H h — hac
«hac» is a consonant of Valencian, the “the Valencian Latin alphabet” script, read as “silent, never pronounced”. Silent always, as in Spanish and French. For example, in the word “hora” — hour. The Valencian alphabet has 35 letters in total. Written by tradition: hola sounds "ola". Yet hui and huit are not written without it. It appears, for example, in the word “hola” — hi.
In short
| Character | H h |
| Name | hac |
| Sound | silent, never pronounced |
| What it is | a consonant |
In our course the character comes 9th of 35: the order here is not alphabetical but from familiar to unfamiliar, its neighbours in the course are g and i, appears in 150 words of this site.
How it sounds
Silent always, as in Spanish and French
The character in a word
A lone character is hard to remember: memory holds on to meaning, and a letter has none. The word it stands in provides that anchor.
- horahour
The character in the “letters that deceive” group
This is where Valencian parts ways with Spanish: j is a j as in "jam", s between vowels voices to z, and h is silent — yet hui and huit are not written without it.
- J ja voiced j, between "jam" and the s of "vision"jota
- G gg as in "go"; j before e and ige
- V va soft b, lips never presseduve baixa
- B bb as in "best"; p at the end of a wordbe alta
- C ck as in "kite"; s before e and ice
- Q qk, always with a silent ucu
- S ss as in "sun"; z between vowelsesse
- Ss sss as in "sun", always voicelessessa doble
- R ra tapped r — and final -r is pronouncederre
- Rr rra long trilled rerra doble
Words with this character
How to remember this character
A single letter is the hardest thing to remember: memory has nothing to hold on to — a character has no meaning. A three-step loop works: see the character, try to recall the sound (for «hac» it is “silent, never pronounced”, as in the word “hora”), see the right answer.
And come back to it the next day, not in an hour: a check a day or two later beats a check the same day. Nobody holds the whole alphabet — 35 letters — at once.
- It is better to test yourself the next day than at the end of the same session. That is why a word comes back to you tomorrow.checked many timesAdesope, Trevisan & Sundararajan, 2017, Review of Educational Research 87(3) · g = 0.82 when tested a day or two later, against 0.56 on the same day.
- Studying a little every day gets more into your head than spending the same total time in one sitting.checked many timesDonovan & Radosevich, 1999, Journal of Applied Psychology 84(5) · 63 studies compared, difference d = 0.46 — a sizeable figure for a learning effect.
Frequently asked
How does the Valencian character h read?
As “silent, never pronounced” — it is a consonant of the “the Valencian Latin alphabet” script. Silent always, as in Spanish and French. For example, in the word “hora” — hour.
What is the letter h called?
Hac. A character's name and its sound are different things in the Valencian script: it is called “hac” and reads as “silent, never pronounced”. Learn the second one: the name only helps when the alphabet is recited aloud.
What can h be confused with?
Written by tradition: hola sounds "ola". Yet hui and huit are not written without it. Similar characters are best studied side by side and deliberately compared: learned on different days, they stay separate and get mixed up at their first meeting inside a word.