Elision (French)

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In French, elision refers to the suppression of a final unstressed vowel (usually [ə]) immediately before another word beginning with a vowel. The term also refers to the orthographic convention by which the deletion of a vowel is reflected in writing, and indicated with an apostrophe.

In written French, elision (both phonetic and orthographic) is obligatory for the following words:

  • the definite articles le and la
    • le garçon ("the boy"), la fille ("the girl")
    • le + arbre → l'arbre ("the tree"), la + église → l'église ("the church")
  • the subject pronouns je and ce (when they occur before the verb)
    • Je dors. ("I sleep") Ce serait génial. ("That would be great.")
    • J'ai dormi. ("I slept.") C'était génial. ("It was great.")
    • but: Ai-je imaginé? ("Did I imagine?"), Est-ce utile? ("Is that useful?")
  • the object pronouns me, te, se, le, and la (when they occur before the verb)
    • Jean se rase, la voit, me téléphone. ("Jean shaves himself, sees her, phones me.")
    • Jean s'est rasé, l'a vue, m'a téléphoné. ("Jean shaved himself, saw her, phoned me.")
    • but: Regarde-le encore une fois. ("Look at him one more time.")
    • (rare case of elision after the verb): Sortez-l'en. ("Take it out of there.")
  • the negative marker ne
    • Elle ne parle plus. ("She isn't talking anymore.")
    • Elle n'arrête pas de parler. ("She won't stop talking.")
  • the preposition de
    • Le père de Jean vient de partir. ("Jean's father just left.")
    • Le père d'Albert vient d'arriver. ("Albert's father just arrived.")
  • que (which has many different functions)
    • Que dis-tu ? Que Jean ne fait que manger. ("What are you saying? That Jean does nothing but eat.")
    • Qu'as-tu dit ? Qu'il ne nous restait plus qu'une semaine. ("What did you say? That we only had one more week left.")

Furthermore, elision is indicated in the spelling of some compound words: entr'acte (intermission), presqu'île (peninsula), aujourd'hui (today).

[edit] See also

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