Friday, June 15, 2018

H-Dropping in English Pronouns

Though h-dropping is not associated with varieties of English such as RP, Scottish, Irish, Canadian and American, it is nevertheless common with pronouns. Speakers of all dialects tend to drop the h of pronouns, especially in casual conversation. Here are examples in which h-dropping is common with all speakers:

Is he coming?
Do you know her?
Have you seen him?
Can you please tell her?
Is that his bag?
If I see him, I'll tell you.
I was with him yesterday.
I'll give it to her sister.
I wish he could come.
I'll see her tonight.

Notice that the pronouns in the examples are not sentence-initial. In sentence-initial position, h-dropping does not occur in the English of those who usually don't exhibit h-dropping . The same is true when the pronoun occurs in isolation as in Who did you give it to? Her.

H-dropping is common with English pronouns. However, with speakers who don't practise h-dropping in all words, this does not occur when the pronouns are sentence initial or in isolation. H-dropping of pronouns is especially common in casual conversation.

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