In the chapter on word stress you learned that pronouns are not stressed. When we reduce the pronouns, the first letter is often silent. For example, the letter h is often silent for the words he, him, his, her, and hers when these pronouns are not the first words of a sentence. Also, the th sound is often silent for the word them. This is particularly true in casual speech, but it frequently occurs in formal speech as well. Study the example below.

Note: Always pronounce the first consonant of a pronoun when the pronoun is in the beginning of a sentence or a phrase.