Speed Up Your French: Strategies to avoid common errors (2016)

Elision and word division

The key point here is the difference between a mute and an aspirate ‘h’ in French, though these terms are misleading, because there is no ‘h’ sound at all in spoken French. However, there is a small group of words beginning with a so-called aspirate ‘h’, which behave as if they began with a consonant, whereas those that begin with a mute (or inaspirate) ‘h’ behave as if the ‘h’ were not there and they began with a vowel.

1 Before a noun or an adjective beginning with a vowel or a mute ‘h’, there is elision. The definite articles le and la elide to l’, the partitive articles du and de la become de l’, and de elides to d’. Before a verb beginning with a vowel or a mute ‘h’, je contracts to j’, and me, te, se, ce,le, la, de, ne, que also contract before a word beginning with a vowel or a mute ‘h’.

2 Before an aspirate ‘h’, by contrast, there is no elision.

Mnemonic device

To help you remember that there is no elision before an aspirate ‘h’, bear in mind the title of the film La Haine, the place names Le Havre and La Haye and the phrase Ce n’est pas le fait du hasard si … (It is no accident that …).

3 There are only a few dozen words in French that begin with an aspirate ‘h’. Many of them were borrowed in the early medieval period from the Germanic speech of the Franks, or in more recent times from English. In addition to the words listed above, they include:

la hache (axe), le hall (entrance hall, lobby), le hameau (hamlet), handicapé (disabled), le hareng (herring), le haricot (bean), la harpe (harp), la hâte (haste), la hausse (rise), le hautbois (oboe), la hauteur (height), le héros (hero), le hibou (owl), la hiérarchie (hierarchy), le homard (lobster), la Hollande (Holland), la Hongrie (Hungary), la honte (shame), le huit (eight); the adjective hippie (hippy); the verbs harceler (to pester, harass) and heurter (to hit, strike).

4 The best thing to do is simply to learn these words, and if in doubt to check in a dictionary. A good dictionary will indicate an aspirate ‘h’ by putting [’] at the beginning of the phonetic transcription of the word. There is one idiosyncrasy to note. Although le héros begins with an aspirate ‘h’, the related words l’héroïne and l’héroïsme do not.

5 The main focus in this section is on elision, but it should also be noted that in speech there is no liaison before a word beginning with an aspirate ‘h’, so the final consonant of the plural articles les and des is not pronounced [z], as it would be if the word began with a vowel or a mute ‘h’. The most common error is with des / les héros (heroes). This should not sound the same as des / les zéros (zeroes / noughts). Remember also that there is no liaison in les Halles (covered market; well-known metro station in Paris).

6 Si elides before il(s) to s’il(s), but there is no elision before elle(s). Contrast the following:

S’il décide de partir …

(If he decides to leave …)

Si elle décide de partir …

(If she decides to leave …)

7 Remember that que elides to qu’ before a vowel, but qui does not. Contrast the following examples where qu’ is the object of the verb in the relative clause and qui is the subject:

Le train qu’il va prendre est en retard.

(The train which he is going to catch is late.)

Le train qui entre en gare va à Dijon.

(The train coming into the station is going to Dijon.)

8 Note the difference between the pronouns quelqu’un (someone) and chacun (each one), and do not make the common mistake of writing *chaqu’un. The asterisk indicates that such a form does not exist.

9 Remember that quelque chose (something) is written as two words in French, but quelquefois (sometimes) is written as one.

Exercises

EXERCISE 4. Choose the correct form in each case.

1 C’est (l’ / le) hasard qui les a réunis.

2 Travailler si tard dans la nuit, c’est (de l’ / du) héroïsme!

3 Il faut couper le tissu dans le sens de (l’ / la) hauteur.

4 Elle ne cesse de (l’ / le) harceler de questions.

5 C’est une femme (d’ / de) haute taille.

6 Ils ont monté l’escalier (d’ / de) honneur.

7 On se verra tout à (l’ / la) heure dans (l’ / le) hall (de l’ /du) hôtel.

8 Je me demande (s’ elle / si elle) aura le courage de leur parler et (s’ils / si ils) l’écouteront.

9 Ce (qu’ / que / qui) est affreux, c’est que tout ce (qu’ / que / qui) il dit est faux.

10 (Chacun / Chaqu’un) a ses défauts. Je me demande (quelque fois / quelquefois) pourquoi elle se croit parfaite.