Pronunciation

How to pronounce the famous “ R ” letter? Why French-speaking people write “ il y a ” but say “ y'a ” ? These aids provide you with examples to listen and tips to better understand French-speaking people and improve your pronunciation.

Pronunciation / The French "h"

A1 Breakthrough

The French "h" is a silent letter that is not pronounced. However, in the beginning of the word (handicap) and in a word like "dehors,"
"Tahiti," "Sahara," the "h" allows or prevents the combination of the consonant and vowel to form a syllable.

The "h" that allows the consonant-vowel combination is called the "silent h" and the "h" that prevents this is called the "aspirated h."

The "silent h" is not pronounced and allows elisions, liaisons and catenation.

The silent "h"

	Elision	Liaison	Catenation (linking vowels from word to word)
NOUNS	Update Required To play the media you will need to either update your browser to a recent version. L'hôpital	Update Required To play the media you will need to either update your browser to a recent version. Un_homme, des_hommes	Update Required To play the media you will need to either update your browser to a recent version. Cet_hôpital
ADJECTIVES	L'horrible accident	Update Required To play the media you will need to either update your browser to a recent version. C'est très_humain	Quel_horrible accident !
VERBS	Update Required To play the media you will need to either update your browser to a recent version. Je m'habille.	Update Required To play the media you will need to either update your browser to a recent version. Ils habitent au Vietnam.	Update Required To play the media you will need to either update your browser to a recent version. Il hésite à aller aux urgences.

The aspirated "h" is not pronounced and prevents elision, or omission (see: Pronunciation / Elision and deletion), liaison (see: Pronunciation / Liaison) and catenation (see: Pronunciation / Catenation (linking vowels from word to word)).

The aspirated "h"

	No elision	No liaison	No catenation
NOUNS	Update Required To play the media you will need to either update your browser to a recent version. La // hauteur	Update Required To play the media you will need to either update your browser to a recent version. Les // héros	Update Required To play the media you will need to either update your browser to a recent version. Le handicapé
ADJECTIVES	Update Required To play the media you will need to either update your browser to a recent version. C'est le // huitième étage.	Update Required To play the media you will need to either update your browser to a recent version. Les // hautes études	Update Required To play the media you will need to either update your browser to a recent version. Une // haute fonction
VERBS	Update Required To play the media you will need to either update your browser to a recent version. Je // hurle.	Update Required To play the media you will need to either update your browser to a recent version. Ils // hurlent.	Update Required To play the media you will need to either update your browser to a recent version. Il // harcèle.

There is no rule to distinguish words that have an "aspirated h" from words that have a "silent h." The only explanation comes from etymology. The "silent h" comes from Latin and is often found in languages of Latin origin. The "aspirated h" comes from words borrowed from other languages like English (le hall), Frankish (le haricot), Arab (le hasard) and Dutch (le hareng)...

The most frequent words

	The silent "h"	The aspirated "h"
Masculine nouns	Un habitant, un hiver, un homme, un hôpital, un horaire, un hôtel	Le Hollandais, le Hongrois, le haricot, le hasard, le huit, le héros, le handicapé
Feminine nouns	Une habitante, une habitude, une heure une histoire, l'humidité, l'hygiène	La Hollandaise, la Hongroise, la hanche la hauteur, la handicapée, la hi-fi,la honte
Adjectives	Horrible, humain	Le huitième (étage)
Verbs	Habiller, habiter, hésiter	Harceler, hurler