[ARCHIVE] French "liaisons" between words

[Jenga218]

Originally posted by Remy here.

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".

[Jenga218]

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.

Hi Nitram, there is no rule for the nouns starting in "h" that can help you identify from which catheogry they are. You just have to memorize them by heart, or look them up in a dictionary. H aspiré words are marked with an asterisk, for example: hérisson=hedgehog

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")

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Thanks. I had been duped into thinking that liaisons only occur when two words love each other very, very much.

Once I saw that there was a very complete article about liasons on French Wikipedia.

Indeed, there is. The link to it below is the English translation of the French article:
Liaison (French)
The translated version of a Wikipedia article isn't always as comprehensive as the original, so if your French is at a sufficient level, I do recommend taking a look at it in its original language which you can access via the link below:
Liaison en français
Tout chemin mène à Wikipedia.

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In an attempt to improve this explanation:

Which consonants could receive a liaison??

The /Z/ sound - written as an s, z, or x. (trois‿ateliers sounds like: twa Za teh leeay)

The /T/ sound - written as a t or a d. (c'est‿ici sounds like: say Tee see)

The /N/ sound - written as an n. (en plein‿air sounds like: on pleh Nair)

The /R/ sound - written as an r.

The /P/ sound - written as a p.

And the /G/ sound - written as a g.

There are 7 obligatory rules when you would use a liaison, without getting into too much detail one of them is:

1. Place a liason between a nominal-group (a bunch of words used to represent an entity).

Examples: mes‿étudiants, ces‿animaux.

In French, liaisons rely on phonetic, lexical, syntactic and stylistic factors rather than just a phonetic concept (linking). A liaison is the obligatory or optional pronunciation of a latent consonant. A latent consonant is a consonant that is not pronounced when the word is alone, BUT has the ability to become pronounced when placed in a liaison context.

Not surprisingly, liaisons are in the process of disappearing in French. Their usage is becoming used less and less with the new generations. The reason for this is because they are not easily defined by formal rules and are sometimes optional.

Sources:

1. One of my majors is French Linguistics

2. Bien Entendu - Valdman (1993)

More info on French phonetics/phonology can be found on my website.

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Thanks, Remy. I should visit this forum more often I also want to personally thank you since only because of the two Duolingo courses French <-> English, forward and reverse that you have created, I have begun to believe that I can learn French. In my past life, I had attempted a few times without much success. I am still struggling around the middle of the tree and more practice is helping clear things up! Visiting here is going to help further. This was a great post!

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"Je suis en communication avec ..." Is that an optional liason? For one of the DL exercises the speaker does not include a liason.

Suis+en is optional but I would make it for sure. It sounds a lot better.

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"Tu es honnête" means (..) pronounced like "Tu es-Z-honnête

It's very rare to say "tu es-z-honnete".

And also very rare to say "tu es-zungarçon." in common French.
It's like an hyperformalism. Would seem strange in everyday language.

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Good to know! And just how forbidden is the "et un(e)" liason? I've been pronouncing that for 5 years, and I fear it may be too late to stop lol.

Completely forbidden! Source: http://french.about.com/library/pronunc ... sons-f.htm

I think it's because it can be mistaken with "est" when you make that liaison (which is correct)

My French teacher always corrected us when someone said " et-une femme", for example. Pas deliason avec "et".

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A link to the website of "l'académie française", which is THE reference in France:
http://www.academie-francaise.fr/la-lan ... -em-strong

Thank you for sharing that link, but I got an error message when I tried to link to it. If I'm not mistaken, the same page can be accessed via this link here:

Liaisons
“Qui n’avance pas, recule”

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What about this sentence: Vous avez un livre

I know the 's' in Vous should have a liaison but what of the 'z' in aves to un? Would it be: Vous-Z-avez-z-un-livre??

