How to Sound French: 12 Things You Need To Remember About Liaison

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Last Updated: November 18, 2021

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Reading time: 5 minutes

Difficulty: Intermediate

There is a huge line between sounding like an actual French speaker and sounding like you're spewing gibberish. We call it liaisons. When done right, congratulations, you will actually sound French-y and coherent. But when used poorly, you will appear as an unintelligible, bumbling mess. 

Pardon??

We are here to help you navigate the disparity between the two.

How to sound French

 1. So... what is a liaison?

Liaison (French) is what makes listening to and speaking French so darn difficult for newbies (and even not so newbies). Liaisons happen when a consonant which is normally silent, dead, or phonologically null, suddenly gets pronounced at the beginning of the word that follows it.

Think of it as just like your normally silent and docile friend who suddenly acts up under a specific set of circumstances. Like probably the quiet guy who who turns loud and rambunctious after a bottle of beer (yeah you know those types). That's exactly what liaison is like.

2. “No Boundaries

Before we go into the details of when and how liaisons occur, or the specific circumstances that set it off, you have to remember a couple of things first. One: there are no clear divisions and syllable boundaries in French words, so the words are all basically linked together. This is unlike English or other languages wherein syllabic boundaries correspond to word boundaries. This is the backbone of the liaisons.

3. Final Consonants... what final consonants?

In relation to number two, also keep in mind that the final consonants in French words (except for the letters c, f, l and r) don't get pronounced at all. This happens in almost every case, except when liaisons step in and try to run the show.

4. So liaisons appear when...

The liaison steps into the spotlight and gets some airtime when a word that ends with a consonant (which is normally silent), is followed by a word that begins with a vowel or a mute h. The reason for this is to facilitate the melodious link between words that must never, ever be broken. Like, ever.

When this happens, the sound of the last consonant will be merged with the syllable that follows it.

For example: ils ont. 

As you can see, the first word ils ends with the consonant s while the second word ont begins with a vowel. To pronounce this, you say |eel zon| instead of saying  |eel on| which would be so un-French and so wrong. See how s gets pronounced as z and becomes the start of the second word or syllable? That's liaison for you, guys.

Compare this with ils sont which ends and starts with a consonant, and therefore does not require the services of the liaison. It is pronounced as |eel son|.

 See the difference? 

5. Some liaisons are required

We call this liaison obligatoire, and as the name implies, you should always use liaison in some cases. 

Here's when it is terribly necessary that you use liaisons:

  • After the determiners: un, les, des, ces, mon, ton, quels, etc.
  • After the pronouns: nous, vous, ils, elles, les,etc.
  • After the adjectives: bon, mauvais, petit, grand, gros, etc.
  •  After the monosyllabic prepositions: chez, dans, sous, en, etc.
  • After the word comment when the speaker is referring to health-related topics
  • After some monosyllabic adverbs: très, plus, bien,etc. (Please note that it is optional after pas, trop, fort); and
  • After est (but it is optional after all other forms of être) 
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    6. Some liaisons are optional

    We call this liaison facultative. In some cases, you may or may not use liaisons because it is not mandatory at all (hooray!) So when do you need to use these optional liaisons?

  • When you feel fancy and you want to put your knowledge of liaisons to good use,
  • When you're a bit on the older, more formal crowd,
  • When you're giving a speech at the Académie française,
  • When you just wanna show off for no reason at all, and
  • When you haven't bothered memorizing the list of required and optional liaisons.

  • In other cases not mentioned, you are probably better off avoiding liaisons. Or not. It's totally up to you.

    This is when liaison is optional:

  • After some single syllable adverbs like pas, trop, fort,
  • After all other forms of  être aside from est
  • After a word (in plural) and an adjective: des enfants aimables. 

  • 7. Some liaisons must NEVER see the light of day

    Remember when we said liaisons are used so that the sound of the string of words remains melodious, unbroken and pleasing to the ears? Well, there we said it. So in cases when liaisons ought to be used (theoretically) but they just don't sound right at all when used, these are times when it is prohibited. 

    These include:

  • after the word et,
  • before words that begin with h aspiré (such as les héros)
  • before the word onze
  • after singular nouns or proper names
  • after plural noun objects
  • plural forms of compound words

  • So remember if you feel like using liaisons at some point during those words, please...

    Noooooo

    8. Changes in pronunciation

    There are some changes in the sound of the consonants when it is used in liaisons.

