The silent H in Spanish: when H is not pronounced

In Spanish the letter h is silent — you write it but you do not say it. Hola sounds like “ola”, hora sounds like “ora”, and hombre sounds like “ombre”. The rule is refreshingly simple: on its own, an h adds no sound at all, whether it sits at the start of a word or in the middle.

There is exactly one thing to watch: h combined with c makes the letter ch, which is a real sound (like English “ch” in church). That is a separate letter, not the silent h.

The rule: h is always silent

Wherever a lone h appears, skip it and pronounce the surrounding letters as normal. At the start of a word it simply vanishes.

Hola, ¿qué hora es?
Hello, what time is it?

In the middle of a word the h is still silent, so the vowels around it run together smoothly.

Ahora vivo en Honduras.
Now I live in Honduras.

Even the name of the letter itself, hache, starts with a silent h — you say “a-che”. This is unusual for English speakers, who are used to a breathy “h” in hello and house, so it takes a little retraining.

The one real exception: ch

When h follows c, the pair forms ch, a single sound very close to English “ch” in cheese. This has nothing to do with the silent h — it is its own letter with its own sound.

El chico come chocolate.
The boy eats chocolate.

So hola has no h-sound, but chico clearly does. If you see ch, pronounce it; if you see a lone h, stay silent.

Why the silent h still matters

If you never hear it, why keep the h? Because Spanish spelling still uses it, and it separates words that otherwise sound identical. Getting the h right in writing keeps these pairs apart.

These homophones are a favourite spelling trap for native speakers too. Because the h is invisible to the ear, the only way to place it correctly is to learn which word carries it.

The h in hue- and hie- words

There is a small twist worth knowing. When a silent h sits in front of the combination ue, the word still has no h-sound, but the ue itself sounds like an English “w”. So huevo (egg) comes out as “WEH-vo” and hueso (bone) as “WEH-so”. The h is doing nothing; the “w” glide comes from the u.

Quiero un huevo y un poco de hielo.
I want an egg and a little ice.

The same silent-h rule holds in hielo (ice) and hierba (grass): you pronounce the vowels straight through and ignore the h completely.

A note on borrowed words

A handful of words taken from other languages keep an audible, breathy h, closer to the English sound — for example hámster and hall. These are exceptions imported along with the word, not the normal Spanish h. For everyday native vocabulary, the silent rule holds, so treat these as one-off spellings to memorize rather than a change to the rule.

Common mistakes

Pronouncing the h like in English

The most common slip is carrying the English breathy h into Spanish. Hola has no h-sound.

“HOH-la” with a breathy h → “OH-la” with no h at all.
The h is silent, so hola begins on the vowel.

Forgetting to write the silent h

Because you never hear it, it is easy to leave the h out when writing. Words like haber and hacer need it even though it is silent.

aber, acer → haber, hacer.
The h is silent but required in spelling.

Turning ch into a different sound

Ch is not the English “sh”, nor a hard “k”. Chico is “chee-ko”, like the start of cheese.

“shee-ko” or “kee-ko” → “chee-ko”.
Ch is a single sound, like “ch” in church.

The silent h is a spelling habit as much as a sound, so it sticks best when you see the word and hear it at the same time. Fluera pairs every word with native audio, so you notice that hola and ola sound the same while looking different — a simple way to practice Spanish alongside trickier sounds like the rolled rr and the Spanish j.

Practice