Most French course books that I referred to so far explained how definite article behaves in front of vowels or words that sound like vowel (such as ‘y’ and ‘non-aspirated h’), and then proceeded to give examples of 'non-aspirated h words', such as, l’homme [hear] (the man), l'hôtel [hear] (the hotel), l'hiver [hear] (the winter).
But without exception these courses never ever follow this up with examples of ‘aspirated h’ (meaning those French words where ‘h’ is pronounced). I therefore assumed that these words were rare and not important. It was only when I looked up French Text Book for children that I got an example … French Beans. The ‘h’ is pronounced and so it is not l’haricot vert, but le haricot vert [hear]. Not that French Beans are important, but it is nice to have at least one example of aspirated ‘h’.
But here's what I find funny. When you hear the French speak haricot vert, you will still not hear the 'h'. So much for aspirated and non-aspirated (or unaspirated) sounds of 'h'. You will only hear the difference in the plural - les haricots verts. The 's' of 'les' does not get pronounced in front of non-vowel sounding words. And since the 'h' of haricot is supposed to be pronounced, the pronunciation goes 'lay-arico-ver'. Contrast this with les hôtel, which goes 'lay-zotel'.
About.com has the big list of French words that begins with 'aspirated h'.
But without exception these courses never ever follow this up with examples of ‘aspirated h’ (meaning those French words where ‘h’ is pronounced). I therefore assumed that these words were rare and not important. It was only when I looked up French Text Book for children that I got an example … French Beans. The ‘h’ is pronounced and so it is not l’haricot vert, but le haricot vert [hear]. Not that French Beans are important, but it is nice to have at least one example of aspirated ‘h’.
But here's what I find funny. When you hear the French speak haricot vert, you will still not hear the 'h'. So much for aspirated and non-aspirated (or unaspirated) sounds of 'h'. You will only hear the difference in the plural - les haricots verts. The 's' of 'les' does not get pronounced in front of non-vowel sounding words. And since the 'h' of haricot is supposed to be pronounced, the pronunciation goes 'lay-arico-ver'. Contrast this with les hôtel, which goes 'lay-zotel'.
About.com has the big list of French words that begins with 'aspirated h'.
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