The Spanish H
Here's a little guide about how to pronounce the letter H in Spanish
Siempre muda
In Spanish, the letter H is easy to pronounce. That’s
because you simply don’t pronounce it at all; we can say that it’s “siempre muda” (always silent).
hablar – “ah-BLAR” (to speak)
hermano – “air-MAH-noh” (brother)
hotel – “oh-TEL” (hotel)
hola – “OH-lah” (hello)
hombre – “OM-breh” (man)
This is also true if the H appears in the middle of the
word:
vehículo – “beh-EE-koo-loh” (vehicle)
prohibir – “proh-ee-BEER” (to prohibit)
rehacer – “reh-ah-SAIR” (to redo)
CH
The only time the letter H affects the pronunciation of a word in Spanish is when it appears after the letter C, giving you CH. The CH combination is pronounced just like it is in English: like the “ch” in “church”
chico – “CHEE-koh” (boy)
chocolate – “cho-ko-LA-teh” (chocolate)
coche – “KOH-cheh” (car)
noche – “NOH-cheh” (night)
champú – “cham-POO” (shampoo)
Let's practise
Let’s practise pronouncing a few words in Spanish that contain the letter H. Here are ten Spanish words – how would you pronounce them? The answers are below:
- cachorro (puppy)
- hora (hour)
- rancho (ranch)
- hablar (to speak)
- charlar (to chat)
- hielo (ice)
- hecho (done)
- hijo (son)
- hada (fairy)
- hierba (grass)
ANSWERS
- kah-CHOH-roh
- OR-ah
- RAN-choh
- ab-LAR
- char-LAR
- YEH-loh
- EH-cho
- EE-hoh
- AH-dah
- YAIR-bah
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