How do we pronounce insane?
Is the H silent in huge?
When people do it, they aren’t just randomly or lazily leaving off a sound. This “h“-dropping occurs in a specific environment—only in words that start with a “hyu.” If they drop it in huge, they also drop it in humor, humid, humiliation, humongous, and Hugh.
Is the T silent in exactly?
In practice, yes it is virtually silent unless one makes a special effort to pronounce it. When we have a consonant cluster here /ktl/ one sound is often not heard. The linguistice term for it is “dissimilation”.
David Nilsen is the former editor of Fourth & Sycamore. He is a member of the National Book Critics Circle. You can find more of his writing on his website at davidnilsenwriter.com and follow him on Twitter as @NilsenDavid.