages are the languages you don't have an H sound
for example French Italian some East European languages probably lots more so
you may find that that the pronunciation of the H sound is quite difficult at
first so this is just to help you with that and also to explain that it's not
as simple as just one sound there are two different sounds and then some words
begin with an H but that H is silent so you don't even have to bother about the
H sound with with some of them but most words beginning with H you have to sound
the H so let's have a look at those first so the ones that are sounded here
are a few examples so hand so to make the sound you have to breathe out from
you need some breath in your lungs and then so for example if you imagine if
you have a mirror and the mirror has a bit of dirt on it and you want to clean
it so you go and then you rub it with with a piece of cloth like that so I'm
sure you can do that and also if you do that on your hand
you can feel your own hot breath on your hand so that's also a good indication
first it tells you you're still alive which is good and
also it shows that you're capable of making the sound for these words okay
so hand so try to say the word and breathe onto your hand at the same time
hand hand it's a bit difficult even for me but hand hand like that so you might
feel a bit dizzy if you try really hard so it's best not to overdo it you might
feel like falling over you might get a bit dizzy with all the breathing but
anyway that's hand and then happen happen happen okay
happy happy bright as the verb to have have has had okay and then the pronouns
he it's a bit different because sometimes the letter following the H
will change the way it sounds very slightly so H followed by a it's like ha
ha but then it changes to an e and you've got he he so it it's a bit
different it's more sort of closed up he he you can't sort of breathe out so much
but as long as you get a little bit of breath you can do he and her Oh her is
easier because your mouth is a little bit wider for her e because you would
you're doing e e and your mouth is quite closed you don't get so much space for
the breath to come out but her your mouth is much more open okay
here can you hear here okay and your heart that's more open again so it
should be easier heart heart okay hello hello hello okay
help help you can try just making the breath sound
before the rest of the word help and just work into it gradually help just to
get used to it at first then it gets easier the more you practice of course
okay hope so I hope by the end of this lesson you will be very good at doing
the H sound I hope okay house house house and hurry
hurry or we'll be late hurry be quick be quick hurry hurry okay
so those are some examples maybe you'd like to practice them after you've
watched this lesson go through it again and practice or write these words down
and practice them from your list okay then we have a slightly different way of
pronouncing H we're not all words that begin H you because the word hum that's
normal so that belongs over here um that's fine but it's a slightly
different pronunciation with these three words so it's like human human so your
tongue makes a slightly different shape at the back of your throat
Shh human like that so you pull your tongue up to the roof of your mouth to
make that sound and it catches at the back of your throat so you can make the
sound without the rest of the word like that so human human
okay so we're all human hopefully no robots or androids anything like that
okay so then this word meaning moist wet if the weather if the climate is humid
it's quite a wet climate even if it's hot it can be humid humid humid okay and
then this word meaning funny comic humor humor humor okay so they're just a bit
different but there are not many of them and they all I think they all have h you
but some of them are not pronounced that way if they begin H nu hum isn't humor
is okay right and then finally we have some words not
many here are a few examples of words which are spelled with an H at the
beginning but the H you don't have to do all this you can you'll be pleased to
know you can say these words without that breathing sound and also strangely
enough there is a word for the letter H unlike other letters in the alphabet it
is actually a word of five letters AIT ch and it's pronounced
H naught H some people especially younger people are beginning to say H
but it's I think it's still quite a small percentage some people think it's
wrong not to pronounce the H so they make a big effort to include the H huh
sound but it's not always correct so the letter H is without the sound of the so
that's a funny contradiction really okay but then all these words here know H
sound so air and air s these are people who inherit inherit money inherits
property if someone is an heir on it or an heir s you expect that they are going
to be quite rich okay so it's pronounced a it's just like that word air exactly
the same pronunciation and air s honest if you're honest you tell the truth
honor honor also is to do with being honest telling the truth doing the right
thing honor and the hour one hour in one hour we will have a break one hour so
it's just like that word meaning belonging to us our our dog our cats so
it doesn't sound any different when you say it you only know from the context
which word it is okay and then there are a few acronyms where you have initial
letters for four things for longer phrases
we're also the letter H is included but again it's H naught H so H G V this may
only be known in the UK it means it actually stands for heavy goods vehicle
so a big lorry that's used to transport things on on the motorway usually so
people have to have a special driving license to be able to drive one of these
because they require special skills being such a big vehicle you can't just
have a car licence and drive a big lorry you have to have the special license for
that and a special test so if someone has an h GV licence then they can drive
those big lorries ok h GV but i think maybe in other countries i think they
perhaps use different words for that kind of big lorry so this is just in the
UK possibly right then we have a chemical term scientific term h2o which
you probably know is the symbol the chemical symbol for water so h standing
for hydrogen o for oxygen and that combination produces water h2o and
finally HQ is the abbreviation for headquarters headquarters so if you have
a big company a big business who maybe have different buildings in different
cities they will have one big building in the biggest city probably which is
their headquarters their main central office building
where all the the most important people well the top directors and the CEO
people like that work so the main head office head quarters HQ okay so I hope
that helps to clarify how to pronounce how to pronounce the H when it's
necessary to pronounce it and to point out a slightly different pronunciation
for some words and also where you don't actually have to bother you can just
forget about the H sound with some of these words okay so I hope that's been
useful what I will do now I've been emphasizing this H sound
in a quite an exaggerated way what I'm going to do now is go through these
words quite quickly with a normal pronunciation so that you can hear what
it sounds like when somebody isn't sort of exaggerating and it's really quite
easy when you get used to it it's not difficult so it's just when you're
learning it you need to sort of concentrate on the breathing side so
I'll just run through this column first fairly quickly so you can hear what it
sounds like at a normal speed okay so hand happen happy have has had
he her here heart hello help hope house hurry okay and then these
funny three human humid humor okay and then these I'll say them but it doesn't
need a lot of effort because the H sound isn't there H air Aris
list on our HGV h2o HQ okay so if you would like to go to the
website in vidcom and do a quiz on this subject and subscribe to my channel that
would be great if you've enjoyed the lesson and I hope to see you again soon
okay then bye for now bye