Silent but powerful: the French H explained | A Coffee Break with Max
11/10/202510 min
Join Max for a coffee break in which he will guide you through one tricky point of French pronunciation: the difference between h muet (silent h) and h aspiré (aspirated h). 🤔
You’ll learn how words like l’homme (the man) link smoothly thanks to a silent h, while words like le héros 🦸 (the hero) create a pause because of the aspirated h. With clear examples and simple explanations, this lesson will help you recognise the difference and sound more natural when speaking French.
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Transcript preview
First 90 secondsMax· Host0:00
Bonjour, c'est moi, Max. Welcome to another mini episode to help you improve your French. If this is the first Coffee Break French podcast you ever hear, please note that this is not our usual format. Our main seasons are made of longer episodes, typically with a native speaker and a learner. You can find them by scrolling in the podcast feed. Bref, today, we'll talk about a letter that can be quite tricky. La lettre H. The letter H. Is it silent? Is it pronounced? How do I know the difference? Let's find out together. [upbeat music] Let's start with the easy aspect of H. By easy, I mean similar pronunciation to English, and that's the case when we have the combination P-H. PH. Just like in English, it's pronounced like the letter F, and you have it in words like philosophie. La philosophie. Philosophy. Okay. When we have the combination C-H, CH,