Language/French/Pronunciation/Aspirated-VS-non-aspirated-h

French Pronunciation: Aspirated vs. non-aspirated "h"

Rule: How to know weither a "H" is aspirated or not?

In French, the letter h can be aspirated, (h aspiré), or not aspirated, (h non aspiré), depending on which language the word was borrowed from.

What do these terms mean?

• Ex.: the word héros, (hero) has an aspirated h, because when the definite article le is placed before it, the result is le héros, and both words must be pronounced separately.

However, the feminine form of héros, héroïne is a non-aspirated h. Therefore, when you put the definite artcle in front of it, it becomes l'héroïne, and is pronounced as one word.

The only way to tell if the h at the beginning of a word is aspirated is to look it up in the dictionary.

Some dictionaries will place an asterisk (*) in front of the entry word in the French-English H section if the h is aspirated. Other dictionaries will include it in the pronunciation guide after the key word by placing a (') before the pronunciation. In short, the words must be memorized.

Some French words which begin with a mute "h"

• Homme: l’homme, les‿hommes
• Hôpital: l’hôpital, les‿hôpitaux
• Hiver: l’hiver, les‿hivers
• Hôtel: l’hôtel, les‿hôtels
• Horaire: l’horaire, les‿horaires
• Heure: l’heure, les‿heures
• Habit: l’habit, les‿habits
• Hélicoptère: l’hélicoptère, les‿hélicoptères
• Histoire: l’histoire, les‿histoires
• Huile: l’huile, les‿huiles
• Huître: l’huître, les‿huîtres
• Hirondelle: l’hirondelle, les‿hirondelles