Amol Rajan: I’m going to start pronouncing the letter H properly now

Amol Rajan has promised to change the way he pronounces the letter H after viewers of University Challenge complained he was saying it incorrectly.

Rajan, 40, who hosted his first University Challenge final on Monday night, said he was finally giving in after a lifetime of pronouncing the letter as “haitch”.

Writing in a blog post for the BBC about what he has learnt since taking over from Jeremy Paxman, the broadcaster said: “All my life I’ve pronounced it ‘haitch’, dimly aware that I was getting it ‘wrong’.”

“Everyone I grew up with says ‘haitch’. My mates say ‘haitch’. But, dear reader, I’m here to tell you: it’s ‘aitch’

“This matters a lot to a lot of people, which is fair enough.”

The broadcaster said that in the next series, which starts in the summer, he would start saying “aitch”, despite the Oxford English Dictionary declaring that “haitch” is a commonly used variant.

The BBC pronunciation unit says that “aitch” is the standard British English pronunciation across the United Kingdom and that “haitch” is standard across Ireland and is considered a possible British variant. The unit does not say which is correct.

Rajan is not alone in his pronunciation, as other regular BBC broadcasters say “haitch” on air. They include radio presenters Nick Grimshaw and Sara Cox from Greater Manchester, as well as TV presenters Dara O’Briain and Graham Norton from Ireland.

The University Challenge host previously revealed on BBC Radio 5 Live he also struggled with questions that contain French words, often requiring several takes to master the pronunciation.

“French is both the one I find hardest, because I never studied French, and the one I think people watching BBC Two at 8.30pm on a Monday night care about. So we do the odd retake for the French ones.”

Rajan ‘humbled’ to host show

The presenter made his debut as the successor to Paxman last year, becoming only the third host in the quiz show’s history. He claimed that he was chosen to be the new host because he “pretends to be more clever than he actually is”.

Earlier this year, he wrote in the Radio Times that producers had decided to give him a smaller chair after viewers suggested he was dwarfed by the large leather presenter’s seat.

Rajan said he felt “humbled” to host the show but disclosed he did not have to audition for the job when Paxman, who was diagnosed with Parkinson’s, stepped down.

“They said, ‘Come to us, we want you to do this,’” as producers were sure they had the right person for the job.

Some viewers suggested that Rajan was the wrong person to take over from Paxman, who left the show after 29 years.

Rajan said: “Some people are going on a journey, having to accept that someone who looks and sounds like me has intellectual authority.”