0:00 Hello and welcome back to Easy English with James! Today we're going to learn all about the letter 'H'! We are also going to practice the letter h with 18 different english vowel sounds so if you want to make sure you know how to pronounce this letter correctly or you want to practice the pronunciation of 18 different english vowel sounds stick with me for this very very important lesson okay okay the letter h it's a super interesting letter in english it's a consonant letter it's
0:45 the eighth letter in the english alphabet about 85 percent of english speakers will see this letter and say this is the letter h h h but wait a minute you'll notice that when they say h it doesn't even have the ha sound in it that's because many people actually continually pronounce this letter with a silent h okay the letter h is pronounced with a silent h crazy english language but there is another thing you should know about 85 of native english speakers pronounce this letter h but about 12 to 15 pronounce this h
1:41 h h it's very common in parts of the uk where i live many of my friends and family will pronounce this h and also parts of australia and new zealand where they will also often pronounce this h h okay so you can decide in my opinion both of these are correct h with a silent h or h with that sound okay you decide you'll also find this in the difference between british and american pronunciation of certain words for example words like herb and herbal i'm from the uk so you can
2:28 hear me pronounce the letter h at the beginning of these words herb and herbal okay with a strong ha ha at the beginning herb herbal but many of my friends who are from the usa they won't pronounce the letter h at the beginning of these words they will say herb and herbal okay so be careful with this letter because it is very often silent at the beginning of words and sometimes it can even be different depending on which english accent you're listening to okay but remember for now that in the alphabet this letter is normally pronounced h
3:14 h h but in parts of the uk sometimes in australia and new zealand you will also hear h and h okay okay so you heard the sound at the beginning of h and herbal okay but how do we make that sound you probably know that this sound comes all the way from your diaphragm your diaphragm and stomach area your diaphragm is the thing that helps you to breathe in and breathe out okay this sound comes all the way up from your diaphragm and out and it's made with your mouth quite wide open
4:02 okay really really common letter in english as well in common words like he and him and her that you'll use every day he him and her practice this sound with me okay one way that you can actually make it really easy is to lift your shoulders up when you say the sound that helps you to bring that air up from your stomach huh okay he him and her now in english this letter this letter sound can actually come before nearly
4:48 any of the english vowel sounds and there are a lot of vowel sounds in english if you want to learn all about the vowel sounds look in the description below and you'll see my english vowel videos the short vowel sounds long vowel sounds and the diphthong vowel sounds in english but today we're going to practice 18 of those vowel sounds all together with the letter h okay it normally comes with a vowel in english think like him he her hope have all different vowel sounds so today we're going to go through 18 of those vowel sounds okay let's begin okay let's start with number one the h and the e sound in words like he and heat and he practice with me he
5:46 heat he okay the h plus the e sound he heat and he next up number two is the h plus the e sound that short vowel sound think of words like hit hit and him him and also hinder hinder hinder okay practice with me hit hit and him him and also hinder hinder okay okay number three is the h plus the uh sound
6:32 uh in words like hum hum or hurry hurry or even hungry i'm hungry okay hum hurry and hungry hum hurry and hungry number four is the h plus the er sound that long vowel sound er okay in words like her her or hurt like that hurt me you're hurting me hurt so her hurt and hers hearse hers okay practice with me her hurt and hers number five the h plus the e sound
7:24 another short vowel sound in words like hen or hello or even heaven okay hen hello and heaven practice with me hen hello and heaven make sure your mouth is wide open to get that heaven hello and hen okay number six is the h plus the ah sound that's that short vowel sound again ah think of words like hot hot as in it's very hot today or hop hop or even hog hog which is another word for a pig okay hot hop and hog hot hop and hog number seven is the
8:19 h plus the o sound oh this is a diphthong sound if you want to learn about the diphthongs check the description below for my video on diphthongs the h plus the o sound in words like home home or hope hope or hose hose okay practice with me home home your mouth has to move a lot to make this diphthong sound after the letter h home home and hope hope and hoes hose okay number eight is the h plus the ow ow sound this is another diphthong okay try words like house
9:12 house house okay and of course the question word how how how and hound hound which is another word for a type of dog or a dog okay house house how how and hound hound watch my mouth closely because this is the ow diphthong sound house how and hound hound practice with me one more time house house how how and hound hound
9:59 number nine is the h plus the uh sound oh in words like hook or hooky or hooking okay i couldn't find many words with this combination but hook with that oh remember the word look with an l look it's the same up hook hooky and hooking okay a hook captain hook from peter pan okay hook hooky and hooking is the h plus that o sound okay number 10 is the h plus the o sound o o okay in words like hold hold or holding or holder okay old old hold holding and holder okay old
