The Letter H

The letter H is number eight in the modern Latin English alphabet. It is pronounced 'aitch' when it's by itself, which makes this letter unique because all other letters use their own sound in their singular pronunciation. Linguistical historians believe the letter originally symbolized a fence.

The letter H originally has the sound of Aitch but since 1982, the pronunciation Haitch has become more popular. There is a lot of debate over the history of the name of the letter and the origin of it.

There are two simple ways of writing the letter – one of them for the lower case and the other for the upper case letter. The lower case form has a single vertical line with a horizontal line half way through and then a shorter vertical line at the end of the horizontal line. The uppercase form is two vertical lines with a horizontal line joining them in the middle.

There are times when the H is a silent letter. This is usually seen when it follows some vowels or when it is joined with a C or a G. This also gives the C and T a different sound, by adding a Ch in Cheetah or a Th is Three – as an example.

There is a rule that when talking about a singular object, the word A or An can be used. An is used when there is a vowel at the start of the next word. The word A is used when it comes to consonants starting the next word. However, this rule is sometimes broken when it comes to words starting with a letter H, especially when the next letter is a vowel. For example, instead of “a hotel” it is possible to write “an hotel”. This is more common in the romantic languages.

With 2 tiles representing the H in the Scrabble tiles bag, weighing in at 4 points each, the H can be increase the value of a laid word significantly. It can be very difficult to figure out how to use the H at times because it is not so easy to add on at the end of words. You need to hope that you have other letters to help you. There are shorter words where the H can be added, for example turning “ear” into “hear” but you can also turn that into a longer word such as “shear” or “hears”. This will depend on bonus tiles and the placement of any other words and letters.