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Incidentally, the soft h on "herb" is one of the things that bugs me most about American English (and it took me several years of living here to even figure out
by hugh3 15y ago
Incidentally, the soft h on "herb" is one of the things that bugs me most about American English (and it took me several years of living here to even figure out that it was consistently done that way).
Correct me if I'm wrong, but don't Americans pronounce a hard "h" on "herbivore"? How does "herb", then, lose its h?
- cageface 15y agoI actually say "erbivore", as do most people I know.
- hugh3 15y agoReally? Oh, in that case it's at least consistent (though it still bugs me, for no particularly good reason other than that it's unusual). What about the name "Herb"?
- cageface 15y agoI don't know any personally but I usually hear the H enunciated in the name. But Herb is short for "Herbert", which is a German name, so maybe we inherited the pronunciation rule there.