10:54 it's a really down sound that goes into the bottom of your mouth here old you'll feel it here look old okay hold holding and holder holder okay number 11 is an easy one it's the h plus ah ah in words like hat or has or ham okay hat as in on your head a hat has she has he has and ham ham which is a type of meat okay hat has and ham okay number 12 is h plus another diphthong
11:40 sound h plus er in the words here and here and hero hero okay like a superhero okay here here and okay practice with me here diphthong sound ear here here and hero hero okay number 13 is the h plus r sound this is that long r sound long vowel sound h plus r in words like heart heart or hard hard or even harm harm okay practice with me heart heart hard hard and harm harm okay
12:37 number 14 is h plus a h plus a in common words like hey and hate hate but also words like hasten hasten okay hey hate and hasten okay practice with me hey hate and hasten okay number 15 is h plus i in words like high or high or height high as in hello hi also how high and my height okay high high and height high and high both sound exactly the same because that gh at the end is silent so
13:29 high and high and height okay number 16 is h plus or or another long vowel sound or in words like horse horse the animal or horn like a car horn okay horn or even longer words like horticulture horticulture one of my favorite words in english horticulture okay so horse horse horn horn and horticulture horticulture okay number 17 is the letter h with the ooh sound in
14:17 words like hoop hoop hoop but also question words where the w is silent like who and whose okay who and whose both question words the w is silent so we just pronounce that letter h with the oo sound practice with me and who who and whose whose okay number 18 is the h plus the oi sound this one is a little bit less common but you will hear it sometimes in words like hoy hoy or hoist hoist it means to sort of pull something or lift something up to hoist something and also a very rare word
15:06 hoyden hoyden okay hoy hoist and hoyden hoy hoist and hoyden okay that is the letter h with 18 of the english vowel sounds if you go back and you practice that as many times as you can i promise your english pronunciation will improve a lot okay you'll master the letter h and you'll also master some of those vowel sounds that can be quite tricky okay so go back and watch that again and again and again as many times as you need to okay okay now we're going to practice some tongue twisters in english and the best thing about tongue twisters with the letter h is that
15:52 you know you are saying them correctly because if you are saying these sentences correctly these tongue twisters correctly you should be out of breath out of breath because remember the letter h often has that sound where you're breathing air out so with some of these tongue twisters you should be out of breath okay after you say them so let's begin okay number one happy harry the huge hippo had horrible handwriting happy harry the huge hippo had horrible handwriting okay i know hippos can't have handwriting
16:38 but it's a really good sentence to practice that ha sound happy harry the huge hippo had horrible handwriting okay happy harry the huge hippo had horrible handwriting see if you can practice it until you can say it that fast okay happy harry the huge hippo had horrible handwriting your turn okay happy harry the huge hippo had horrible handwriting number two harry hunt hunts heavy hairy hairs hairs are like rabbits harry hunt is his name harry hunt hunts heavy hairy hairs okay try with me harry hunt hunts heavy hairy hairs harry hunt hunts heavy hairy hairs your turn
17:35 okay harry hunt hunts heavy hairy hairs well done number three hamza the hungry hamster had hundreds of hot hamburgers hamza the hungry hamster had hundreds of hot hamburgers okay try with me hamza the hungry hamster had hundreds of hot hamburgers see if you can say that really fast and you'll hear that sound okay number four is this one hurry home hannah harry's here hurry home hannah harry's here okay like come home quickly hannah your friend harry is here hurry home hannah harry's here hurry home hannah harry's here hurry home hannah harry's here practice with me
18:21 hurry home hannah harry's here your turn okay hurry home hannah harry's here hurry home hannah harry's here well done okay those are four really good tongue twisters with the letter h so make sure that you practice them many many many times until you can feel your pronunciation improving okay now if you are enjoying this video if you like this video and you're learning something from this video please make sure to hit that like button leave a nice comment or share this video with your friends but most of all make sure you've hit that red subscribe button so you don't miss any of my future videos okay lots and lots of videos still to come so make sure you've hit that subscribe button okay now
19:10 we're going to look at the silent h in english okay silent h is really awesome lots of different rules around this one so stick with me let's learn about the silent h okay the letter h is one of the most common silent letters in english it is very very very often silent okay that means we don't pronounce it at all it's one of the most common silent letters okay it's really often silent in question words question words like where or when or what or why or which okay listen carefully where there's no h sound in that where or when or what or why or which okay where when what why and which all of them have that w
20:03 followed by the letter h and each time the letter h is silent okay practice with me where when what why and which where when what why and which where when what why and which okay there are some exceptions though because in the question words who who and whose who and whose you can hear that this time the w is silent and we pronounce the h i know english can be a little bit confusing but in most question words where you see w and h you'll notice that the h is silent where when what why and which but not in who who and whose you'll also see this in words
