The temptation to pronounce the three words above the same way is as high as Mount Everest. I take no offence if you call that hyperbole. What I know is that that is the way many people pronounce the words. Often, you hear guys simply say HOT, HOT, HOT when articulating the trio — hot, hut, and hurt.
As a matter of fact, that is not exactly what you hear in many cases. The common sound is OT, OT, OT, meaning that a lot of people throw away the initial H as if it is a silent sound.
This indicates that the first error we are correcting in the common articulation of hot, hut, and hurt is saying them without starting with H. Although the H that starts some words is silent in pronunciation, the one beginning the three is different. In honour, hour, and honest, for example, we don’t pronounce the H. So, we say ONOUR, OUR, and ONEST. But when house, home, hunger, happy, hospital, etc. are articulated, the H starting them must clearly manifest. This is the case with the one in hot, hut, and hurt.
Hot like lot
‘Hot’ can be very easy to pronounce. Once you ensure H is not silent, you are good to go. The vowel that follows the consonant is the common O, pronounced like the one we have in lot, spot, shot, rod, and pot. So, we simply say HOt to realise the word.
I need hOt water.
I mean a lOt of water.
Iron rOd is very expensive now.
The pOt is leaking.
Hut: Not hOt!
Care must, however, be taken when saying ‘hut’. Its pronunciation is different from hot’s. For one, the ‘u’ should not come out as the ‘o’ in ‘hot’. The reason is that it constitutes the UH sound we have in words like shut, cup, buzz, under, come, and country. Don’t say hOt when you mean hUHt:
It is inside the hOt water. — It is inside the hUHt (hut).
Ronaldo fired a shOt. — He asked the critics to shUHt (shut) up.
Another name for a policeman is cOp. — Another object on the table is a cUHp (cup).
The bOss has left. — The bUH(buzz) zz has subsided.
Hurt: Neither hOt nor hUHt
The ‘u’ in the third word (hurt) also has a distinct pronunciation. Alongside the ‘r’ it precedes, it produces a long vowel that must be pronounced so: ERR. This is the vowel sound you have in furl, curl, curve, hurl, learn, earn, earth, serve, herb, her, etc. You can thus see that pronouncing ‘hurt’ as ‘hot’ amounts to a culpable offence:
Don’t splash hOt water on him.
Don’t hERRt (hurt) him again. He acts like a fOx.
The animal’s fERRl (furl) is dirty. Who cUt the tree?
He wanted to cERRl (curl) his hair.