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/

If you want to improve your accent and understand spoken English better, download my free American Accent audio crash course: https://hadarshemesh.com/audio-accent-course/

You can also download an interactive list of 50 of the most mispronounced words in English and master the pronunciation of those tricky words: https://theaccentsway.com/mispro-signup/

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