No, because the "Vous + Avez" is required liaison, and you don't want too many liaisons in the same sentence. A liaison after the verb is optional, but in this case since there is a required liaison in the same phrase, "Avez + un" becomes forbidden. http://www.lepointdufle.net/ressources_ ... rdites.htm

Oh. My. Goodness. The exceptions and exceptions to exceptions are head-spinning. This is the first time I've come across that one! Ha ha.

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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!

Yes, you should make the liaison in this case.

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Can you help me with this sentence in one of duolingo's lesson: "Alice et Paul, vous êtes anglais?" Here, liaison is used only between "vous" & "êtes" making the "Z" sound but why isn't a liaison used between "êtes" & "anglais" making again the "Z" sound in the very same sentence?

The last sound in "êtes" is the consonant t, so there is no need for a liaison which is made between two vowel sounds. The s in "vous" is normally silent, so the liaison helps the transition between the oo sound in "vous" and the ê sound in "êtes". Also note that there is no liaison after "et" even though that t is silent even if a vowel came after it as it is an exception to liaison, a forbidden liaison.

https://www.lawlessfrench.com/pronunciation/liaisons/

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What’s the difference between tu and toi?

Tu when "you" is the person doing the action. Tu marches (You walk)
When an action is being done to you, we use "te". Je te maltraite (I treat you badly)
We use "toi" where it follows a preposition: Je marche avec toi (I walk with you)

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Duo's recording of this sentence, "j'avais une voiture différente." I hear a "t" sound as follows, "j'avai-T-une..." Is this a correct change of sound for this liaison example?

No, that liaison which is optional would be a z sound.
https://www.lawlessfrench.com/pronunciation/liaisons/
https://www.lawlessfrench.com/pronuncia ... -liaisons/

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'Forbidden' by who? It's important to distinguish between prescribed 'book' language and real actual language. Plenty of people liaise 'et' which means it shouldn't be fed to learners as 'forbidden' when actually loads of people do it in real life French.

By whom*.

The verb "est" has a liaison, though it is optional. I have not heard the conjunction "et" in liaison. Which area is that heard?

[Jenga218]

Archivist note: This comment had several nested comments, hence I am posting it separately.

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!

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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 ... iaison.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.

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.

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Oh, I got the rule. The thing is: my husband didn't agree. But he is just a native speaker, he doesn't know the rules. I know that native speakers are often unaware of the way they speak (or we speak, cause I'm also native, though not in French...). So I wanted to read more on the matter and I was wondering if you have a reference online for these rules. Some place I can search. Thanks

Hi Carolind, check out the below, on liasons allowed and those forbidden. http://french.about.com/library/pronunc ... sons-f.htm

This URL no longer works correctly, it takes you to a Spanish pronunciation page. The new URL is: https://www.thoughtco.com/learn-proper- ... ns-4083657

UPDATE: Here is a more comprehensive article; be sure to follow the links to "Required liaisons", "Optional liaisons", and "Forbidden liaisons": https://www.lawlessfrench.com/pronunciation/liaisons/

Thanks, msinykin. Now I'm curious how you got one more indent for your reply. As far as I can see, replies indented 5 times (like tliarch's "oui, oui!!!", above) is as deep as you can go - no "reply" option given. Do you have secret powers? ;>)

Argh! That article is highly deficient. It tells us that there are "required liaisons", and "forbidden liaisons", and "optional liaisons", but it doesn't say what they are, or provide any links to pages that would. At least, not in my (Chrome) browser. Anybody have a different experience?

I have updated my entry above to reference a better article with more detail.

They have changed the link

"french.about.com" has become "thoughtco.com". Most "french.about.com" links still resolve to the corresponding thoughtco link, but not the one referenced by @tliarch. I provided the new link 2 months ago, at the same level as your comment in this thread.

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Similarly, I had a problem with 'The bean' on Duo. I put 'L' haricot' because the 'h' is not pronounced, and it was rejected the first time, but accepted the second time. Very confusing.

