Aha! The letter 'h'!

If you find it difficult to pronounce the letter ‘h’ you are not alone - help is at hand!

The first thing to remember is that when there is an ‘h’ at the beginning of a word, you need to pronounce it, apart from some very few exceptions such as the words ‘hour’, ‘honest’, ‘honour’ and ‘heir’.

But how do you make the ‘h’ sound in the first place? Well, what do you do when you want to clean your glasses or look through a steamy mirror in the bathroom? You probably exhale air on to it from the back of your mouth. And guess what? When you do that, you’re making a ‘h’ sound. Bizarre but true. If you want to check if you’re doing it right, take a small mirror and place it in front of your mouth. When you say the sound ‘h’, the mirror should steam up immediately.

So once you can make the sound, how do you practise it? One way is to make your own list of words that begin with ‘h’ and try saying them out loud. And if you want to go further and learn new vocabulary at the same time, challenge yourself to look in the dictionary for ‘h’ words that you didn’t know before.

But my personal favourite is singing – and ‘Help’ by the Beatles is the ideal song. Here’s a link to the song video: The Beatles - Help! - YouTube and here are the lyrics below:

Help
John Lennon and Paul McCartney

Help! I need somebody
Help! Not just anybody
Help! You know I need someone
Help!

When I was younger so much younger than today
I never needed anybody's help in any way
But now these days are gone and I'm not so self assured
Now I find I've changed my mind, I've opened up the doors

Help me if you can, I'm feeling down
And I do appreciate you being around
Help me get my feet back on the ground
Won't you please, please help me?

And now my life has changed in oh so many ways
My independence seems to vanish in the haze
But every now and then I feel so insecure
I know that I just need you like I've never done before

Help me if you can, I'm feeling down
And I do appreciate you being around
Help me get my feet back on the ground
Won't you please, please help me?

When I was younger, so much younger than today
I never needed anybody's help in any way
But now these days are gone and I'm not so self assured
Now I find I've changed my mind, I've opened up the doors

Help me if you can, I'm feeling down
And I do appreciate you being around
Help me get my feet back on the ground
Won't you please, please help me?

Help me, help me, Ooooooh.

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Other songs you might like to try (mostly for the chorus) are: Ha Ha Ha (Yeah) by White Denim and

Half of My Heart by John Mayer.

I hope this will help!