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The elusive "h". It is very common (for French speaking English) to either remove an h as they did there, or insert it where it don't belong as in "hot hair bal
by mzi 5y ago
The elusive "h". It is very common (for French speaking English) to either remove an h as they did there, or insert it where it don't belong as in "hot hair balloon" or the city of "Hamsterdam".
- caffeine 5y agoNothing used to annoy my Essex friends as much as telling them they sound French because they treat “H” the same way
- laurent92 5y agoIt’s fun, after being taught about the H, to see that fellow French people don’t hear the presence or absence of H until they are taught; It’s like white noise, we assume the guy needs to breathe.
- wink 5y agoThat h? https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Z6oeAdemFZw https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Z6oeAdemFZw
- maaaaattttt 5y agoAfter 20 years of speaking english (french mother-tongue here) someone finally told me that you don't pronounce the "h" in "hour". I (and, I think, most french people speaking english) really do have to think of the spelling of a word before pronouncing it. And there I was being extra careful with that h at Hour. Now I have to be extra careful not to pronounce it… But on a positive note, discovering all these small quirks are like "Achievement unlocked" kind of moments if you like learning languages.
- BrandoElFollito 5y agoI am French too and I am trying to understand how you pronounced "hour" before (my dog, cat and wife are already looking at me suspiciously). You pronounced the "h" like in "hot"? (with the "h" making actually a sound?). I am quite surprised because we do not pronounce and "h" when it starts a word (usually at least), and I've been learning English in the 80's with Brian and Jenny (kudos to the ones who had the same manual) and it was not taught that way either.
- lovemenot 5y agoEnglish has a similar confusion with the word hotel. A loan-word from French, the correct indefinite article is counterintuitive. An hotel, a house.
- ghaff 5y agoAs a native (American) English speaker I would never write or say "an hotel" and I don't think most people would. I confess I didn't realize this was even a debate. An hotel is apparently an older English grammar rule that it appears is considered largely obsolete. ADDED: You do see a remnant of this with "an historical" but even that is generally not preferred in most dialects. https://www.alphadictionary.com/articles/drgw007.html https://www.alphadictionary.com/articles/drgw007.html Basically, it has to do with whether the initial "h" is pronounced in a given dialect of English.
- currency 5y agoIt might also have to do with avoiding confusion with the word "ahistorical".
- shawabawa3 5y agoIn English you almost always pronounce an H at the start of the word. In fact I can't think of any examples other than Hour for when you don't pronounce it e.g. Hot Happy House Hotel Humble Hundred Help Hippo
- BrandoElFollito 5y agoThat's a good point - thanks. This would explain "hour" in OP case.
- LeonidasXIV 5y agoHerb, whether you pronounce the H depends on whether you speak British or American English.
- NikolaNovak 5y ago25 years in Canada and I still pronounce the L in salmon and all the letters in Bomb. To amusement of everyone but its still understandable :-) And then there's knight and knife :-O