Burning Questions: How should the letter H be pronounced? Is it 'aitch’ or ‘haitch’?

On the one hand, the version which begins ‘ay’ rather than ‘hay’ seems to be the commonly used and generally accepted way of saying it.

But on the other hand, people who prefer it with the ‘hay’ sound might argue that pronouncing the word for the letter H without putting H at the beginning would be odd. That said, plenty of other letters are pronounced with a vowel sound at the start, such as ‘ef’, ‘el’ and ‘em’.

British English dictionaries says that while ‘aitch’ as in ‘ay’ rather than ‘hay’ is the standard pronunciation, the other option is still a valid alternative.

Which of the two options do you use? Do you think one is definitely right and the other one wrong?

Are there other simple words which are like nails going down a blackboard when you hear them being, in your opinion, mispronounced?

Add your comments below.

Our Burning Questions feature aims to settle some of life’s perennial arguments and answer some of its little mysteries with readers’ collective knowledge.

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