Ashvemn
I have a question!
blaugh In French, the liaison is confusing me. I thought it occured with consonants on vowels (es
t-
il), but in some cases you don't say the liaison! Can anyone explain this to me? And also explain why you add "t-" to all third person singulars in some cases?!
For the liaision, I was not taught any rules. I think it's random, ie you probably have to learn it case by case.
gonk As for adding "t-" :
When doing inversion (ie you make the verb and the pronoun switch places to ask a question), if the ending of the verb regularly ends in a vowel sound and the pronoun begins with a vowel, a t must be added between the vowel and the pronoun. This is done to prevent there being 2 vowel sounds in a row.
Eg:
Quand celebre-t-on Noel? (When does one celebrate Christmas?)
Ou va-t-il? (Where is he going?)
Pourquoi a-t-elle peur? (Why is she scared?)
Getting back to the liaision thing for a minute though, if a verb normally ends in "-t" in the 3rd person singular and that t is not normally pronounced, it is prononced when you do inversion. Eg: the "t" in
il veut, il dort, and
il meurt (he wants, he sleeps, he dies) is not pronounced when you use it in a sentence.
When you do inversion though, the pronoun and the verb switch places, so you get:
Veut-il? (does he want?)
Dort-il? (is he sleeping?)
Meurt-il? (is he dying?)
In these cases, the "t"
is pronounced (again, to prevent there being 2 vowels in a row). So, for example, veut-il is prononced (veuh-teel) and not (veuh-eel).
Note, also, that in the 3rd person
plural, the "t" is pronounced in inversion. Long story short:
Voient-ils? (do they see?) --> this is prononced exactly like "voit-il" (vwa-teel). The t is pronounced but the "en" isn't.
Other examples:
Meurent-ils? (meuh-rteel)
Veulent-ils? (veuhl-teel)
Vont-ils? (von-teel)
Pensent-ils? (pense-teel)
Etc.
Et voila.
whee I hope I explained it clearly enough
sweatdrop If you have any other questions don't hesitate to ask, I'd be glad to try and answer ^^
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