Italiano — Silent h
The Italian letter h is never pronounced. It appears in the present forms of avere (ho, hai, ha, hanno) to keep them distinct in writing from the homophones o, ai, a, anno, and after c and g in che, chi, gh.
How it works
The h is a purely written sign. In ho, hai, ha, hanno it is silent and serves only to separate these verb forms from the identical-sounding words o (or), ai (to the), a (at/to), anno (year). After c and g the h keeps a hard sound before e and i: che and chi are read [ke] and [ki], and gh in ghe, ghi stays hard, as in spaghetti. The h also opens interjections such as ah and oh.
Examples
| With h (avere) | Without h (homophone) | Meaning |
|---|---|---|
| ho | o | I have — vs. o "or" |
| hai | ai | you have — vs. ai "to the" (a + i) |
| ha | a | he/she has — vs. a "at, to" |
| hanno | anno | they have — vs. anno "year" |
Good to know
Never drop the h in avere: ho fame (I'm hungry) needs the h, and o fame would be a spelling mistake. Since the h is silent, the only clue to the right form is context and meaning — hanno un cane (they have a dog) not anno un cane. Outside these words, native Italian has no h at the start of a word, so foreign borrowings like hotel keep their silent h too.