H Dropping & /h/ Pronunciation

How to pronounce /h/

/h/ is the sound you make when you steam up a mirror.  It’s made by squeezing air through the glottis without using voice. So it is a voiceless glottal

Spellings of /h/

/h/ is always spelt with the letter H:

honey
hike
hamster
ahead

But plenty of words also have a silent H:

ghost
hour
exhaust
heir 

and many more. 

/h/ in Connected Speech

This is what happens to /h/ in connected speech:

Doesn’t he go?
becomes
Doesn’t_e go?

The /h/ sound dissapears allowing the two words to connect

This happens to function words that start with H: HER HE HIS HIM and HAVE 

What’s_er name? (her)
I’m_is cousin. (his) 

If this seems wrong, rest assured that pretty much everyone does it:

King Charles: Conferences that’ve happened (have)

That’s right Charles just said THAT’VE so goodbye h, let’s hear it slowed down. 

H Dropping

This is known as h dropping, and whilst nearly everybody does this in function words some people drop the h in ALL words, so 

HAPPY is ‘APPY
HOT is ‘OT
HEART is ‘EART

meaning ART and ‘EART sound the same

Dropping all Hs is found in working class accents in most areas of England and Wales, but it is not a typical feature of Scottish, Northern Irish or Irish accents.

I’ll leave you with the words of one famous h dropper from Manchester:

Liam Gallagher: ‘opefully it’s gonna be ‘ot.

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If you’d like to test your /h/ and H Dropping skills, do the quiz here.