20:52 like weather and whale and wheat all have w and h together weather whale and wheat but in each time the h is silent okay weather whale and wheat but another exception to this would be whole hole hole okay okay the letter h is really commonly silent at the beginning of some words like our our really common word also in the word honest honest and honor honor in those three words you can see that the letter h is not pronounced it is silent and they're quite common words honest honestly okay and hour one hour two hours three hours okay hour honest and honor okay but
21:44 that's not always the case because in words like hotel and history and happy we do pronounce that ha at the beginning okay and there aren't any real rules for this so my advice is when you see a word always check which one is it does this word start with a silent h like in our or does this word start with a ha like in hotel okay hotel english doesn't really have any rules for this that are learnable okay so the only way to know is by checking in a dictionary or listening to a native speaker and each time you see a new word make sure that you check first okay now number
22:31 four the letter h is nearly always silent when it comes after the letter g okay in words like ghost or ghoul or ghastly okay ghost ghoul and ghastly the letter h is nearly always silent when it comes after the letter g at the beginning of a word okay ghost ghoul and ghastly okay okay sometimes when you see the letters g and h they are also both silent okay sometimes in words like night or right or ate or weight both the g and the h are silent okay practice with me night and right and ate and wait okay also when you see g and h at the end of a word this time it
23:23 can either be completely silent as in sigh or high or ni or way or it can be a sound i know completely crazy but sometimes in english gh at the end of a word can be a fu sound like in cough cough or rough rough or tough tough okay so gh at the end of a word remember it can either be completely silent as in high and nigh or it can be a fu as in rough and cough and tough some really good words that you should remember here are words like through through and though
24:10 very common word in english and also although although although it's raining i'm still going to go out although it's raining i'm still going to go out i don't like that though okay i don't like that though with that silent g and h at the end of those words okay through and though and although through though and although okay the letter h is also sometimes silent when it follows the letter c in english in words like school school and scheme scheme and at the end of a word like stomach okay school school scheme and stomach normally when it follows that hard cup sound school scheme and
25:00 stomach stomach okay but remember when it's at the beginning of a word like chat or choose or chase then it's not silent it's pronounced we will learn in a minute as a ch cha cha sound okay if you want to practice that sound wait because it's coming up very soon okay but again remember after the letter c sometimes the letter h is silent in words like school scheme and stomach okay finally the letter h at the very end of words is always silent okay in words like cheetah cheetah or the name sarah sarah or even the ruler of ancient egypt the pharaoh pharaoh okay cheetah
25:50 sarah and pharaoh the letter h at the end of a word is always silent okay so remember at the end if you see the letter h we never pronounce it okay okay let's try some practice sentences to help you remember some of these rules try this one at night when sarah's school choir went through the chords at night when sarah's school choir went through the chords okay at night when sarah's school choir went through the chords at night when sarah's school choir went through the chords your turn okay well done number two honestly what an honor to meet the heir of a pharaoh at this hour
26:35 honestly what an honor to meet the heir of a pharaoh at this hour honestly what an honor to meet the heir of a pharaoh at this hour okay practice with me honestly what an honor to meet the heir of a pharaoh at this hour okay practice those tongue twisters until you've really got a good feel for when the letter h is silent in english okay okay be careful with the silent h though because it can be really tricky look at these two sentences number one don't take hours number two don't take hours if you hear them you probably think they are exactly the same
27:20 don't take hours don't take hours but because number two has that silent h letter the meaning is completely different number one don't take hours means don't take our things don't take our stuff number two don't take hours means don't take a long time don't take many hours okay so be careful because sometimes that letter h can be playing tricks on you and you have to double check maybe there's a silent h in there somewhere okay don't take hours and don't take hours okay finally what we're going to learn about is the letter h in english often comes together with
28:06 other letters to make new sounds different sounds for example take a look at ch ch in english is not pronounced with a cut or a ha it's pronounced with a whole different sound the cha cha cha sound practice with me cha cha cha okay think of words like chat chat or chase chase or choose this one or this one choose chat chase and choose also at the end of words like much such and which much such and which okay practice this sentence such champions choose to chat such
