If you haven’t read the lesson on compulsory liaisons, I’ll give you that information again before talking specifically about prohibited liaisons.

Quelques explications sur les liaisons … – Here are some explanations of the liaisons…

Une liaison ? Qu’est-ce que c’est ? – A liaison? What is it?

A liaison is the pronunciation of a final consonant that is not pronounced when the word is written on its own. A liaison occurs when the following word begins with a vowel or a silent “h”.

In this lesson, in order to indicate that there shouldn’t be a liaison, I will use the sign⏐between the 2 words.

Comment ça marche ? – How does it work?

Liaisons are one of the biggest difficulties when listening or speaking French. Indeed, when there is a liaison, 2 words are linked so it makes it harder to differentiate the 2 words. And when you speak, you need not only to memorise the words in French but as well the correct pronunciation including the liaison, this little phonetic bridge linking the 2 words.

In this lesson, we will see situations that you actually need to remember because you mustn’t make a liaison.

Quand faut-il faire une liaison ? – When do you have to make a liaison?

Well, sometimes it is mandatory, you absolutely must do it (otherwise you will be the victim of a spell that will make ratatouille come out of your mouth every time you open it 😈) but sometimes it is strictly forbidden (if you pronounce a liaison when there shouldn’t be, a rat will come in the night and eat your tongue 🐀). And in some situations, you could or not pronounce a liaison, it is up to you 😇.

Liaisons interdites – Forbidden liaisons

In this lesson we focus on the forbidden liaisons so don’t worry about the ratatouille coming out of your mouth for now 😜

There are many situations where it is forbidden to make a liaison between 2 words. I’m not going to give you all these situations because I wouldn’t want to give you a headache. I’ll just give you the most common ones:

Entre un sujet qui n’est pas un pronom personnel et le verbe qui suit- Between a subject which is not a personal pronoun and the following verb

Après le mot “et“ – After the word “et“

Après les adverbes interrogatifs “quand“, “comment” et “combien“ – After the interrogative adverbs “quand“, “comment” and “combien“

There are 2 exceptions to this rule:

Entre un nom et un adjectif placé après le nom – Between a noun and an adjective placed after the noun

Devant un h aspiré – In front of an aspirated h

Après un nom au singulier – After a noun in the singular