THAT &%$#@&*! LETTER “H”.

The letter “h” – among other things — can drive some students of French crazy. Why can they not make the liaison every time a word starts with an “h”? The answer, indeed, is that in some words, the initial “h” is said to be “muet” (muted) while in others it is called “aspiré”.

La hutte

The liaison is mandatory in “les hommes”, “les habitudes”, “les habitations” et l’on dit “l’homme”, “l’habitude”, “l’habitation”. The “h” here is “muet” (muted). Other words starting with an “h muet”: l’habileté, l’habillement, l’habitant, l’haleine, l’hélice, l’heure, l’hallucination, l’harmonie, l’hôtel, l’hurluberlu, l’homéopathe, l’hépatite, l’horticulture, l’huile, l’hyène –some authors prefer “la hyène”–, l’hippocampe, l’hélicoptère, l’herbe, l’honnêteté.

That consonant is “aspiré” in “la hache”, “la hanche”, “la hauteur”, “le haut”, “le héros” –but “l’héroïne” __, “le hochement”, “la horde”, “la hotte”, etc… and there is no liaison with those words, except, of course in “les héroïnes”. However, “aspiré” or “muet”, that “h” has no bearing on the pronunciation of the word itself. It is just as if it were inexistent. For example, “la hanche” is pronounced “la anche”, “la hauteur” sounds like “la auteur”.

L' hyène ou bien la hyène

How does one know when that troublesome consonant is of one type or the other? One does not know. Not by following a rule, that is. The really true way is to know the words through practice. The French Academy has formulated some rule in this respect but it is rather complicated to apply in practice, especially when conducting a conversation, for example. Dictionaries seem to be the surest guide in this case, as they put an asterisk before the words with the “h aspiré”.

It is also interesting to notice that the term “aspiré” – equivalent to the English “aspirated” — is a misnomer since in the case of the pronounciation of the “h”, air would, in fact, be expelled. That is, if that “h” were heard at all.

Some words starting with an “h muet”:

habile, habit, habitat,habitude, hébergement, hébreux, hectare, hélice, hélicoptère, herbe, hérédité, héritage, héroïne, héroïsme, hésitation, hétérogène, hippique, histoire, homme, huissier, hypoténuse …

Here is a Wikipedia list of French words starting with an “h aspiré”:

http://fr.wikipedia.org/wiki/H_aspiré

Frantz Présumé

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