French h muet and h aspiré: l’homme, le héros and les haricots
See why French uses l’homme but le héros. Compare elision and liaison, learn h words with their articles, and test four everyday examples.
In short
H muet allows elision and liaison: l’homme, les hommes /lez ɔm/. H aspiré blocks both: le héros, les héros /le eʁo/. In these words, neither kind of h is pronounced like the English /h/ in “house”.
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What is the difference between h muet and h aspiré?
l’homme / les hommesthe man / the men
Focus: H muet lets the words connect.
le → l’ ; les + vowel → /z/
L’homme attend dehors.
The man is waiting outside.
Les hommes discutent.
The men are talking.
le héros / les hérosthe hero / the heroes
Focus: H aspiré keeps le and blocks linking /z/.
le stays le ; les has no /z/
Le héros arrive.
The hero arrives.
Les héros arrivent.
The heroes arrive.
| H muet: elision allowed | H aspiré: elision blocked |
|---|---|
| l’homme | le héros |
| l’hôtel | le haricot |
| l’hôpital | la hache |
| l’heure | le hibou |
Read down each column. The left column has an apostrophe because the article loses its vowel. The right column keeps le or la. With les, the same division predicts the boundary: les hôtels has /z/, while les haricots keeps /le/ followed directly by the vowel of haricots.
Keep the article with the picture
Find:
Why is it le héros but l’héroïne?
Le héros et l’héroïne travaillent ensemble.
The hero and the heroine work together.
Héros has h aspiré; héroïne has h muet. Learn each form with its article.
The spelling h alone cannot tell you which column a new word belongs to. Dictionaries commonly mark h aspiré with an asterisk or another sign; check the key. A phrase such as le haricot gives you both the gender and the boundary in three words.
Two short phrases from a daily routine
- Léa
Quelle heure est-il ?
What time is it?
- Nora
Il est huit heures. Tes clés sont en haut.
It’s eight o’clock. Your keys are upstairs.
Heure allows the connection in huit heures. Haut blocks liaison in en haut: keep the nasal vowel of en, then begin haut. Say the phrase smoothly. A blocked liaison needs no exaggerated pause or added English /h/.