28:57 champions choose to chat okay such champions choose to chat that'll help you get that ch cha sound remember the ch sound is voiceless and again it comes from down in your diaphragm cha chat choose champion such and witch okay we also have the s and h together found in words like she and shoot and share be careful with this one because the s and h sound shh sometimes people confuse that with the ch cha cha but listen to the difference ch okay it's very short and shh for the sh
29:50 versus okay i like to remember this by turning my hand around for the ch cha cha for the s h sh shh okay the s h is often found in really common words like she she and shoot shoot and also share share and also at the end of words like wish and dish and fish okay wish dish and fish okay practice this sentence she should wash and share the shoes she should wash and share the shoes she should both that shh she should wash and share the shoes
30:37 she should wash and share the shoes okay she should wash and share the shoes okay then we have the p and h p and h come together to make the f sound it's the same as the letter f okay think of words like photo or phone or phase photo phone or phase okay also at the end of words like graph and morph and biography graph morph and biography okay practice this sentence morphing photos on my phone morphing photos on my phone morphing photos on my phone morphing photos on
31:24 my phone morphing photos on my phone okay okay next up we have the th sound the th is super difficult it's one of the most difficult sounds in english i have a video all about the two different th sounds in english so if you want to learn perfectly how to pronounce the two th sounds check out this video up here okay or you can check in the description below this video but th can either be voiced or voiceless it is voiced in words like that and it pronounced there as that these those and of course mother mother and father father okay practice with me that these
32:23 those mother and father okay but we also have the voiceless th in words like math or bath or theater or thursday math bath theater and thursday this time the sound is it's not voiced no sound from the vocal chords the voiced one the voiceless okay so practice these sentences number one these or those or them over there these or those or them over there okay
33:08 all of those are voiced th sounds these or those or them over there okay these or those or them over there okay and number two thank you for showing me the theater bathroom thank you for showing me the theater bathroom weird sentence but it has that f sound in there thank you for showing me the theater bathroom thank you for showing me the theater bathroom okay practice all of those until you've mastered the h combo sounds okay now let's look at three of my favorite words in english beginning with the letter h okay
34:00 beginning with the letter h these are my three favorite words in english beginning with this letter number one is hospitalization hospitalization i don't know why i like this word i just think it sounds cool because there's lots of vowel sounds in there listen hospitalization hospitalization hospitalization it means to get put into hospital to do something that makes you end up in the hospital hospitalized okay hospitalization hospitalization number two is hypnotherapists hypnotherapists okay hypnotherapists are people who hypnotize you you know these guys that go okay and you get dizzy you are hypnotized a person whose job to
34:51 hypnotize you is a hypnotherapist a hypnotherapist hypnotherapist okay practice with me hypnoferra pissed it's difficult because it has that th in the middle and the letter h at the beginning pissed hypnotherapists okay and number three my favorite h word in english is humanitarianism humanitarianism humanitarianism means a type of philosophy or idea that puts humanity first okay humanitarianism is thinking or doing things that put humans at number one to care deeply about humanity all of the world
35:39 humanitarianism humanitarianism okay practice with me humanitarianism humanitarianism okay they are my favorite three h words in english and hopefully they will also help you to improve your pronunciation okay now we're going to have a little test in english okay i want you to write your answers in the comments below number one look at these four words h a h a h a h a all of these four words have the h followed by the letter a but one of those words has a different vowel sound the letter a is pronounced the same in three of those words but in one of
36:30 those words the letter a is pronounced differently if you know which word it is you can write number one and then a b c or d which one is your answer okay a b c or d which one has a different vowel sound okay number two is the same this time h plus e h plus e in these four words they all have the letter h followed by the letter e but one of them has a different vowel sound for the letter e which one is it you can write number two a b c or d in the comments below now number three h plus i
37:20 h plus i four words all h plus i one of those vowel sounds is different it's the odd one out it's different to all the others which one is it you can write three and then a b c or d next is number four number four h plus o four words all with h plus o one of them has a different vowel sound okay which one is it you can write four and then a b c or d finally number five is h plus u h plus the u vowel four words again with h plus u but one of them has a different vowel sound okay
38:09 you should have in the comments one two three four and five and your answers a b c or d for each question i will answer you if i see you write that in the comments and tell you whether you are right or wrong okay good luck thank you very very much for watching this lesson again remember if you enjoy these lessons and if you find them helpful you can hit that like button and subscribe you can also now support me on kofi okay you can find that in the description box below okay thank you very much for watching i'll see you again soon have a very very fantastic day bye bye
