/h/

The /h/ sound is remarkably simple: it's just a gentle breath of air from your throat. Open your mouth as if you're about to say the vowel that follows, then exhale softly before voicing begins. Your tongue, lips, and jaw don't do anything special - they simply prepare for the next sound while air flows freely through.

Your vocal cords stay apart and don't vibrate (it's voiceless). Think of it as a soft, breathy whisper - not a harsh throat-clearing sound. The air passes through your glottis (the opening between your vocal cords) with just enough friction to be audible.

In American English, /h/ only occurs before vowels: at the start of words ("hat", "hello", "huge") or between vowels ("behind", "behave", "ahead"). You'll never find it at the end of a word or before a consonant.

Some words have a silent "h": "hour", "honest", "honor", "heir", and "herb" (in American English). These use "an" instead of "a" - "an hour", "an honest mistake".

Native speakers naturally drop /h/ from unstressed pronouns and auxiliaries mid-sentence. "Tell him" becomes "tell 'im", "I have seen" sounds like "I've seen" or "I 'ave seen". But /h/ is always pronounced at the start of a sentence: "He is here" keeps the /h/ in "He".

Try the paper test: hold a small piece of paper close to your mouth. When you say /h/ correctly, the paper should flutter gently from the puff of air. If nothing moves, you might be skipping the sound entirely.