I've been reading our 'Intranet' site in the office I work and came across (hold it - no jokes please ;) ) a page where staff can 'have their say'.

Well someone wrote in obviosuly miffed about the way we pronounce the letter H if say you're just spelling out something or reciting the alphabet.

Here are his comments:
Originally posted by some annoying boob on our Intranet site
My other pet hate is people who mispronounce the aspirate letter, H as Haitch.

The correct phonetic pronunciation for this letter is “aitch”.

If I hear one more person say “haitch”.
Is he correct? Should we pronounce it as 'aitch'?
I always thought it should be pronounced 'Haitch'.

Anyone an expert in this field?

The letter H should be pronounced "aitch".

Whats the difference?:thumbsup:

I'm afraid the Boob is right it is "aitch"

But blimey where do you work that the only thing he has to moan about is that?

You want to see our "have your say" mail !!!

aitch is correct when saying the letter.

When using it in a word though the H sound should be audible. Hello, not 'ello.

This is all very interesting!

So, to pick up on Cyclone's point, above;

Should the word Honesty, be pronounced as "HHHonesty" or with the softer, almost inaudible "aitch" sound, as " 'onesty"?

I have always pronounced it as the second form, with the softer, almost inaudible "aitch".

I use the aitch in "honey", and "hospital", and "hair", but in words like honesty or hotel, I use the softer version.

I say "an hotel", I say "an honest person" but I say "a hospital", "a hairdresser", "a honeycomb"...

The quirks and the weirdness of the English Language, eh?

PT

your are correct about honesty, phonetically it's on est lee.

hotel however does not have a silent H, so it's 'a hotel', not 'an hotel'.

Think I'll take a couple of aspirates -and go to bed