h aspiré vs h muet
Summary
The letter h is never pronounced in French, but an "aspirate" h blocks elision and liaison while a "mute" h allows them.
Explanation
Modern French does not pronounce the letter h at all: there is no breath or /h/ sound in either type. The only thing that distinguishes them is grammatical behaviour at the start of a word. A mute h (h muet) is transparent — the word behaves as if it began with a vowel — while an aspirate h (h aspiré) acts as an invisible consonant barrier that prevents the word from linking to what comes before it.
With a mute h, elision and liaison both apply normally: l'homme, l'hôtel, l'heure (elision of le/la), and les‿hommes /lez‿ɔm/, un‿homme /œ̃n‿ɔm/ (liaison). With an aspirate h, both are blocked: you keep the full article and make a clean break — le héros, la honte, le hibou, and les héros /le eʁo/ (not /lez‿eʁo/), un héros /œ̃ eʁo/. The aspirate h therefore protects an audible gap between the words.
Which words carry an aspirate h is largely a matter of etymology and must be learned item by item, but there are helpful tendencies: many aspirate-h words come from Germanic or other borrowed vocabulary (la honte, le hareng, la hache, le hameau, le hangar, le homard), and many onomatopoeic or expressive words too (hop, hé). Common aspirate-h vocabulary for learners includes le héros, le haricot, la haine, le hibou, le hasard, le haut, le huit (in dates: le huit mai), and la Hollande. Good dictionaries mark the aspirate h, often with an asterisk or a special symbol.
Three practical reminders. First, the feminine héroïne actually has a mute h even though le héros is aspirate, so always check the specific word. Second, the aspirate h also blocks the "liaison" inside numbers and set phrases, which is why you say les onze /le ɔ̃z/ and le onze (onze behaves like an aspirate-h word). Third, in connected speech the giveaway of an aspirate h is the absence of linking: hearing /le eʁo/ with two clear vowels rather than /lez‿eʁo/ tells you the h is aspirate.
Examples
l'homme et les hommes — the man and the men (Mute h: elision (l') and liaison both occur, so les hommes is /lez‿ɔm/.)
le héros et les héros — the hero and the heroes (Aspirate h: no elision, no liaison, so les héros is /le eʁo/ with a clear break.)
le héros et son héroïne — the hero and his heroine (Same root, different h: héros is aspirate (le héros), but héroïne is mute (son héroïne).)
un grand hôtel — a big hotel (Mute h in hôtel: liaison of grand → /t/, /ɡʁɑ̃t‿otɛl/.)
J'aime les haricots verts. — I like green beans. (Aspirate h: no liaison on les, /le aʁiko/, and never l'haricot.)
Common mistakes
l'haricot, les‿haricots /lezaʁiko/
le haricot, les haricots /le aʁiko/
An aspirate h (h aspiré) is silent like every French h, but it blocks both elision and liaison, so the word behaves as if it began with a consonant. Words such as le haricot, la honte, le héros and le hibou therefore keep the full article (no apostrophe) and take no /z/ link in the plural: les haricots is /le aʁiko/, not /lezaʁiko/. Treating an aspirate h like a mute h — writing l'haricot or linking les‿haricots — is a frequent error; these words must be learned individually (dictionaries mark them).
Prerequisites
Related rules
silent-hliaisonelisionconnected-speech