I’m concerned over the certain way my kid says this letter — I keep on correcting them
A mom has expressed concern over her child’s teacher’s pronunciation of a specific letter; should it be pronounced “HAICH” or “AICH”? The mom firmly believes it’s the latter.
The mom posted, “Haich drives me crazy, but the teachers at school say it that way, so I’m having to correct them ALL THE TIME.”
She then asks the parenting group, “Do you have any words that make you die a little inside when your children pronounce them wrong/differently? First world problems I know.”
How to pronounce the letter H
Some might throw their hands up and say, “Potato, potahto.” For others, including this mom, it’s an ick she can’t shake.
“It’s time you taught the teachers at the school that it’s ‘aich,'” wrote one teacher wrote in response.
But another teacher took a different approach: “As an English teacher, I am rarely concerned with mispronunciation, accents, dialects, or anything else that’s simply the sound of how someone says their words. I say ‘aitch’ but sometimes ‘haitch,’ and it’s no less a reflection on me than how I say tomayto-tomahto. If you are understood, you’re doing great.”
And this commenter shared a funny memory: “My mom wrote a letter to a famous TV quiz show about this once, and the producer replied that he agreed with her and basically said the presenters were a bit simple.”
“It only encourages him”
This person observed: “Good to know our culture still exists and that we are taking pride in our children’s language and pronunciation.”
While this mom shared, “My teen says haitch is correct – I f—king hate it, which only encourages him.”
Then there was this sage but hilarious advice: “Just say, ‘Oh no, we don’t say that here, darling.’ They’ll soon get the idea that they’re supposed to be insufferable snobs. Unfortunately for you, they’ll almost certainly figure out that they only need to pretend to be when you’re around.”
“Pacific instead of specific”
The poster also asked for other pronunciation pet peeves (say that ten times fast) and commenters were more than happy to oblige.
“Pacific instead of specific! My eldest daughter used to say this all the time. Whenever I would say the Pacific is an ocean, and it bugged her so much, she stopped. My youngest does it sometimes to be funny,” one wrote.
“Chimley, funderal, gonna, gotten—there are so many to choose from…” added a self-confessed Wordle fan.
Finally, the mom said this in response to the viral thread: ” I think my parents corrected us a lot – I’m grateful for it now as I have good grammar and pronounce most things properly but I’m fighting the ‘haich’ in my very own household- it keeps coming home from school.
“This is a light-hearted thread for anyone wanting to take it too seriously!”