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Liaison is the phenomenon that a mute final consonant (s, z, n, t) is connected with the vowel of the following word. Thinking about this first sentence you will have noticed that this only is possible when the preceding word ends on s, z, n or t, and the following word starts with a vowel or a mute h. If the mute final consonant happens to be an s, it is then pronounced in a voiced way, like in crazy.
Following some examples for the voiced s between two vowels:
Now we come back to the problem of the not-pronounced aspirated h:
A not-aspirated h has the liason, the merger between the consonant and the following vowel. An aspirated h does not have this liason. The words are not connected, but stay separated.
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Listen to the examples! |
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les hommes |
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aber |
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les haches |
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For comparison both together:
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Attention! |
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les
hommes <=>
les haches |
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If you now ask, how to know the difference, the answer is again in the dictionary. An aspirated h is marked with an apostrophe (').
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