Elision (French) Explained

In French, elision (French: élision) is the suppression of a final unstressed vowel (usually pronounced as //ə//) immediately before another word beginning with a vowel or a silent (h). The term also refers to the orthographic convention by which the deletion of a vowel is reflected in writing, and indicated with an apostrophe.

Written French

In written French, elision (both phonetic and orthographic) is obligatory for the following words:

• the definite articles and
  • ("the boy"), ("the girl")
  • + → ("the tree"), + → ("the church")
• the subject pronouns and (when they occur before the verb)
  • . ("I sleep") . ("That would be great.")
  • . ("I slept.") . ("It was great.")
  • but: ? ("Did I imagine?"), ? ("Is that useful?")
• the object pronouns,,,, and (when they occur before the verb)
  • . ("Jean shaves himself, sees her, phones me.")
  • . ("Jean shaved himself, saw her, phoned me.")
  • but: . ("Look at him one more time.")
• the object pronouns when they occur after an imperative verb and before the pronoun or :
  • . ("Put it, give me them, scram.")
  • . ("Put it there, give me some, leave.")
• the negative marker
  • . ("She isn't talking anymore.")
  • . ("She won't stop talking.")
• the preposition
  • . ("Jean's father just left.")
  • . ("Albert's father just arrived.")
• (which has many different functions)
  • . ("What are you saying? That Jean does nothing but eat.")
  • . ("What did you say? That we only had one more week left.")
• The conjunction plus the pronouns and
  • ("if she likes cats")
  • ("if he/they like cats")

Elision is indicated in the spelling of some compound words, such as "peninsula", "today", and "someone".

At the beginnings of words, the aspirated h forbids elision. Example: . The mute h, however, requires elision. Example: . Both types of "h" are silent regardless.

Informal French

Elision of the second-person singular subject pronoun, before the verbs beginning with a vowel or mute h (silent h), and of the particle of negation, is very common in informal speech, but is avoided in careful speech and never used in formal writing:

• . "You decided to visit them, you went to see the film, you were not there, I don't know." (careful speech)
• T'as décidé de lui rendre visite, t'es allé voir le film, t'étais pas là, je sais pas. (informal speech)

See also

• Liaison (French)
• Elision — broader discussion of elision in other languages

References

• Maurice Grevisse, Le Bon Usage, 14th edition by André Goosse, de Boeck, 2007,