  • If the word ends in -s or -x, it will be pronounced as z,
  • If the word ends in -d or -t, it will be pronounced as t,
  • If the word ends in -n and -m, instead of the nasal vowel sound (which will then be denasalized), the n and m will be pronounced,
  • Sometimes during formal speech, the -g ending is pronounced as k, but most of the time, it is left as it is -- a g sound.
  • Neuf is pronounced with a v sound instead of f, but only when it is used with ans and heures.

  • 9. Some examples for s, x, and z liaisons

    trois amis
    les enfants
    aux enfants
    mes élèves
    certaines idées
    vieux hôtels
    les avenues
    petits hommes
    chez eux
    nous avons
    vous êtes

     10. Some examples for t and d liaisons 

    petit ami
    Où sont-ils?
    Où est-elle?
    un grand hôtel
    Ils sont en haut 

    11. It is different from enchaînement

    Enchaînement is when a consonant has to be pronounced whether it follows a consonant, a vowel, or a mute h. This is quite unlike liaison wherein a previously silent consonant gets pronounced because of the word that follows it. 

    12. It is quite different from elision too

    It's the opposite, really. Elision happens when sounds that are normally being pronounced, do not get pronounced anymore when it follows a vowel or a mute h. Think of it as your other friend – the one who is usually loud and obnoxious but suddenly goes silent when there is a hot girl nearby. Yep, exactly like that.

    Aside from all those listed, the most important thing you have to remember is to keep listening to spoken French. Soon enough the liaisons would jump out at you and become all too familiar. So listen, listen, and listen some more. It will get ingrained in your system soon enough.

    If you need any clarifications about this lessons, just ask me in the comment section.

    P.S. You would be doing me a HUGE FAVOR by sharing it via Twitter or Facebook.

    About the author 

    Frederic Bibard is the founder of Talk in French, a company that helps french learners to practice and improve their french. Macaron addict. Jacques Audiard fan. You can contact him on Instagram

  • In the section where you mention that some liaisons are forbidden (.7), it would be helpful to have examples to illustrate each point, e.g., before words that begin with h aspiré (such as les héros)
    before the word onze
    after singular nouns or proper names
    after plural noun objects
    after interrogative adverbs except for comment and quand
    plural forms of compound words
    after the words on, ils and elles would used in inversion and following past participle or infinitives.
    Merci !

  • I have trouble hearing and pronouncing the difference between two euros and twelve euros. Perhaps it is too subtle for my ear.

    • Hello Rob this is so funny because you are not the only who say that. I talked with a Canadian friend and she has the same issue, also with douze heures and deux heures. I will try to find something. Is there any others difficulty in French for you?

  • […] Talk in French How to Sound French: 12 Things You Need To Remember About Liaison » Talk in French. Reading time: 5 minutesDifficulty: Intermediate There is a huge line between sounding like an actual French speaker and sounding like a joke (and a stupid one at that). […]

  • Hello
    You mentioned the pronunciation of words that end with x. There’s a place in France called Aix-en-Provence. How is it pronounced please?

  • In this post you mention that there are no liaisons made with words beginning with an aspirated h such as les héros or les haricots (this one used to get me all the time). But you give an example of a liaison with hôtel, “grand hôtel”. So this h must not be aspirated. My question or challenge is that I don’t hear a great difference in the pronunciation of the h in hôtel vs. héro. How can I know if an h is aspirated or not?

    • Good question. Les haricots is a tricky word for some French too. Don’t worry too much about it. Actually what we called h aspiré (aspirated) and h muet (mute) is just a distinction. But no difference in the pronunciation of the word héro and hôtel .

  • It looks like I am a little late to the party, but to distinguish the sound of douze ans, using American English pronunciation, I would say the ou sound is like the oo in goose, and for deux ans the eux is the very common French e sound that you can make when you make your lips to say an ‘o’ and then say ‘e’.

  • Let me know if this is a good definition:
    Liaison: when you pronounce a consonant at the end of a word when the next word begans with a vowel or h

    If that is the definition, I think I get liaisons, but if not, I am totally confused. Thanks.

  • Though you say that not using liaison makes one sound like a bumbling mess I notice that people also say that it is mainly older people use liaisons. Does that mean that its acceptable, at least among young people, to not use liaisons?

  • Thank you for the quick reply to my previous question. I have one more if that’s ok.
    Is it correct to liaison after tu form of etre? For example:

    tu es intelligent
    tew eh zahn teh lee jahn
    you are intelligent

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