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.

Example:

• 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 that start 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

Some French words that start with an aspirated "h"

• Hauteur: la hauteur, les hauteurs
• Héron: le héron, les hérons
• Honte: la honte, les hontes
• Housse: la housse, les housses
• Huche: la huche, les huches
• Hêtre: le hêtre, les hêtres
• Hazard: le hazard, les hazards
• Hache: la hache, les haches
• Haie: la haie, les haies
• Hérisson: le hérisson, les hérissons
• Hibou: le hibou, les hiboux

Exercise

1. Grab an English-French-English dictionary, and find at least ten aspirated h words, and ten nonaspirated h words
2. Make a column of the two categories of h-word.
3. Look at it every day and memorize the columns.

Sources

• https://www.masteryourfrench.com/french-pronunciation/h-mute-h-aspired/
• https://www.passeidireto.com/arquivo/55726043/french-language-course

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