It depends on whether the "h" is "muet" or "aspiré". Long ago, the "h aspiré" was actually pronounced, but now they are both silent. The h mute is much more common, but which one it is depends on the history of how the word entered the French language. See https://www.thoughtco.com/french-pronun ... -h-1369563

A dictionary will generally tell you which form of "h" it is in the phonetic spelling, by putting a single quote at the beginning if "h aspiré": "haricot" - [ˈaʀiko]". If it is h aspiré, you don't use a liaison.

See also the answer by @Remy to the question asked in this discussion by @Nitram.

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I'm pretty sure 'tu es honnête' has no liaison.....

[Jenga218]

Originally posted by Angus390025

Bonjour,

J'ai une question sur les liens entre les mots. Je comprends que ce sont obligatoires entre les pronoms et les verbes à voyelles. (Ils_ ont) Et, celles qui sont interdites entre les noms singuliers et les adjectifs. (estudentsXintelligents) Bien.

Et pour noms pluriels ? Par exemple, "les poissons ont faim"

Faut-il dire « poissons_ont » ou non ?

Merci.

[Jenga218]

Non, on ne fait pas la liaison ici: si tu dis "Les poissons_zont faim" ça donne l'impression que tu dis "Les poissons ils ont faim" avec une contraction non-standard extrême de 'ils'.
La répétition des pronoms sujets ainsi que leur contraction autant que la phonologie française le permet (comme la contraction de tu en t' ou de il en i', aucune n'étant considérée comme standard bien que les deux soient courantes au point d'être considérées en pratique comme obligatoires dans la langue parlée), ce qui par ailleurs n'est pas une "dégénérescence" propre au Français parlé moderne, mais se retrouve dans la plupart des dialectes natifs des territoires de la France et du nord de l'Italie, ainsi que partiellement dans les formes standard de l'Espagnol et du Roumain.

Mais je m'égare... revenons à nos moutons, c'est-à-dire aux liaisons.
En Français, il y a trois types de liaisons: obligatoires, optionnelles et interdites.
Pour mieux comprendre, il faut se pencher sur certains détails de la structure des mots en Français parlé: la liaison étant par sa nature même une caractéristique de la langue parlée, il va de soi que c'est là qu'il faut regarder:

Je vais essayer d'expliquer du mieux que je peux (ça risque d'être un peu long ! ^^) En Français parlé, les mots ont une forte tendance à être regroupés par 'paquets': au sein d'un même paquet, les liaisons entre mots sont obligatoires, et d'un paquet à l'autre, presque toujours interdites.
Mais quels sont ces 'paquets' ? Eh bien, c'est étonnamment simple; il s'agit des groupes nominaux, c'est-à-dire les noms avec leurs articles (et leur préposition s'il y en a une), en incluant les adjectifs qui peuvent s'intercaler avant le nom, et des groupes verbaux, qui comprennent les verbes et leurs pronoms sujets/objets.
Les adjectifs et adverbes qui suivent les noms et les verbes ne font pas partie d'un 'paquet' mais ils se rattachent au précédent: la liaison est alors optionnelle, ou parfois interdite, mais dans tous les cas elle n'est jamais obligatoire.
Toutes les autres liaisons sont interdites, à l'exception de la liaison entre le 'paquet' verbal et le 'paquet' objet, par exemple entre 'êtes' et 'un' dans "vous êtes un homme", mais ce type de liaison est assez formel est n'est pas possible avec tous les verbes (elle se fait surtout après le verbe être)

Voyons tout ça avec un exemple: prenons la phrase "Les étranges oiseaux mangent un poisson entier sous les yeux ébahis de mes vieux amis". Si on la divise en paquets, on obtient ça:

[les étranges oiseaux] [mangent]-[un poisson]-(entier) [sous les yeux]-(ébahis) [de mes vieux amis]

Les parenthèses indiquent les adjectifs qui ne font pas partie de 'paquets' et celui auquel ils se raccrochent.

Toutes les liaison dans un paquet sont obligatoires: on en déduit que "les étranges oiseaux" se prononce "leszétrangeszoiseaux" et que "les yeux" se prononce "leszyeux".
De même, la liaison est obligatoire dans "de mes vieuxzamis".

