Bonjour à toutes et à tous ! Today, let’s take a look at the letter H in French and how to pronounce it.
The letter H in French – Écouter
How to pronounce the letter H in French
You may not know this yet, but there are actually 2 ways to pronounce the letter H in French, at the beginning of a word: the muted (or silent) H (le H muet) and the aspirated H (le H aspiré). Let’s take a closer look at them.
Le H muet – The muted H
The “H muet” is considered like a vowel. This means that it will follow the same rules as vowels.
Rule number 1, you will pronounce the liaisons.
Since this letter H is acting like a vowel, you will need to pronounce the liaisons with some words right before it. If you want to take a deeper look into liaisons, here’s a video.
For example:
Un hôpital / Des hôpitaux
(Unôpital / Dezôpito)
Une heure
(Uneur)
The liaison in this case is mandatory, as if there were no “H”.
Rule number 2, you will make the elisions.
An elision is when you will cut articles like le or la and “link” it to the noun with an apostrophe.
For example:
You don’t say “le hôpital“, but “l’hôpital“.
If you need to add a partitive article, the rule will be the same as for vowels (de l’ + noun).
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Le H aspiré – The aspirated H
The “H” aspiré, on the other hand, is considered like a consonant this time. This means that it will follow the same rules as consonants.
Rule number 1, no more liaisons.
In this case, our H is now a consonant. This means that we do not pronounce the liaisons anymore!
For example:
You don’t say “unibou” for “un hibou” or “desiboux” for “des hiboux“. You will need to make sure that the articles and the nouns will be pronounced separately.
Un | hibou
Des | hiboux
Rule number 2, no more elisions.
Stop! No more elisions. This means that you will keep articles such as LE and LA intact before an aspirated H.
For example:
You will not say “l’hibou“, but “LE hibou“.
Silent H – A short list
Here are a few words that start with a muted H:
Une heure
Un hôpital
Une horloge
Une héroïne
Les Himalayas
Un horizon
Un homme
L’horreur
Une huile
L’humour
Une histoire
L’hiver
Hier
Heureux
L’herbe
Un habit
Un hippocampe
Un hibiscus
Aspirated H – A short list
Un hibou
Un haricot / Des haricots
La Hollande
Un hamster
Un hall
Le hockey
Un hot-dog
Une harpe
En haut
I hope you enjoyed this lesson on how to pronounce the letter H in French. If you want more lessons, feel free to visit my blog right here!
