English How to Pronounce the H consonant American Accent
The H consonant sound. This sound is simply
made, hh, by passing air through the mouth.
Hhh, if you hear a sound like that, and you
feel the soft palate bouncing against the
tongue, it’s not a correct H sound, hh. It’s
very quiet, just air coming though, hh, hh.
The rest of the mouth position depends on
the sound that comes next. For example, the
word how, how. The lips and the tongue are
both taking the position of the ‘ow’ as in
‘now’ diphthong. Hh, hh, how. Another example,
who, who. You can see the lips are already
rounding for the ‘oo’ as in ‘boo’ vowel even
before the H sound is made, who. Here we see
the H consonant sound on the right compared
with the mouth at rest. The only thing that
must happen for this sound is that the lips
be open to let the air through. The teeth
will also be slightly parted. You can see
the rest of the mouth is just as the mouth
at rest, except for the soft palate which
is raised in preparation for the vowel that
follows. The lip position will also take the
position of the vowel that follows. Sample
words: happen, have, home. Sample sentence:
He said hello to her when he got here. Now
you’ll see this sentence up close and in slow
motion, both straight on and from an angle,
so you can really study how the mouth moves
when making this sound. He, the H is made
as the mouth takes the ‘ee’ as in ‘she’ position.
Said, teeth together for the S, ‘eh’ as in
‘bed’ and the tongue up for the D. Hello,
which happens here as the mouth transitions
from the eh into the dark L. To her, H made
in the ‘ur’ as in ‘her’ vowel shape. When,
lips make the W. Tongue up for the N. He,
the H in the ‘ee’ as in ‘she’ shape. Got,
tongue up to make the T which is a stop. Here.
And the H is made in the ‘ee’ as in ‘she’
which goes quickly into the R consonant shape
position. And now from an angle. He, the H
is made in the ‘ee’ as in ‘she’ position.
Said, teeth together for the S. Hello, the
H is made as the ‘eh’ as in ‘bed’ mouth [position]
transitions into the dark L. The ‘oh’ as in
‘no’ diphthong. Tongue tip up for the T. To
her, H happens in the ‘ur’ as in ‘her’ vowel
shape. When, tongue up for the N, and the
H is made here in the ‘ee’ as in ‘she’ position.
He got. Tongue tip up here for the T which
is a stop. Here, and the H is made as the
mouth transitions into the ‘ee’ as in ‘she’
and then the R consonant sound shape. That’s
it, and thanks so much for using Rachel’s
English.