168 - 15 Common French Words Starting with a Mute H

In this episode, you’ll learn 15 common French words that start with a mute H and learn the difference between a mute H and an aspirated H in French.

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Transcript

Hello everyone! Welcome back to the French Made Easy podcast! This is episode number 168, numéro 168.

In this episode, we’re talking about the Mute H, or le H muet, in French. So I'll first explain what it actually is, and then I’ll give you a list of words starting with a mute H.

Now, as usual, before we start our lesson, if you're new to the podcast, welcome! Make sure you have your lesson's cheat sheet in front of you, so you can listen to the words and see how they are written. And when you finish this lesson, you can head over to the French Made Easy Exercise Library to download your lesson's exercises and practice what you've learned today. You'll find all the download links in the episode notes on your podcast platform.

Alright so first things first, something you have to remember is that the H is always silent in French. It is never pronounced. Hence why it’s such a struggle for me to pronounce the H in English!

However, there’s 2 sort of H in French:

The Mute H (le H muet, the one we’re going to talk about today), and the Aspirated H (le H aspiré).

So:

• If a word starts with a mute H, the word behaves as if it begins with a vowel or vowel sound. And that is very important in pronunciation because that allows liaisons (and if you dont know what the liaison is, I teach it inside my pronunciation course, French Pronunciation Made Easy, but it’s basically the act of linking sounds together) and words starting with a mute H also allow elisions (again I talked about it in French Pronunciation Made Easy course, and that is the act of dropping the final vowel of a word like le or la for example). So if a word starts with a mute H, it allows liaisons and elisions. For example: les histoires → les‿histoires (stories) → I connect the final consonant of the previous word with the first vowel sound of the word, here’s its the sound [i]
• Now, if a word start with an aspirated H (le H aspiré): the word behaves as if it begins with a consonants, and basically blocks any liaison or elision. More in this in a future episode.

Alright, so now that you know the difference between a mute H and an aspirated H, I’m going to give you a list of 14 common words starting with a mute H, and I’d like you to learn these words by heart please. There are not that many words starting with a mute H, so yes learn these ones by heart.

Let’s do it.

14 Common French Words with the Mute H (H muet)

• l’homme (man)
• → C’est un homme intelligent. (He is an intelligent man.)
• l’heure (hour)
• → Le film commence dans une heure. (The movie starts in an hour.)
• l’histoire (story)
• → Elle lit une histoire à sa fille. (She reads a story to her daughter.)
• l’hôtel (hotel)
• → Nous avons réservé un hôtel à Paris. (We booked a hotel in Paris.)
• l’hiver (winter)
• → L'hiver dernier était très froid. (Last winter was very cold.)
• l’habit (a piece of clothing)
• → L’habit ne fait pas le moine. (The clothes do not make the man.)
• l’habitude (habit)
• → C’est une habitude que j’essaie de changer. (It’s a habit I’m trying to change.)
• l’héritage (inheritance)
• → Il a reçu un héritage de ses grands-parents. (He received an inheritance from his grandparents.)
• l’harmonie (harmony)
• → Ils vivent en parfaite harmonie. (They live in perfect harmony.)
• l’honneur (honor)
• → C’est un honneur de vous rencontrer. (It’s an honor to meet you.)
• l’hôpital (hospital)
• → Il travaille dans un hôpital à Lyon. (He works in a hospital in Lyon.)
• l’huile (oil)
• → J’utilise de l’huile d’olive pour cuisiner. (I use olive oil for cooking.)
• l’horizon (horizon)
• → L'horizon s'étendait à perte de vue. (The horizon stretched as far as the eye could see.)
• l’humour (humor)
• → Nous avons le même sens de l'humour. (We have the same sense of humor.)

Recap:

Let’s quickly review the our list of French words starting with a mute H . Repeat after me:

1. l’homme
2. l’heure
3. l’histoire
4. l’hôtel
5. l’hiver
6. l’habit
7. l’habitude
8. l’héritage
9. l’harmonie
10. l’honneur
11. l’hôpital
12. l’huile
13. l’horizon
14. l’humour

Et voilà! Now you know some common French words that start with a mute H. I hope you enjoyed this episode. Thanks for listening, I’ll chat with you next week. À bientôt, bye.