# Do your ha's end in a h or an a? **URL:** \ **Category:** In My Humble Opinion\ **Created:** [June 18, 2013, 4:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-your-has-end-in-a-h-or-an-a/661281 "2013-06-18T16:05:08Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 16\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Shalmanese](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/45deac/32.png) [@Shalmanese](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Shalmanese)\ **Post date:** [June 18, 2013, 4:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-your-has-end-in-a-h-or-an-a/661281/1 "2013-06-18T16:05:08Z")
I’ve noticed some people say “hahaha” and others say “hahahah”. Which are you? ---
**Author:** ![panache45](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/panache45/32/64_2.png) [@panache45](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/panache45)\ **Post date:** [June 18, 2013, 4:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-your-has-end-in-a-h-or-an-a/661281/2 "2013-06-18T16:07:27Z")
When spoken, how do they sound different? Isn’t the final “h” silent? ---
**Author:** ![Prof.Pepperwinkle](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/prof.pepperwinkle/32/13627_2.png) [@Prof.Pepperwinkle](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Prof.Pepperwinkle)\ **Post date:** [June 18, 2013, 4:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-your-has-end-in-a-h-or-an-a/661281/3 "2013-06-18T16:55:25Z")
My wife’s uncle and family in Kentucky pronounce the final h. ---
**Author:** ![Shalmanese](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/45deac/32.png) [@Shalmanese](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Shalmanese)\ **Post date:** [June 18, 2013, 9:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-your-has-end-in-a-h-or-an-a/661281/4 "2013-06-18T21:38:52Z")
Sorry, I mean via email/IM/SMS ---
**Author:** ![Johanna](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/johanna/32/8318_2.png) [@Johanna](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Johanna)\ **Post date:** [June 18, 2013, 11:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-your-has-end-in-a-h-or-an-a/661281/5 "2013-06-18T23:05:42Z")
Other—because I haven’t ever put that in email/IM/texting. ---
**Author:** ![I\_Made\_French\_Toast\_For\_You](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/i/858c86/32.png) [@I\_Made\_French\_Toast\_For\_You](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/I_Made_French_Toast_For_You)\ **Post date:** [June 18, 2013, 11:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-your-has-end-in-a-h-or-an-a/661281/6 "2013-06-18T23:45:20Z")
Hahahah. Not sure why – I guess I like symmetry. ---
**Author:** ![Speaker\_for\_the\_Dead](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/c77e96/32.png) [@Speaker\_for\_the\_Dead](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Speaker_for_the_Dead)\ **Post date:** [June 19, 2013, 12:21am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-your-has-end-in-a-h-or-an-a/661281/7 "2013-06-19T00:21:40Z")
Mine are both, in a “Haha” to “Hahah” ratio of about 10:1. “Hahah” is always a typo. ---
**Author:** ![TheChileanBlob](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/thechileanblob/32/435_2.png) [@TheChileanBlob](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TheChileanBlob)\ **Post date:** [June 19, 2013, 12:30am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-your-has-end-in-a-h-or-an-a/661281/8 "2013-06-19T00:30:19Z")
I think in text messages etc it’s spelled LOL. ---
**Author:** ![BigT](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bigt/32/12044_2.png) [@BigT](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BigT)\ **Post date:** [June 19, 2013, 1:04am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-your-has-end-in-a-h-or-an-a/661281/9 "2013-06-19T01:04:39Z")
I have sometimes pronounced the h at the end, but you can do that with any word in English because final aspirations are not phonemic. I never spell it like that, because the single word is spelled “ha,” not “hah,” and it’s just three "ha"s done quickly in a row. I mean, I don’t write hohohoh, either. ---
**Author:** ![Senegoid](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/senegoid/32/6606_2.png) [@Senegoid](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Senegoid)\ **Post date:** [June 19, 2013, 8:30am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-your-has-end-in-a-h-or-an-a/661281/10 "2013-06-19T08:30:41Z")
> [@panache45](#): > > When spoken, how do they sound different? Isn’t the final “h” silent? Lemme ditto that question. What is a final h supposed to sound like? I’ve read this about Hebrew too. A great many words end with a final h. One well-known example: תּוֹרָה (Torah). It’s very common because it’s also the ending for a great many nouns in the feminine gender. What I’ve read is that the final h is to be pronounced just like any other consonant would be. (Huh?) This is especially confusing to me, because in Hebrew the “h” sound (the letter “hay” ה ) is a very weak sound, very nearly silent in any case, even at the beginning of a syllable. ---
**Author:** ![sandra\_nz](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/eada6e/32.png) [@sandra\_nz](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/sandra_nz)\ **Post date:** [June 19, 2013, 9:39am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-your-has-end-in-a-h-or-an-a/661281/11 "2013-06-19T09:39:02Z")
Heheheh. ---
**Author:** ![shijinn](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/cc9497/32.png) [@shijinn](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/shijinn)\ **Post date:** [June 19, 2013, 9:59am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-your-has-end-in-a-h-or-an-a/661281/12 "2013-06-19T09:59:50Z")
i’ve heard it pronounced EL OH EL ---
**Author:** ![drewtwo99](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/d07c76/32.png) [@drewtwo99](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/drewtwo99)\ **Post date:** [June 19, 2013, 10:49am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-your-has-end-in-a-h-or-an-a/661281/13 "2013-06-19T10:49:28Z")
Hahaha, what a great idea for a poll. ---
**Author:** ![BigT](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bigt/32/12044_2.png) [@BigT](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BigT)\ **Post date:** [June 19, 2013, 10:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-your-has-end-in-a-h-or-an-a/661281/14 "2013-06-19T22:40:59Z")
> [@Senegoid](#): > > Lemme ditto that question. What is a final h supposed to sound like? > > I’ve read this about Hebrew too. A great many words end with a final h. One well-known example: תּוֹרָה (Torah). It’s very common because it’s also the ending for a great many nouns in the feminine gender. What I’ve read is that the final h is to be pronounced just like any other consonant would be. (Huh?) > > This is especially confusing to me, because in Hebrew the “h” sound (the letter “hay” ה ) is a very weak sound, very nearly silent in any case, even at the beginning of a syllable. The technical description is in the post above yours. For a more layman’s description: you continue breathing out, even after you’ve stopped your voice. You probably do it when you do a refreshing “Ah!” after, say, a drink or something. It basically means whispering the vowel. People do it all the time, but they just don’t notice because it has no meaning in English. (That’s why I said it was non-phonemic.) In Hebrew it might be a little different, as there is more than one way to pronounce [h]. In English, we usually just aspirate the vowel–what I described above. But, in other languages, [h] can actually be a fricative, meaning you constrict the air so that it makes a sound when it comes out. In the case of [h], it sounds similar to , the sound at the beginning of Chanukah, but is less harsh sounding. Kind of halfway between the American [h] and the Hebrew . ---
**Author:** ![BigT](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bigt/32/12044_2.png) [@BigT](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BigT)\ **Post date:** [June 19, 2013, 10:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-your-has-end-in-a-h-or-an-a/661281/15 "2013-06-19T22:42:08Z")
> [@shijinn](#): > > i’ve heard it pronounced EL OH EL That word is increasingly pronounced as if it were spelled loll. It’s particularly common in the plural, as in “all the LOLZ.” ---
**Author:** ![Mister\_Rik](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mister_rik/32/491_2.png) [@Mister\_Rik](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mister_Rik)\ **Post date:** [June 19, 2013, 11:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-your-has-end-in-a-h-or-an-a/661281/16 "2013-06-19T23:03:39Z")
I split the difference. Haha! Hah!