French Liaison

It has always been my dream to be able to speak and write another international language, as I find learning a language quite interesting.
I learned Japanese way back in the late eighties when I was sent to do a training in Japan. It was a three-month intensive course. Me and my six other male colleagues learnt very fast. We took every opportunity to speak the language, with our coordinators, with the training centre's staffs as well as with other participants especially those who did not speak English. Most of the time our grammar was quite hay wired but our vocabulary was enough for the Japanese to understand us, which was terrific for us. We speak Japanese even among ourselves when we went out shopping or sightseeing. It was hilarious at times but it made life much easier when we can converse with the natives in their own language. We made friends easily and were often invited into Japanese homes. We had a very wonderful time, all the nine months that we were there. It is indeed sad that I have forgotten a lot of Japanese words, mainly due to lack of practise. I am also unable to read and write hiragana and katakana anymore.

The first French book I read all
by myself....ha ha ha

So now, I have chosen to learn French. It is not an easy language to learn. There are definitely more things to remember and a lot more rules to follow than English. If you do not have a strong determination, it will be quite easy to quit I think. For me particularly, it is indeed very frustrating when I am unable to understand much of spoken French, as of now.

Whenever a French movie is shown on Cinema World channel on HyppTV I would make sure I watch it. First I would watch it with all the English subtitles, really absorbing the story. Then when the movie encores, I would just listen to the TV, doing other things, moving around, without looking at the screen to try to pick up as many French words as possible that I can understand. It is indeed very frustrating when I can only pick a very few isolated words. Spoken French is definitely not easy and can easily intimidate and undermine your enthusiasm to learn the language.

Well, I have decided to look at the positive side in this particular learning process. I started with zero French some months back. The only French words I know can be counted with the fingers of one hand only. There are encore, ensuite, avant-garde, pâtisserie and chocolat. Presently my vocabulary is still very pitiful but has definitely increased from before. I can already make simple sentences though with mistakes at times. The pronunciation does not overwhelm me so much anymore as I get a little hang of it. I think there are places where the pronunciation is quite phonetic in nature and perhaps easier than English in some ways. There are also accents to help your pronunciation which are non-existent in English.

Every language is beautiful in its own way and so does French. I am falling in love with it just the way I fell in love with English when I was a young teenager. I am much older now and the learning environment is different compared to when I was learning English, or even Japanese for that matter. I am, however, still determined to be good in it, even if it takes time. I may be slower than some of my classmates who are much younger than me, but that is okay, I can always put more effort into it.

My first weekly French class was on 23rd Dec. 2014. It will be a year soon. I am very glad that I made the decision to learn French, even if I was apprehensive at the beginning. It is not an easy language. But then English is not that easy also. The difference is that I started learning English intensively when I was twelve and I continued learning it at least 3 or 4 times a week until I was eighteen. All my subjects in school were taught in English except for Bahasa Malaysia and Religious Knowledge. English was everywhere while I was learning it. There were English newspapers, English books and TV programmes. Our teachers speak English all the time. There was indeed immersion into the language from many angles. This situation is very much lacking in the present school system in Malaysia, resulting in the decline in the performance of students in the English language.

Bearing all these in mind, I supposed, I need not be so harsh with myself, if I am slow in picking up spoken French or if I make a lot of mistakes in my sentences. The most important thing is to put whatever effort I can into this learning endeavour. In my heart, I still carry the ambition that one day I will be able to easily read and understand literary works like Les Miserables by Victor Hugo or Le Petit Prince by Antoine de Saint Exupéry in its original French.

The following article in blue is taken from the net. It is a very interesting write-up on French liaison which is a tough challenge in spoken French for beginners like me.


Things You Need To Remember About French Liaison

There is a huge line between sounding like an actual French speaker and sounding like a joke (and a stupid one at that). 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.

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

1. So... what is a liaison?

Liaison 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, orphonologically 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 ilsends 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) 

 
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, and
After the word quand when it is used with est-ce-que. 

 
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…

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, Facebook, Google + or Pinterest.
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 Twitterand Google +