In French unlike English, ‘h’ is normally a vowel and is treated the same way other vowels are. That is why we say ‘l’homme’, for instance; the article l’ is used before singular nouns beginning with vowels. This is known as h-muet (silent h). What is less known is the existence of h as a consonant as well. This phenomenon is known as h-aspiré (aspirated h) and has two very important bearings on how words are represented.

The first is the way words are written. Words beginning with an h-aspiré take the normal definite article (le or la) instead of l’. For instance, the word ‘homard’ (lobster) is written as ‘le homard’ and not ‘l’homard’ because the ‘h’ in this word is a consonant. Similarly, the preposition de does not undergo elision when followed by one of these words; we say d’homme but de homard. The partitive does not undergo elision either – de l’homme but du homard. Other examples of words beginning with the consonant h include: la haine (hatred), le hasard (chance), la hanche (hip), la hache (axe), la honte (shame), la hiérarchie (hierarchy), le hoquet (hiccup), la hâte (hurry) and la hauteur (height).

This applies to possessive adjectives as well. Feminine nouns beginning with vowels normally take mon, ton, son instead of the feminine equivalents (ma, ta, sa) for ease of pronunciation (e.g. we say mon amie even though ‘amie’ is feminine). However, words beginning with the consonant h take the normal feminine form – so we would write ‘ma hanche’ and not ‘mon hanche’.

The second is the way such words are pronounced. The label h-aspiré is a misnomer since h’s are never actually aspirated or pronounced in French (aspiration is pronouncing something in such a way that it releases a puff of air from the vocal folds; for example, the h in the word ‘house’ is aspirated). When a word starts with a vowel h, a liaison is possible if the preceding word ends in a consonant. E.g. les hommes is pronounced ‘lezomme’; mon homme is pronounced ‘monomme’.

There is no liaison when a word starts with a consonant h. Instead, there is a pause between the words to indicate that the h is a consonant. Les homards is pronounced ‘les omards’, and mon homard is pronounced ‘mon omard’, so that they are heard as two distinct words. The same is observed with indefinite articles: compare un homme (‘unomme’) and un homard (‘un omard’).

This phenomenon isn’t just restricted to nouns. The verb heurter (to strike, hit or crash into) contains a consonantal h.

Using the knowledge you have now gained, try to determine how ‘ma hanche’ and ‘les hanches’ would be pronounced.

How to tell if a word starts with a muted h or an aspirated one? It’s easy if it comes with a definite or partitive article, as a silent h will be preceded by l’ or de l’ in the singular. It’s impossible to tell just by looking if it’s in the plural or preceded by an indefinite article, though. The only sure-fire way of knowing is to hear the word pronounced, but would require you to be aurally observant.