Silent H words The letter H is also silent in words where it follows the letter W, as in when, where, which, why, whine, whistle, and white.
Because the 'h' in 'wh' words ( previously spelt 'hw' in English before the Norman conquest ) was there for a reason. Those who retain the old pronunciation and can still distinguish between 'where' and 'wear' , 'whale' and 'wail' , ' which' and ' witch ' in their speech as their ancestors did .
H is always silent in HONOUR, HOUR, HONEST, HEIR, VEHICLE & VEHEMENT. You don't say it after 'g' in GHOST, GHASTLY, AGHAST, GHERKIN & GHETTO, or after 'r' in RHINOCEROS, RHUBARB, RHYME and RHYTHM.
Correct Use. A silent “h” can be found at the beginning ( h onor), middle (ag h ast), or end (stomac h ) of words. An “h” can be silent on its own, or as part of a consonant digraph (a combination of letters that produce one single sound).
Because that was the original pronunciation. In parts of the English-speaking world, the h is still pronounced (eg Scotland). In Old English these words were - sensibly enough - written hw-.
If color is solely the way physics describes it, the visible spectrum of light waves, then black and white are outcasts and don't count as true, physical colors. Colors like white and pink are not present in the spectrum because they are the result of our eyes' mixing wavelengths of light.
The 'H' in 'hotel' is silent in American English, but it is pronounced in British English.
Silent “L” Patterns
Admittedly, the silent “L” isn't that predictable. If an “L” is found towards the end of the word, before the letters “f,” “v”, “k” and “m,” but after the letter “a,” then it's usually silent (behalf, calve, walk, almond).
HIGHER, HIRE are homophones and are pronounced the same. H-IRE These words rhyme with dire, fire, liar, tire, wire.
H-dropping or aitch-dropping is the deletion of the voiceless glottal fricative or "H-sound", [h]. The phenomenon is common in many dialects of English, and is also found in certain other languages, either as a purely historical development or as a contemporary difference between dialects.
Have a fear of long words? That's called: Hippopotomonstrosesquippedaliophobia and it's one of the longest words in the dictionary.
Do you need the article "a" before "surgery"? Borrowed from the French, the word hospital had a silent "h"; today, however, not pronouncing it is considered wrong. You just need to be in a hospital.
In the word “ hotel” the letter “ h” isn't silent and since it is a consonant and has a consonant sound it is preceded by “A”. If it was a vowel and had a vowel sound it would have been preceded by the word “An”.
The word white derives from Proto-Germanic hwitaz and Old English hwit.
Modern IPA: kə́lə Traditional IPA: ˈkʌlə 2 syllables: "KUL" + "uh"
In a 1944 session of Australian Parliament, then-Senate president Gordon Brown said he had heard various members of Parliament pronounce H as 'haitch'. 'Whereas its proper pronunciation,' Brown opined, 'is aitch.
Name in English
For most English speakers, the name for the letter is pronounced as /eɪtʃ/ and spelled "aitch" or occasionally "eitch". The pronunciation /heɪtʃ/ and the associated spelling "haitch" is often considered to be h-adding and is considered non-standard in England.
In Britain, H owes its name to the Normans, who brought their letter "hache" with them in 1066. Hache is the source of our word "hatchet": probably because a lower-case H looks a lot like an axe. It has certainly caused a lot of trouble over the years.
Letter 'b' is silent in 'plumber'. Letter 'b' is generally not pronounced if letters 'm' and 'b' occur together in a word. Examples : plumb, comb, tomb, plumber etc. This rule is applicable when letters 'm' and 'b' are the parts of the same syllable.
Silent L words
The letter L is silent in the words including should, could, would, half, calf, chalk, talk, walk, folk, and yolk.
You'll be thrilled to know that my gut instinct was right: Merriam Webster now lists both variations as pronunciations, tīm and thīm. There's no need to complicate things, so feel free to pronounce thyme with or without the 'h.
For example, hour, honest, honour, heir. Exceptions: Most of the words beginning with H are not silent (remember to use the article “a” with voiced H) For example history, history, hair, happy. The letter K is always silent when it precedes the letter N in a word.