H muet vs h aspiré: why some French h words block liaison
Vocalyra teaching team · Last updated:
The letter h is silent in modern French. Still, French splits h words into two groups, and the group decides whether you say l'homme or le héros, and whether you link les with the next word.
Two silent letters that behave differently
With an h muet, the word behaves as if it starts with a vowel. You use elision (le becomes l', de becomes d') and you make liaison: les hommes is said with a z sound, lay-zom. With an h aspiré, the h is still silent, but it acts like a consonant. There is no elision and no liaison: le héros, les héros with no z sound.
Most h words are muet. The aspiré group is smaller, and many of its words came into French from Germanic languages or from English. Dictionaries mark them, often with an asterisk or an apostrophe before the word.
Common words in each group
| H muet (elision, liaison) | H aspiré (no elision, no liaison) |
|---|---|
| l'homme, les hommes | le héros, les héros |
| l'heure, deux heures | la honte |
| l'hôtel, les hôtels | le haricot, les haricots |
| l'histoire | la hache |
| l'hiver, en hiver | le hasard, au hasard |
| l'huile | le hamburger |
| l'herbe | le hockey |
What changes in real sentences
- Elision: j'habite à Lyon (habiter has h muet), but je hais le bruit (haïr has h aspiré).
- Liaison: un hôtel sounds like un-nôtel, but un héros keeps a small break: un / héros.
- Adjectives: cet hôtel uses cet before h muet, but ce héros uses ce before h aspiré.
- Possessives: mon histoire, but ma honte, because honte keeps its feminine ma.
Héros has h aspiré, but héroïne and héroïque have h muet: l'héroïne, l'héroïsme. Learn these as a pair.
How to learn the list without memorising a dictionary
Treat every new h word as muet unless you see it marked otherwise. Then add the aspiré words you actually meet to a short personal list with their article: le haricot, la honte, le hasard. Saying the article aloud each time trains the right reflex faster than learning a rule.
Quick self-check
Article or elision: ___ hôtel (le or l')?
Show answer
L'hôtel. Hôtel has h muet.
Do you pronounce a z sound in les haricots?
Show answer
No. Haricot has h aspiré, so there is no liaison.
Ce or cet: ___ homme?
Show answer
Cet homme. Cet is used before a vowel sound or h muet.
Which is correct: l'héroïne or la héroïne?
Show answer
L'héroïne. Unlike héros, héroïne has h muet.