One of the most difficult things for a French speaker to do correctly in English is to decide if the H needs to be heard or not. Here are words that will help you practice this. PAGE 3.
hey/A
• Hey! How are you?
• I like to get As in class
hi/high/eye
• Hi! How are you?
• He’s living high on the hog!
• You have a good eye for style
hide/I’d
• If I were you I’d hide this ugly picture
highbrow/eyebrow
• I don’t understand highbrow cultural events
• He needs to pluck his eyebrows
high-level/eye level
• Here is a high-level review of the plan
• Paintings need to hang at eye level
hill/ill
• This is a steep hill to climb
• She has been ill for the last few days
hire/ire
• This company is making an effort to hire diverse people
• I fear my wife’s ire
his/is
• His face is red from the cold
• Is Ike your friend?
hit/it
• He hit it out of the park!
• It is irrelevant one way or the other
hitch/itch
• I need a car with a hitch
• This itch is driving me crazy!
hive/I’ve
• She broke into hives after she ate shellfish
• I’ve got a good idea!
hoe/O
• Can I borrow your garden hoe?
hold/old
• This hold music is horrible
• Old dogs are wonderful
hone/own
• You have to hone in on the problem
• She owns a great car
honor *
• It’s an honor to honor WWI veterans
hoops/oops
• Let’s go shooting hoops!
• Oops I can’t find my keys.
hors d’oeuvre *
• The hors d’oeuvres were fantastic!
hot/ought
• It’s hot today!
• You ought to think about this again
hour/our *
• The hour of judgement is near
• Our friends are our best allies
hours/ours *
• They drink coffee at all hours of the day
• Ours is a beautiful flag
hover/over **
• Some mothers hover over their children
• His glory days are over
how/ow
• How can you stand the pressure?
• Ow! I hurt my finger!
howl/owl
• Some dogs howl at the moon
• Owls can turn their heads more than people can
hum/um
• They hum a nice song
• Um, what do you mean?
* Silent H (although Brits do pronounce the H in herb)
** The words have different vowel sounds
*** The words might have different vowel sounds, according to the accent
