Sound of /h/

Question

Americans do not pronounce in cases like this: 'Tell him'. What about the British?And what about this case: 'He was bringing her back home'.

Nona the brit · Accepted Answer

It varies from person to person according to their accent. Formality also makes a difference.

EyeSeeYou · Answer

I always thought not pronouncing the /h/ had to do with informality until I took an Americna English course where teachers would make sure we omit the sound on pronouns such as him, her.

a) What about the last sentence I wrote in my original post? Are there specific rules as to when you can omit the /h/?

b) How would you prenounce the surname BECKHAM?

Zerox · Answer

Not pronouncing the /h/ in words such as him, her, his, himself, has, have isn't wrong at all. By leaving the /h/ out in these words, it is easier for the speaker to keep the rhythm and flow of speech. So, by saying /im/ instead of /him/ is quite normal. Those forms are called weak forms (like /f?/ instead of /fo:/ for the word 'for').

The initial letter 'h' isn't pronounced in three cases: when the word isn't the first word in a sentence of word group, the word is unstressed and in normal speed or reasonably rapid speech.
Thus, the underlined 'h' is pronounced:

He gave her his address. (her:/?r/ and his: /iz/)

Secondly, not pronouncing the 'h' in the word 'home' varies from speaker to speaker, that is, between regional accents. There has been a social prejudice against people, who drop the /h/ in 'home', for example. The "dropping of one's h's" has been considered uneducated, uncouth and bad, but I believe this way of thinking has been decreased.

Do notice, however, that this is mainly how things are in RP English. I don't know whether there are major differences to American English (I daresay there isn't much difference but I could be wrong)

Oh, and I would say Beckham as /bek?m/.

Kooyeen · Answer

In American English, you leave it out if it's not stressed or it's not at the beginning:

Her car will be sold to a Japanese guy.
She'll seller car to a Japanese guy. (= sell her)

In non-rhotic accents like BrE the situation might be different. In those accents, I am afraid if you leave out the aitch, "her" will sound the same as "a", which is weird:
She sold her car = She sold a car

Is that what happens? I am not sure. They sure leave out the aitch in "him" though. Weak forms in British English have always puzzled me. Another one I have always wondered about is "you're/your". If they are both pronounced "yuh", then there would be no difference between "You're silly" and "You silly".
Does anyone know anything about that?

Zerox · Answer

To make things even more complicated, it is possible that in very rapid speech, the schwa sound may be used for: a, are, I, her, of, or and have. But normally the context helps to define the meaning.

Sound of /h/

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