⊙ By Jakub Marian

口语难点
——H篇

⊙ By Jakub Marian

A List of Words with a Silent “H” in English

与德语、法语等相比，英语的发音规律性没有那么明显，这一点让母语为非英语的人学起英语发音来比较吃力，其中字母H的发音就是其中一例，一起来了解一下吧。

*文章最后的“含有不发音h的常用单词”配有录音，供同学们进行听读练习。

First, let me note that some people use “an” as the indefinite article[不定冠词]form before “historic,” “horrific,” “hotel”and a couple more words beginning with an “h,” so they say “an istoric” rather than“a historic.” However, virtually[事实上]all speakers do pronounce the “h” at the beginning, when the word is not preceded[在……前]by the indefinite article (people do not say, for example, “Istory is an interesting subject.”)

Since these words do not begin with a vowel, the rule prescribing[规定]the “an”form does not apply to them. In the past, both“an hotel” and “a hotel” were commonly used because English words of French origin beginning with an “h” (such as “hotel”) used to be pronounced without it (so “hotel” would be pronounced just “otel”). Nonetheless, current usage tends to use “a,” not “an,” and always pronouncing the “h.”

Nevertheless, pronunciation of words like“historic” is not what I want to write about in this article. There are other “h”s that are truly silent (not pronounced at all in any form of the word). The following list is meant primarily for English learners, so it also contains notes about other common pronunciation mistakes made by learners:

◆ hour ['aʊə] UK, ['aʊə(r)] US (both the same as“our”); the “h” at the beginning is silent, as it should be also in the name of the letter h [eɪtʃ].

◆ honour ['ɑːnə] UK, honor ['ɒnə(r)] US; some learners also mispronounce this word as if it had [ʌ] at the beginning (as in “onion”['ʌnjən]).

◆ honest ['ɑːnɪst] UK, ['ɒnɪst] US; “hon”is pronounced exactly the same as in the previous word.

◆ Hannah ['hɑːnə] UK, ['hænə] US; on the other hand, it is the final “h” that is silent in this name, not the first one. The same is true for all words of Hebrew[希伯来语的]origin ending with “ah,” e.g. Bar Mitzvah.

◆ heir [eə] UK, [eə(r)] US; a person who inherits[继承]something from someone else. It comes from Old French, so the “h” remains silent; it sounds exactly the same as “air” and“ere” (meaning “before long”).

◆ exhausted [ɪg'zɔːstɪd]; notice also that “x” at the beginning is pronounced as “gz,” not as“ks.”

◆ Thai [taɪ]; “th” in English is usually pronounced as [θ] (as in “think”) or [ð] (as in“the”), but in “Thai,” it is pronounced just as“t.” The same applies to “Thailand” too, of course.

◆ vehicle ['viːɪk(ə)l]; some speakers of American English pronounce the “h,” but the vast majority keep the “h” silent and consider the pronunciation with an “h” unnatural.

◆ ghost [gəʊst]; to end our discussion

about the silent “h,” notice that it is also silent in “ghost.” This is in fact the case with all words beginning with “gh,” such as ghetto ['getəʊ], ghastly ['gɑːstlɪ] UK, ['gæstlɪ] US, and ghee [giː].

Note: The word “herb” and words derived from it (such as “herbal”) are usually pronounced with an “h” at the beginning in British and Australian English, while it usually remains silent in American and Canadian English.

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语速：135词/分钟

含有不发音h的常用单词

daughter exhausted

exhibit exhilarate

exhort fght

freight fright

Ghana ghastly

ghetto ghost

ghoul Hannah

heir honest

honour hour

night rhapsody

rhinoceros rhyme

rhythm right

spaghetti Thai

though through

vehicle weight