the hotel / the orange => pronunciation

[xiaoen]

Read the hotel!

Hi,
I see the above title in one of the hotel websites.

Can we say that because "h" in "hotel" is pronounced as a vowel so we should pronounce "the" like "di"?

I mean "Read the (di) hotel."

Like "Where is the (di) orange?"

 

[Tdol]

We could, but the only people I know that pronounce hotel as a vowel are upper class older people, and very old at that. The vast majority of native speakers pronounce it as a consonant, so unless you want to sound like a posh British speaker from the 1930s, I wouldn't recommend it.

 

[emsr2d2]

How on earth does one read a hotel?

 

[xiaoen]

How on earth does one read a hotel?

What do you mean? I didn't have a problem with "hotel".
I meant the correct pronunciation of "the" before "hotel".

I read "hotel" as "hë|"tel".

 

[emsr2d2]

You said it was on a hotel website.

"Read the hotel!" does not make sense in English. It's an imperative. You can say "Read the book!" or "Read my lips!" but it is impossible to read a hotel.

 

[emsr2d2]

Agreed, but that would be a strange thing to find on a hotel website!

 

[Tdol]

It would, but it would be pronounced without the h.

 

[GoesStation]

It would, but it would be pronounced without the h.

Americans always pronounce the H in hotel.

 

[emsr2d2]

I haven't heard a BrE speaker drop the "h" (and therefore use "an" before it) for about twenty years.