Language/French/Grammar/Form-of-the-article-with-adjectives-and-nouns-beginning-with-a-vowel-or-an-h

French Grammar - Form of the article with adjectives and nouns beginning with a vowel or an h

le and la are shortened to Y, and du and de la become de V if they immediately precede an adjective or noun beginning with a vowel:

French	English
l'univers (m)	the universe
l'électricité (f)	electricity
de l'acier (m)	steel
de l'eau (f)	water
l'ancien régime (m)	the Ancien Regime

They also behave in the same way when they immediately precede an adjective or noun beginning with a so-called 'silent h' or h muet. This is a written h which has no counterpart in the spoken language:

French	English
l'hiver (m)	winter
l'histoire (f)	history
de l'héroïsme (m)	heroism
de l'herbe (f)	grass
l'horrible silence (m)	the terrible silence

There is also another set of adjectives and nouns beginning with a written h which do have a counterpart in the spoken language. This is misleadingly called an 'aspirate h' or h aspiré. It is misleading because there is no 'h' sound in spoken French. Rather, words which begin with an 'aspirate h' in written French also happen to block reduction of the article to /' or de V in spoken French:

French	English
le hibou (m)	the owl
la haine (f)	hate
du hachis (m)	minced beef
de la honte	shame
la haute montagne	high up in the mountains

There is no easy way to distinguish adjectives and nouns which begin with a silent h from those which begin with an aspirate h. Some cases are idiosyncratic. For example, héros 'hero' does not allow contraction of the article: le héros; but héroïne 'heroine or heroin' and héroïsme 'heroism' do: l'héroïne, l'héroïsme.

Many dictionaries indicate an aspirate h by putting ['] at the beginning of the phonetic transcription of the word.

For example:

French	English
hibou ['ibu] (m)	owl
histoire [istwar] (f)	story, history

The final consonant of les and des is pronounced [z] when they immediately precede an adjective or a noun beginning with a vowel or a silent h:

French	English		French	English
les [z] enfants	children	BUT	les hérissons	hedgehogs
des [z] amis	friends	BUT	des haricots	beans
des [z] héroïnes	heroines	BUT	des héros	heroes

The final n of un is pronounced when un immediately precedes an adjective or noun beginning with a vowel or silent h, but not otherwise:

French	English		French	English
un [n] hôtel	a hotel	BUT	un homard	a lobster
un [n] honnête home	a decent man	BUT	un haut fonctionnaire	a senior civil servant

NB: Verbs beginning with an h in the written language also divide into those which require contraction of je, me, le, la, ne, etc., and those which do not:

• J'habite Londres

I live in London

• Je l'héberge

I am letting him stay with me

• Je hais Londres

I hate London

• Je la heurte dans son orgueil

I hurt her pride