Honestly, You’ll Be Happy About These Pronunciation Tips

Aubrey Carter (0:00)

This is an All Ears English Podcast, episode 2708 Honestly, you'll be happy about these pronunciation tips.

Lindsay McMahon (0:10)

Welcome to the All Ears English Podcast, downloaded more than 200 million times. Are you feeling stuck with your English? We'll show you how to become fearless and fluent by focusing on connection, not perfection, with your American host, Aubrey Carter, the IELTS whiz, and Lindsay McMahon, the English adventurer. Coming to you from Arizona and Colorado, USA. To get your transcripts delivered by email every week, go to allearsenglish.com/subscribe.

Do you ever make mistakes when it comes to pronouncing the letter H? Do you leave it off when it should be used or include it when it shouldn't? Today, find out the trick to getting this right every single time.

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Aubrey Carter (1:39)

Hello, Lindsay. How are you today?

Lindsay McMahon (1:41)

Hey there, Aubrey. I'm doing great. How are you? How's everything?

Aubrey Carter (1:44)

Excellent. I have a question for you.

Lindsay McMahon (1:45)

All right.

Aubrey Carter (1:46)

When was the last time you were hangry?

Lindsay McMahon (1:48)

Ah, it happens a lot, to be honest.

Aubrey Carter (1:52)

Right? An hour ago, 15 minutes ago.

Lindsay McMahon (1:55)

Yeah. Over the weekend, we were looking at houses around Denver, and I was like, oh, when is this going to be over? Right? I'm hungry and I'm angry that I'm hungry. Usually it's a self-fulfilling part, right? It's like you're hungry. You become angry because you're hungry, and therefore you are hangry. Exactly.

Aubrey Carter (2:11)

This is a fun word, right? This is that blend of hungry and angry. You will say, well, I'm hangry. Like I'm hungry and it's making me grumpy. And this episode was inspired by this word because one of our students told me about a misunderstanding where she asked someone if they were hangry and they thought she was saying angry because the problem was she was not pronouncing the H. She wasn't pushing air with the H. This happens a lot. Language learners, if the H is more likely to be silent at the beginning of words in their language, they won't pronounce that H and it can cause misunderstandings.

Lindsay McMahon (2:43)

Yes, 100 percent. Oh my gosh. I guess the other meaning for Hangry could also be you're independently hungry and independently angry about something else. Just so we're totally clear of the meaning here.

Aubrey Carter (2:54)

You never know.

Lindsay McMahon (2:56)

Yeah, for sure. All right. Let's clear this up then for our listeners pronunciation today. That's great. I like that we're getting into pronunciation a little bit different for All Ears English, right?

Aubrey Carter (3:05)

Yeah, this is going to be great. And H really is so tricky because some H's are silent in English. So we're going to give three tips to help you with the pronunciation of H, so you know a little better when to be pushing air with that sound and when not. So I'm excited to dive into this. So you guys have some pro tips.

Lindsay McMahon (3:24)

Excellent, guys. Before we dive in, go ahead and hit that follow button right now. We are in the height of the autumn, the fall in the US at least.

This is the time to buckle down and focus in on your English. This is a great opportunity. Maybe if you're in the Northern Hemisphere, the weather is getting chilly. So this is a great time to be inside focusing in on your goals. So hit follow.

Aubrey Carter (3:45)

Absolutely.

Lindsay McMahon (3:46)

All right.

Aubrey Carter (3:46)

Yes, love that. Wherever you find your podcasts, be sure to hit follow so you don't miss any of our episodes. And let's dive in here, Lindsay. This is so interesting.

Lindsay McMahon (3:55)

Yeah, how do we pronounce H? I mean, let's talk about it a little bit, Aubrey.

Aubrey Carter (3:59)

Can you show us? Sometimes it is silent in English, and then sometimes we have aspiration. So that means a noticeable puff or burst of air that accompanies a sound, right? So we push air and go, and then airflow just means the actual movement of air through the vocal tract. So there's not vibrations of the vocal cords, but we're pushing air that can be heard audibly.