pronouncekit

SOUND LESSON

How to pronounce /h/: the h sound in hat

Make /h/ as gentle air from an open throat, with no tongue friction. Compare pinyin h and Spanish j, and learn silent h in hour and honest.

/h/
American English
/h/ · fricative · glottal · voiceless
British English
/h/ · fricative · glottal · voiceless
Pronunciation model

Try it in a word

Hold the hat ahead of her.

Mouth & tongue

Enable JavaScript to view the 3D panda. Pronunciation steps remain available below.

Vocal folds: apart

TongueTeethUvula

Simplified human pronunciation. The small uvula hangs from the palate; it is not the vocal folds. The wave indicates voicing.

Voice settings

The mouth starts slightly open. Movement is slowed for observation; the synthetic sound plays once at its original speed. Pause holds the current mouth shape; reset returns to the relaxed position. The panda is a symbolic teaching aid for human pronunciation, not animal anatomy.

What your mouth is doing

Air passes through an open glottis with the vocal folds apart. The tongue and lips are already preparing the next vowel, so /h/ changes shape from word to word. Think of fogging a mirror.

Comparing with Mandarin and Spanish

English /h/ occurs only before a vowel sound. Most words with a written h pronounce it, but hour, honest and heir do not. In weak forms such as “tell her”, it can disappear in casual speech.

Pinyin h and many forms of Spanish j are rougher, with friction at the back of the tongue, while Caribbean and some Andalusian Spanish forms can be very close to /h/. Keep English /h/ as a gentle breath.

Build the sound, step by step

  1. Open your mouth and breathe out silently, as if fogging a mirror.
  2. Shape your mouth for the vowel in hat, then breathe and start the vowel.
  3. Say house, who and ahead. In ahead, keep the air clear between syllables.

What to watch for

  • Scraping the back of the tongue adds roughness. Keep the throat and tongue relaxed.
  • Dropping it can change words: hair and air differ, as do heat and eat.

Hear the difference in your own voice

Practice heat and eat, then hair and air. Add only a soft breath before the vowel. Then try hour and our, which sound the same because the h in hour is silent.

Compare these sounds

Keep practicing

References & editorial notes

PronounceKit wrote this lesson as practical guidance. The references below describe the sounds; the comparisons with other languages are editorial teaching suggestions. It describes common American and British patterns, not every accent, and it has not been independently reviewed by a pronunciation specialist. The mouth model is a simplified teaching aid, not a validated simulation.

Published 3 November 2026