Linking words in French
Hello everyone,

It's known that, in French, we kind of join some words together.
However, I've noticed that some words don't follow this rule. If it exists...
My question is: how do we know the words should be joined?

Merci bcp

Question

Linking words in French
Hello everyone,

It's known that, in French, we kind of join some words together.
However, I've noticed that some words don't follow this rule. If it exists...
My question is: how do we know the words should be joined?

Merci bcp

Answer

Ha, excellent question! I actually wrote a blog post about it (just an introduction):

http://www.oegugin.com/2014/02/28/linkings-in-french/

Basically, there are two kinds of linkings. "Enchaînements" are done all the time, but "liaisons" can be compulsory, optional, or forbidden. Here are some examples:

Enchaînements: "Je parle avec elle" sounds like "je-par-la-vè-kèl"

Liaisons obligatoires: "mes amis" sounds like "mé-za-mi"

Liaisons optionnelles: "ils vont à Paris" can sound like "il-von-a-pa-ri" or "il-von-ta-pa-ri"

Liaisons interdite: "lui et elle" sounds like "lui-é-èl" (you can never pronounce that T)

I hope this helps! :)

Answer

We had a former discussion on this subject, feel free to have a look :
https://www.italki.com/question/373560