177 - 11 Common French Words Starting with an Aspirated H

In this episode, you’ll learn 11 common French words that start with an aspirated H.

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Transcript

Hello everyone! Welcome back to the French Made Easy podcast! This is episode number 177, numéro 177.

Alright so, in episode 168, we talked about the mute H — le H muet — and we went through a list of French words that start with a mute H. And in today’s episode, we’re talking about the aspirated H, or le H aspiré.

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 follow along and see how the words 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 as a little reminder from last time:

In French, the letter H is always silent. You never pronounce it. But even though it’s silent, there are two types of H, that impact pronunciation:

1) The Mute H (le H muet) — we covered this one in episode 168. This type of H allows liaisons  and elisions.

2) The Aspirated H (le H aspiré) — and that’s the one we’re talking about today. This type of H blocks both liaison and elision. So no liaison, no elision.

• les haricots (beens)
• → If we were to do a liaison, we’d say les‿haricots. But because the H from the word “haricot” is aspirated, we say les❌haricots, not les‿haricots.
• And, by the way, in France there’s been a long-standing rumour about the H in the word haricot. Some people were saying that it had switched to being a mute H at some point, and that we coud indeed say “les‿haricots.” Well — I actually checked with l’Académie française (they’re basically the authority on what’s correct in the French language), and the rumour is in fact false. The H in haricot is indeed aspirated. 🫘
• la hache (axe)
• → If we were to do an elision, we’d say l’hache. But because the H from the word “hache” is aspirated, we say “la❌hache”, not l’hache.

Alright, so now that you know what the aspirated H is, and that is, again, that it blocks liaisons and elisions, I’m going to give you a list of common French words starting with an aspirated H. 

11 Common French Words with the Aspirated H (H aspiré)

1. le haricot 🌱 (bean) → Elle mange des haricots verts. (She’s eating green beans.)
2. le héros 🦸 (hero) → Tous les héros ont été applaudis. (All the heroes were applauded.)
3. la haine 😡 (hatred) → La haine ne résout rien. (Hatred doesn’t solve anything.)
4. le hasard 🎲 (chance/coincidence) → Ce n’est pas un hasard. (It’s not a coincidence.)
5. le hérisson 🦔 (hedgehog) → Le hérisson est un animal nocturne. (The hedgehog is a nocturnal animal.)
6. la hache 🪓 (axe) → Le tronc a été coupé à la hache. (The trunk was cut with an axe.)
7. le hangar 🏚️ (shed) → Les outils sont dans le hangar. (The tools are in the shed.)
8. le hall 🏛️ (hall/lobby) → On se retrouve dans le hall de l’hôtel. (Let’s meet in the hotel lobby.)
9. le hammam 🧖‍♂️ (steam room) → Ils vont dans un hammam chaque semaine. (They go to the steam room every week.)
10. le handicap ♿ (disability) → Il parle ouvertement de son handicap. (He speaks openly about his disability.)
11. le hockey 🏒 (hockey) → Mon frère regarde souvent le hockey à la télé. (My brother often watches hockey on TV.)

Recap:

Let’s quickly review our list of French words starting with an aspirated H. Repeat after me:

• le haricot 🌱 (bean)
• le héros 🦸 (hero)
• la haine 😡 (hatred)
• le hasard 🎲 (chance/coincidence)
• le hérisson 🦔 (hedgehog)
• la hache 🪓 (axe)
• le hangar 🏚️ (shed)
• le hall 🏛️ (hall/lobby)
• le hammam 🧖‍♂️ (steam room)
• le handicap ♿ (disability)
• le hockey 🏒 (hockey)

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

À bientôt, bye! 🤍