These two words sound exactly the same to me. Are we assuming the "h" in "whine" is silent?
Asked
Active
Viewed 2,553 times
0
-
Good question. As a native english speaker, they sound the same to me. – dwjohnston May 14 '14 at 03:45
-
yes, they are pronounced the same but one of them, you sometimes wish you mixed Water With The Wine – Third News May 14 '14 at 04:21
-
@ThirdNews Some do whine about that. – Kris May 14 '14 at 05:24
-
Hwat?! http://www.oxforddictionaries.com/definition/american_english/what?q=what – Kris May 14 '14 at 05:28
-
@Kris I only whine about my wine when I'm outta wine – Third News May 14 '14 at 05:28
-
Speakers of certain dialects will pronounce the h in whine, but you will probably find that most people pronounce the two words identically. – Anonym May 14 '14 at 05:51
-
related: Is it affected to pronounce the “h” in wh- words such as “what”?, Hwat, hwere, and hwy? – herisson Oct 15 '15 at 23:42
2 Answers
2
In common use, yes, whine and wine sound the same. That said, if you wanted to give attention to occurrences of /wh/ and carefully pronounce them as in "white," no one would object.
(And with that said, I can't help but think of Stewie and "Whil Wheaton.")
TheFontSnob
- 243
0
Absolutely the "h" in "Whine" sounds. For "whine" I make a breath sound followed by "wine", almost, "h' wine". Exactly as in "white". Same with "win" and "when", I pronounce "when" almost "h'win".
