Liaison (French)
In French, liaison is the pronunciation of a linking consonant between two words in an appropriate phonetic and syntactic context. For example, the word is pronounced, the word is pronounced, but the combination les amis is pronounced, with a linking.
Liaison only happens when the following word starts with a vowel or semivowel, and is restricted to word sequences whose components are linked in sense, e.g., article + noun, adjective + noun, personal pronoun + verb, and so forth. This indicates that liaison is primarily active in high-frequency word associations.
Most frequently, liaison arises from a mute word-final consonant that used to be pronounced, but in some cases it is inserted from scratch, as in , which is the inverted form of il a. In certain syntactic environments, liaison is impossible; in others, it is mandatory; in others still, it is possible but not mandatory and its realization is subject to wide stylistic variation.
Realization of liaison
Silent final consonants may be pronounced, in some syntactic contexts, when the following word begins with a vowel or non-aspirated h. It is important to note that many words with silent final consonants have utterly lost them, e.g. neither the 'n' in million nor the 't' in art is ever pronounced. A liaison should not be made just because a word ends in a silent consonant and the next one starts with a vowel.The following list describes liaison from an orthographic point of view. Since the latent sound is an ancient one, spellings that are based on the etymology of the word may use a different consonant. Liaison consonants are pronounced as follows :
There is also a type of liaison where an adjective changes its form before a vowel-initial noun: adjectives ending on -ain, -ein, -en, -in or -on denasalize their vowels. The word bon is but bon ami is. Similarly, certain ami, divin enfant and Moyen Âge. This makes the adjectives sound like their feminine forms, so bon ami is pronounced the same as bonne amie. In some cases, this alternation is reflected in the orthography: un beau cygne but un bel oiseau.
As indicated in the phonetic representations above, liaison consonants are typically realized with enchainement – that is, the originally word-final consonant is pronounced as the onset of the following syllable. Enchainement is also observed for pronounced word-final consonants when followed by a vowel-initial word in connected speech, as in cher ami . In both cases, enchainement can be seen as a strategy for avoiding syllables without onsets in French.
Liaison on French numerals
Some numbers pattern in complex ways, allowing up to three different pronunciations depending on context. For brevity, from now on "vowel-initial" means"phonologically vowel-initial, excluding aspirated h", while "consonant-initial" means "phonologically consonant-initial, including aspirated h". Also note that these rules may slightly vary depending on dialect.
- cinq : It is always pronounced as. However, an oral stop in French may assimilate to a nasal one when it appears after a nasal vowel and before another consonant, so "cinq minutes" is frequently pronounced.
- six : It is pronounced before a vowel-initial noun, adjective or month name, i.e. six hommes, six avril. However, it is pronounced before a consonant-initial noun, adjective or month name, i.e. six pommes, six beaux oiseaux, six mars. Elsewhere, it is pronounced, i.e. six ou neuf.
- sept : It is consistently pronounced the same:, as a homophone of cette.
- huit : It is when before a consonant-initial noun, adjective or month name, i.e. huit minutes. Elsewhere, it is, i.e. huit ou neuf.
- neuf : It is pronounced, with the exception of in neuf ans, neuf heures and, rarely, neuf hommes. Traditionally neuf is also pronounced before a consonant-initial noun, adjective or month name, like its homophone neuf meaning "new".
- dix : With respect to liaison, it behaves like six. However, the common combinations dix-sept, dix-huit and dix-neuf are respectively pronounced, and.
- vingt : It is pronounced before a vowel-initial noun, adjective or digit from one to nine, i.e. vingt-six, vingt amis. Elsewhere, it is pronounced. However, in Belgium, Switzerland, and most of eastern and northern France, vingt is generally pronounced regardless of the context.
- quatre-vingt : The t is never pronounced: quatre-vingt-dix-neuf is, quatre-vingt-un is and quatre-vingt-onze is. However, quatre-vingts makes a liaison before vowel-initial nouns or adjectives.
Constraints on liaison
Grammatical descriptions of French identify three kinds of liaison contexts: Those where liaison is mandatory, those where it is impossible, and those where it is optional. Pedagogical grammars naturally emphasize what is mandatory or forbidden, and these two categories tend to be artificially inflated by traditional prescriptive rules. Speakers' natural behavior in spontaneous speech shows that in fact relatively few contexts can be said to systematically give rise to, or fail to give rise to, liaison. Any discussion of liaison must take both descriptive and prescriptive perspectives into account, because this is an area of French grammar where speakers can consciously control their linguistic behavior out of an awareness of how their speech diverges from what is considered "correct".
Mandatory liaison
There are a small number of contexts where speakers consistently produce liaison in all speech styles, and where the absence of liaison is immediately perceived as an error of pronunciation. These are the contexts where liaison is truly mandatory:- between a determiner and a following adjective or noun: les enfants , ton ancien prof , tout homme
- between a subject or object pronoun and the verb, or vice versa, or between two pronouns: nous avons , prenez-en , elles en achètent
- in some lexicalized expressions and compound words: États-Unis , porc-épic
The following contexts are often listed as mandatory liaison contexts, but they are more accurately characterized as contexts where liaison is frequent:
- between an adjective and a noun that follows it: important effort , certaines études
- between an adverb and the word it modifies: assez intéressant , trop amusé
- after a preposition: chez un ami
Liaison on inverted verbs
The consonant is obligatorily realized between the finite verb and a vowel-initial subject pronoun , elle in inversion constructions. Orthographically, the two words are joined by a hyphen, or by -t- if the verb does not end in -t or -d:| uninverted form | inverted form | translation |
| elle dort | dort-elle | she sleeps |
| il vend | vend-il | he sells |
| ils parlent | parlent-ils | they speak |
| on parle | parle-t-on | one speaks |
The written linking consonant -t- is necessary for 3rd person singular verbs whose orthographic form ends in a letter other than -t or -d. This situation arises in the following cases:
- ending in -e: present tense indicative of all regular -er verbs, and some -ir verbs, such as ouvrir
- ending in -a: va "goes", a "has", simple past tense of -er verbs, future tense of all verbs
- ending in a consonant: vainc "conquers", convainc "convinces"
The earliest examples of this analogical t in writing date to the mid-15th century, although this practice was not fully accepted by grammarians until the 17th century.
When the first-person singular present tense form of the indicative or subjunctive is found in inversion, the writer must change the final e to either é or è, in order to link the two words : Parlè-je ?,, "Am I speaking?"
| uninverted form | inverted form | translation |
| je parle | parlè-je?, parlé-je | I speak |
| je parlasse | parlassè-je?, parlassé-je | I might speak |
| j'ouvre | ouvrè-je?, ouvré-je | I open |
| j'ouvrisse | ouvrissè-je?, ouvrissé-je | I might open |