French Silent Letters

French Silent Letters - Grammar

French Silent Letters

French is not a phonetic language. It has letters that can be pronounced in different ways or sometimes not at all. There are two categories of French silent letters: at the beginning and at the end.

  1. At the beginning: h is a silent letter. 

Example homme (man), hôpital (hospital), hibou (owl)

  1. At  the end: There are 7 final consonants:  d,g,p,s,t,x,z and a vowel:e

Example: grand ( big), long (large), beaucoup (a lot), mais (but), salut ( hello), deux (two),nez (nose)

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Lettres muettes

Silent Letters at the Beginning:
One of the most common silent letters at the beginning of French words is h. In French, the letter h is always silent, whether it is an aspirated “h” (h aspiré) or a mute “h” (h muet). An aspirated “h” acts as a consonant in terms of liaison and elision rules, while a mute “h” does not.