Liaison: when it happens (and when it doesn’t)

What you’ll learn Understand mandatory, optional, and forbidden liaison — and avoid the common “over‐liaison” mistake. Key ideas (keep these in your head) • Liaison connects a usually silent final consonant to the next word if it starts with a vowel sound. • Some liaisons are mandatory (les amis), some optional (très important), some forbidden (after et). • Learners often over‐liaise in places that sound unnatural or incorrect. Real examples (French → what you often hear → English) • Les amis → lez amis → The friends • Un grand homme → un gran tome (linking) → A great man • Et alors ? → e alor (no liaison) → So then? Common mistakes (and quick fixes) • Liaison after ‘et’. Fix: never do it (et un... not ‘e-tun’). • Adding liaison where it’s forbidden or odd. Fix: learn a small list of mandatory contexts first. • Forgetting liaison that’s highly frequent (plural article + noun). Fix: drill ‘les/z’, ‘des/z’, ‘un/n’. Quick self-check Say: “les amis / des amis / un ami / et un ami”. Only the last one has no liaison after ‘et’.