How to pronounce the H sound /h/
/h/ is a voiceless consonant made at throat (glottal). Set your mouth for the vowel that comes next — H borrows its shape. Breathe out gently, as if fogging a window.
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How to make it
- 1Set your mouth for the vowel that comes next — H borrows its shape.
- 2Breathe out gently, as if fogging a window.
- 3Let the voice switch on as the vowel begins; the H itself is only breath.
- 4Keep it light: a hard scrape at the back of the throat is a different sound in English.
- Lips
- Already in the shape of the vowel that follows.
- Tongue
- Already in the shape of the vowel that follows.
- Jaw
- Open, as for the vowel.
Feel it
Put a hand flat on your throat and say the sound. You should feel nothing at all until the vowel begins — any buzz means you have switched the voice on too early and made the voiced partner instead.Where the sound appears
Keeping it through a whole line
He held his hat in his hand at home.
Perhaps her house is just ahead behind the hill.
If your first language is…
Nothing here is about ability. Every one of these is a sound system doing exactly what it was built to do, applied to a language that asks for something else.
- HindiUrdu
Hindi and Urdu have h, so it is secure; the trouble is the many English words where h is silent, such as 'hour' and 'honest'.
- Bengali
Bengali has h, but it is often weakened between vowels, so 'behind' can lose it.
- Mandarin
Mandarin's h is a scrape at the soft palate, so English H can sound rougher than intended.
- Cantonese
Cantonese has h at the start of a syllable, so the sound exists, but it never appears between vowels as in 'ahead'.
- Japanese
Japanese h changes shape before u and i, becoming a lip sound or a soft hiss, so 'who' and 'he' need the plain throat breath.
- Vietnamese
Vietnamese has h at the start of a syllable only, so 'perhaps' in the middle of a word takes practice.
- Spanish
Spanish h is silent and the letter j is a scrape at the back of the throat, so English H is either dropped or made too harsh.
- Portuguese
In Brazilian Portuguese the letter r at the start of a word is pronounced like English H, which helps here — but it also turns English 'red' into 'head'.
- French
French dropped its h centuries ago, so English H is often not pronounced at all and 'hat' becomes 'at'.
- Italian
Italian h is always silent, so it tends to be skipped in English and can also appear where it should not, in 'my (h)eye'.
- Russian
Russian's nearest sound is a back-of-throat scrape, so 'home' can sound rasped rather than breathed.
- Turkish
Turkish has h, though it is often weakened or dropped in casual speech, and that habit carries into English.
Straight answers
Is /h/ voiced or voiceless?
It is voiceless. Put a hand on your throat: you should feel nothing until the vowel after it starts. That is the only difference between it and its partner sound, which is made in exactly the same place.
What words start with the H sound?
Common ones include hat, home, happy. In the middle of a word you get behind, ahead, perhaps. Every one of those links to its own pronunciation page here.
How is /h/ spelled in English?
It is written "h", "wh". English spelling and English sound came apart centuries ago, so the same sound turns up under several spellings and the same spelling carries several sounds — which is why the sound, not the letter, is the thing to learn.
Why do Hindi & Urdu speakers find /h/ hard?
Hindi and Urdu have h, so it is secure; the trouble is the many English words where h is silent, such as 'hour' and 'honest'.
Record the H sound and see if it landed
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