Words with H

The letter H in Spanish has the unusual distinction of being completely silent. You write it, you do not say it. The word hola is pronounced exactly like it would be if it were spelled ola, and hombre sounds identical to a hypothetical ombre. That raises an obvious question: if you never say it, how do you know when to write it?

The answer is that h appears in predictable places — mostly tied to the word's Latin or Greek origin — and there are several patterns that cover most common words.

Why H exists at all

Spanish inherited h from Latin, where the letter was once pronounced. Over the centuries the sound disappeared, but the spelling stuck. Some h letters also replaced earlier Latin f: Latin facere became Spanish hacer, and Latin filius became hijo. These older f words are why so many common verbs and family words begin with h.

The big patterns

All forms of haber

The auxiliary verb haber and every single one of its forms starts with h. This includes hay ("there is/are"), había ("there was"), ha, han, he, hemos, and hubiera.

Words starting with hue- and hie-

Any word that begins with the sound [we] or [ye] — written ue or ie — takes an h in front. This is one of the most reliable rules in Spanish spelling.

Interestingly, some of these words come from Latin roots that did not have an h — hueso comes from Latin ossum, and huevo comes from ovum. The h was added later by medieval scribes because the letter u at the start of a word could be confused with v.

Words starting with hum-

The root hum- almost always takes an h: humano, humanidad, humano, húmedo, humor, humilde, humo (smoke). The exceptions are rare.

Greek prefixes: hidr-, hip-, hipo-, hiper-, hetero-, homo-, hexa-

Many scientific and learned words use Greek roots that begin with h.

Words starting with hosp- and host-

These two roots, which come from Latin hospes (guest), begin with h: hospital, hospitalidad, hospedaje, hostal, hostil.

Everyday verbs from Latin F

The verbs haber, hacer, hablar, hallar, hervir, hinchar, huir all start with h. They used to start with f in Latin — facere, fabulari, fallere, fervere. If you are familiar with a Romance language like Italian or French, the f versions may look familiar.

Words that sound alike but mean different things

Because h is silent, some words with and without h sound identical. Writing the wrong one is a very common mistake for native speakers too.

A note on the digraph CH

The letter combination ch is its own thing — it makes the sound in English church, completely unrelated to silent h. When you see ch, treat it as a single sound and forget about the "silent h" rule.

For pronunciation details, see The silent H. For the full set of spelling rules, return to the spelling overview.