French words beginning with the letter “h” which is not pronounced are divided into two groups: aspired “h” and mute “h”. The initial letter “h” is not pronounced.
the aspired “h” appears in French words borrowed from other languages and acts like a consonant: - there are no contractions (elisions) with it, like in the word “hockey”, - there are no liaisons in front of it. For example, if you were to pronounce the word “heroes” with definite article with the liaison, you would be saying “the zeros”.
the mute “h” appears in most French words that begin with “h’. In this case the word acts as if it begins with a vowel: contractions and liaisons are required like in word “man” with the definite article.
the elision is the suppression of a final vowel before another word beginning with a vowel. The deletion of a vowel is indicated in writing with an apostrophe like in the word “friend” with definite article
The pronunciation of the letter “h” in French is definitely tricky. Indeed, H words in French are divided into two groups: words with aspirated “H” and words with mute “H”. Discover how to differentiate them and how to pronounce “H” in French in this lesson about ”H aspiré”!