On a ensuite que la liaison entre 'yeux' et 'ébahis' est optionnelle: elle est d'ailleurs assez fréquente, car "sous les yeux ébahis" est une expression assez courante.
La liaison entre 'poisson' et 'entier' est interdite parce que les noms ne font jamais de liaison avec -n (mais les pronoms et les adjectifs peuvent en faire): la liaison serait possible et optionnelle au pluriel dans "des poissons entiers".

Reste la liaison entre 'mangent' et 'un': comme je l'ai dit plutôt, c'est un cas particulier: ici la liaison est théoriquement possible, mais personnellement je ne l'utiliserais pas, même en voulant être très formel.

Pour ce qui est de votre exemple, sa division par paquets donne:
[les poissons] [ont]-(faim)

On voit que la seule liaison potentielle (entre poissons et ont) est interdite.
J'espère avoir pu vous aider à y voir un peu plus clair, je sais que la langue Française est assez complexe, surtout à cause du conflit qu'il y a entre la langue écrite, très conservative et archaïsante, mue par un désir de maintenir notre langue le plus près possible du Latin, et la langue parlée, qui par son évolution naturelle s'en est considérablement éloignée.

Je me permets enfin de corriger les quelques petites erreurs de votre texte:

J'ai une question sur les liaisons entre les mots. Je comprends qu'elles sont obligatoires entre les pronoms et les verbes à voyelles. (Ils_ ont) Et, elles sont interdites entre les noms singuliers et les adjectifs (étudiants X intelligents)

Mais il y a quelque chose que je ne comprends pas: vous parlez des liaisons entre nom et adjectif au singulier, mais vous donnez un exemple au pluriel ? C'est sûrement une erreur d'inattention de votre part, mais, si la liaison dans "étudiant_intelligent" est certes interdite, celle dans "étudiants intelligents" ne l'est pas (elle est optionnelle, comme je l'ai décrit plus haut).

Tout ça me rappelle une blague que disait mon grand-père: Doit-on dire "sept et trois font X onze" (sans liaison) ou "sept et trois font_tonze" (avec liaison) ?
La bonne réponse est - Sept et trois font dix, bien sûr !

Mais je m'égare

haha. un peu, mais c'etait une histoire interessante.

au sein d'un même paquet, les liaisons entre mots sont obligatoires, et d'un paquet à l'autre, presque toujours interdites.... les noms avec leurs articles (et leur préposition s'il y en a une), en incluant les adjectifs qui peuvent s'intercaler avant le nom, et des groupes verbaux, qui comprennent les verbes et leurs pronoms sujets/objets....

okay, bien entendu.

"Les étranges oiseaux mangent un poisson entier sous les yeux ébahis de mes vieux amis"

un example étrange, mais efficace.

J'espère avoir pu vous aider

oui, beaucoup. Merci.

corriger les quelques petites erreurs

haha. Je fais toujours des erreurs. Mais je voulais écrire la question en français parce que (je pensais que) si quelqu'un pouvait la lire, il saurait peut-être comment y répondre. En d’autres termes, si j’écris la question en anglais, j'en aurais de nombreuses réponses qui peuvent être correctes, ou pas.

D'ailleurs, mon exemple était bâclé. Oui, je voulais donner un sujet singulier (étudiant intelligent). Oops.

La blague est drôle. Nous en avons des versions similaires en anglais, à propos de prêter trop d’attention à la forêt mais de ne pas voir les arbres. Plus ou moins.

Salut.

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Personnellement, je l'ai toujours entendu sans liaison. "Les poissons X ont..." Par contre, je ne saurais trouver la règle exacte.

Je viens de trouver : (Groupe verbal, Sujet+Verbe) https://www.lepointdufle.net/ressources ... rdites.htm

Ah, la liaison est interdite dans ce cas. Merci.

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[Thomas.Heiss]

Bonjour [mention]Jenga218[/mention]

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