Silent but powerful: the French H explained | A Coffee Break with Max

Coffee Break French

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Coffee Break French, Language Learning, Courses, Education, French Lessons, French Language, Learn French, Français

4.6 • 4.9K Ratings

🗓️ 10 November 2025

⏱️ 10 minutes

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Summary

Join Max for a coffee break in which he will guide you through one tricky point of French pronunciation: the difference between h muet (silent h) and h aspiré (aspirated h). 🤔

You’ll learn how words like l’homme (the man) link smoothly thanks to a silent h, while words like le héros 🦸 (the hero) create a pause because of the aspirated h. With clear examples and simple explanations, this lesson will help you recognise the difference and sound more natural when speaking French.

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Transcript

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0:00.0	Bonjour, it's me Max. Welcome to another mini episode to help you improve your French.
0:08.3	If this is the first coffee break French podcast you ever hear,
0:13.0	please note that this is not our usual format.
0:16.6	Our main seasons are made of longer episodes, typically with a native speaker and a learner.
0:22.8	You can find them by scrolling in the podcast feed.
0:26.9	Brief, today we'll talk about a letter that can be quite tricky.
0:32.7	La letter H.
0:34.8	The letter H.
0:37.0	Is it silent?
0:38.9	Is it pronounced?
0:40.4	How do I know the difference?
0:42.4	Let's find out together.
1:00.2	Let's start with the easy aspect of H.
1:04.2	By easy, I mean similar pronunciation to English.
1:10.4	And that's the case when we have the combination P-H, P-H.
1:17.7	Just like in English, it's pronounced like the letter F, and you have it in words like philosophy, philosophy.
1:22.7	Okay, when we have the combination C-H, C-H, it's pronounced the way S-H would be pronounced in English.
1:36.1	Sh, so we have it in many words in French, such as chocolate, or show, hot, and many, many more.
1:48.1	Sometimes, the letters C.H can also be pronounced like a K,
1:53.4	and this is a case for words of Greek origin, or borrowed from other languages.
1:59.7	For example, archaeology,
2:02.7	archaeology, or orchestra,
	...

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