I would like to know and to get some information about the pronunciation of the word "honest".
Some people told me that it's pronounced without the first letter "h" (as if: onest) but some told me that it's pronounced with the "h" as a full form pronunciation (honest). Who's right? or does it depend on the country?
These sources
say that the pronunciation is without the "h". I've never personally heard it with the "h". It's possible that some people do pronounce it with the "h", but I feel that they are the minuscule minority. So, I would say you are safest saying "onest", without the "h".
I've known it with a silent "h", so "an honest man" as opposed to "a helpful man".
The silent "h" occurs in some words of French origin:
hour
heir
honest
honour
whereas a hard "h" will occur in words of Germanic origin
hatchet
harness
helmet
hamlet
In terms of accents:
The French, when speaking English, will often drop the "h"s since it is not pronounced in French, e.g. Les Halles is pronounced "lay al". On the other hand, I have been asked in Paris by an American "Do you know where Les Halles (les hal-les) is? Had to think for a moment what they meant.
In BrE, an East London, South London, or Cockney accent also drops "h"s, because, well, that's what they do. So they may say "elpful" for helpful.
hotel which still can be aspirated. Unlike the more Germanic word so the same thing: hostel (the French form dropped the s at some point).
Commented
Jun 17, 2016 at 10:52
hôtel -- is indicative of the lost s.
Commented
Jun 17, 2016 at 15:35
g in doigt (from digit). But this is now optional.
Commented
Jun 17, 2016 at 19:53
There are words with initial "h" where the pronunciation of that "h" varies by region and dialect, but the word "honest" is not one of them. Even in regions (such as mine) in which initial "h" is scrupulously not dropped, "h" is never pronounced in "honest".
Necessary concomitant: we say "a historian" (where I gather Brits write "an historian"), but we say "an honest man".
There are three root words I know of that are spelt beginning with a H but are pronounced without any initial aspiration in those accents that have H-aspiration:
These could be ancient imports from French (where the aspiration is not pronounced) who's pronunciation became standardised before other H-words were Anglicised.
Accents like Cockney that say "Eez at iz ouse" for "He's at his house" drop the H from all words AFAIK.
As others have alluded to, use of a/an before a H-word depends on pronunciation:
"A historian received an honour."
It does not depend on the country or region. The H is silent.
This video on You-tube is also talking about it:
"Mispronouncing words that they have silent aitches in English, is a very common mistake"
That's why I think that those who told me to pronounce it with h (honest), are wrong. So-far I didn't even one source that supports or gives evidence for correct pronunciation of honest with h.
Check this video on Youtube "Banshee Review - Commodore Amiga + CD32 - Kim Justice (Kimblitz #4) ". The narrator, a British native speaker, clearly pronunces "honestly" with the H.
The Oxford Advanced learner's dictionary has two pronunciations for the word Honest. The British one is without H and the American one is with H. It looks like the place matters!
hadded and which wouldn't. It has been suggested that it might depend on the location origin of the word (from French of from German). As another example, consider the way that Americans don't aspirate thehat the start of 'herb' - this was true in the British Isles a couple of hundred years ago but the pronunciation then mutated in one part of the English world and not in another. However, British English doesn't require 'an' preceding 'herb'. No reason why, but that's English for ya.