Aspirated h in French

The letter h is silent in French. In Old French and Middle French, it was a glottal fricative. Though the glottal fricative is not a sound of French, it has two forms: aspirated and not aspirated. When it is aspirated, contraction and liaison do not occur.

The phrase nos héros means our heroes. Because the h is aspirated, liaison does not occur. The result is that nos is pronounced /no/. In the phrase le hibou (the owl), contraction does not occur. This is because the word hibou has an aspirated h.

However, the word hélicoptère (helicopter) does not have an aspirated h. In the phrase nos hélicoptères (our helicopters), liaison occurs. The word nos is pronounced /noz/. Contraction also occurs. The phrase l'hélicoptère means the helicopter.

The following are a few French words with an aspirated h:

hache (axe)

hamster (hamster)

hamburger (hamburger)

hareng (herring)

haricot (bean)

harpe (harp)

héron (heron)

hiérarchie (hierarchy)

homard (lobster)

huit (eight)

As in other Romance languages such as Italian, Portuguese and Spanish, the letter h is silent in French. However, a number of French words have an aspirated h. In such words, contraction and liaison do not occur.