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- "هٰذا اسْم صَعْب."
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You are hearing it correctly. اسم and some other Arabic words start with what's called "Hamzatu-l waSl" or the eliding Hamza. It means that you hear the vowel on the Alif if it is at the beginning of the sentence or if the word is by itself, but if there is another vowel (like the "a" from "hada"), then it disappears.
When the script is vowelled like they are here, you can tell which is which because hamzatu l-waSl is shown as اَ اُ اِ with just the vowel mark, but the other hamzah (hamzatu l-qaTa3, the cutting hamza) has the actual hamza sign: أ إ