[General] Pronunciation of "Household", Slient H?

Hi Everyone,

I've beening watching a lot of English TVs and movies, and also communcates with many english native speakers, when they say the word "Household", I hear that most of them will not pronounce the second H sound of "Household", they pronounce as "Housold", please advise if my ears are functioning normally...haha! Thanks.


EngFan

EngFan said:

please advise if my ears are functioning normally.

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They are.

fivejedjon said:

They are.

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Hi fivejedjon, you mean they are silent the second H sound of "household"?

EngFan said:

Hi fivejedjon, you mean they are silent the second H sound of "household"?

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They are - your ears are functioning correctly.
It is - the second 'h' in 'household' is silent - for some speakers, sometimes.

fivejedjon said:

They are - your ears are functioning correctly.
It is - the second 'h' in 'household' is silent - for some speakers, sometimes.

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:up: - and sometimes the variation takes place in a single speaker. I think, in my case, I normally sound both hs when it's a noun - especially when it's reinforced by alliteration: 'head of the household'; but when it's behaving adjectivally I only sound the first h - 'house[h]old expenditure'.

b

In case you are curious about Canada and the States, generally speaking both are pronounced. Where I'm from the second h is always pronounced.

Not a teacher

In England* most speakers would probably claim that they always pronounced the second 'h', but they would be wrong. In normal conversation, even educated speakers drop far more aitches than they realise.

*I don't know about Scotland and Wales.

I do the same as BobK.

EngFan said:

Hi Everyone,

I've beening watching a lot of English TVs and movies, and also communcates with many english native speakers, when they say the word "Household", I hear that most of them will not pronounce the second H sound of "Household", they pronounce as "Housold", please advise if my ears are functioning normally...haha! Thanks.


EngFan

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I usually pronounce the second “h” as well. Sometimes when I speak fast, I do omit it. I think in Canada, we generally pronounce both “h's.”

Well, Thats very interesting, Being Hispanic raised in the U.S, I was taught to pronounce the (H) as if I'm am breathing, it comes out natural and pretty clear. As for the word (Household) , i was raised to pronounce the first and the second (H) because in the U.S and Canada the (H) sound comes out so naturally, that there is no reason to stress on words like (Household) or pronounce them any differently. Most interpretors, will point that out as "bad pronunciation" because their is no reason to pronounce the word (household) like (Housold), every letter in the (household) and in the English language serves to be pronounced clearly and "correctly". Some languages disregard this, like French, where some last vowels or consonants are not pronounced. In French conversation, while pronouncing, there would be a link between every word in a sentence. This is not the case in English because it's not a latin language , it's a West Germanic language. Just one piece of advice, be careful what you hear because it can't always be "correct", you will also be criticized for pronouncing a certain way because it reflect where you learned it. Going back to the word (household), This word has two parts but it's considered as one word, which it's debatable on the way it should be pronounced. I was tough that words like Household were never considered as one word in old English, so it should be made clear that it should be pronounced as if they were two words but it's a very long debate.