Comment lire la lettre H en français
A2 French listening practice · French · Curated for beginners
What is the “h aspiré” in French?
French never pronounces the letter h, yet some words behave as though they began with a consonant. That is the h aspiré: it blocks elision and liaison. You get l’hôtel and les hôtels with a linking [z], but le héros and les héros with a clean break before the word. Nothing in the spelling marks the difference — it is learned word by word.
Common h aspiré words: le héros, le hasard, la honte, le haricot, la hauteur, le hamster, en haut. And a famous inconsistency: le héros keeps its break while l’héroïne and héroïque do not — usually explained by speakers avoiding les héros sounding like les zéros. Elsewhere the letter is predictable: th is [t] (théâtre), ph is [f] (photo), ch is usually [ʃ] (chien), with orchestre and technique among the exceptions.