[Originally posted on 02/26/14 on the Duolingo French for English speakers forum by Remy]
In French, a “liaison” is when a normally silent consonant at the end of a word is pronounced at the beginning of the word that follows it.
Usually, liaisons are required between two words when the first one ends with a consonant (ex: “es”) and the second one starts with a vowel (ex: “un”). They are also required when the second word starts with a “mute H” (ex: “honnête” which means “honest”).
Cautious: consonants in liaisons sometimes change pronunciation. For example, an S is pronounced like a Z when it is in a liaison.
- ex: “Tu es un garçon” means “You are a boy”, and is pronounced like “Tu es-Z-un garçon”
- ex: “Tu es honnête” means “You are honest”, and is pronounced like “Tu es-Z-honnête”
The pronunciation (or not) of liaisons follows specific rules. Liaisons are divided into three categories:
Required liaisons:
There are many cases, but here are a few examples:
- Nominal group: “un homme” (pronounced “un-N-homme”), “les amis” (pronounced “les-Z-amis”)
- Verbal group: “vous avez” (pronounced “vous-Z-avez”), “ils ont” (pronounced “ils-Z-ont”)
- etc.
Forbidden liaisons:
There are many cases, but here are a few examples:
- After a singular noun: “un garçon intéressant” (you should not say “un garçon-N-intéressant”)
- After “et” (and): “un homme et une femme” (you should not say “un homme et-T-une femme”)
- Before a “h aspiré”: “les haricots” (you should not say “les-Z-haricots”).
Optional liaisons:
There are many cases, but a case of optional liaison is after verbs that are not followed by a pronoun: “L’enfant prend un sucre”.
- You can either pronounce: “L’enfant prend un sucre” or “… prend-T-un sucre”.
Selected comments on original post
Merci beaucoup Rémy! 🙂 Is there some rule about when an “h” is considered “h aspiré” or mute? Is there a difference in pronunciation? Merci d’avance.
Remy [contributor]
There is no difference in pronunciation between “h aspiré” and “mute h”, when you just pronounce the words that start with these letters:
- ex: “homme” (mute h) and “haricot” (h aspiré) sound as if they started with the first vowel (“omme” and “aricot”).
There is a difference between the pronunciation of articles before words starting with an “h aspiré” and the pronunciation of articles before words starting with a “mute h”. For example, you have to say:
- “l’homme” (the article “le” is elided before a mute h, and becomes “l’”)
- “le haricot” (the article “le” is not elided before an “h aspiré”)
I always have a hard time with liaisons. My native French-speaking husband says no liaison in “Tu es honnête” and “L’enfant prend un sucre”. Do you have some reference where I can check it out? Thanks for posting. Useful discussion!
Remy [contributor]
There is a liaison between “es” and “honnête”, because the “h” in “honnête” is mute (we say “l’honnête homme”, not “le honnête homme”).
For “prend un sucre”, you can either say it with the liaison or without it.
by contrast, this link http://people.wku.edu/nathan.love/Multi-handouts/liaison.htm calls liaison after tu es optional, which is my experience, like Carolind says in her comment. Other question: Will the duolingo French audio be repaired for weird pronunciation of things like les yeux? It’s been the same for a long time, it seems.
Remy [contributor]
I agree, the liaison after the verb “être” is optional. (It just sounds better if you pronounce the liaison.)
The audio problems will be fixed, but it not a trivial thing to do, that’s why we could not do it so far. Thanks for your patience and understanding.
Would you use liaison in the example <<Je suis accro aux langues.>>? (Je sui – Z – accro) My French teacher doesn’t pronounce it and I’m just really confused! Please help!
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