"liaison" and "enchâinement"

Question

What is the difference and why does it matter?

Answer 1

Liaison and enchaînement both deal with the fact that French words spoken in isolation will often sound differently when spoken as part of a phrase. The difference between the two can seem a bit like hairsplitting. Understanding their function though, will make your French sound more idiomatic and can even increase the likelihood that native speakers will understand what you say. So they do deserve to be taken seriously.

Take the phrase nous allons. Spoken in isolation, the final 's' in nous is silent: /nu/ . But when followed by allons, the 's' gets articulated at the start of allons: /nu__zalõ / . This is liaison, likewise vous allez : /vu__zale/. An example of enchaînement is elle entend / el__lõtõ /, not / el õtõ /. Related to the two phenomena is a third, called élision which is easier to grasp because it is reflected in a spelling change - for example we say j'entends, not *je entends - you can't miss it.

A comparison of the present tense conjugations of venir (starts with a consonant) and aimer (starts with a vowel) will illustrate all this:

venir

Je viens (no change)

Tu viens (no change)

Il/elle vient (no change)

Nous venons (no change)

Vous venez (no change)

Ils/elles viennent (no change)

aimer

J'aime élision / j3m /

Tu aimes (no change)

Il/elle aime enchaînement / el_l3m /

Nous aimons liaison / nu_z3mõ /

Vous aimez liaison / vu_z3me /

Ils/Elles aiment liaison / el_z3m /

In the conjugation of venir the pronouns and verb forms are all pronounced the same as they would be pronounced in isolation. In the conjugation of aimer all forms, except the 2nd person singular, are affected by either élision, enchaînement, or liaison.

Elision (j'aime instead of *je aime) is pretty self explanatory but what's the difference between enchaînement and liaison?

Take a minute or two to carefully compare the one occurrence of enchaînement - elle aime

/ el_l3m / - with the three plural forms that follow right below it.

Did you see the difference?

The enchaînement in elle aime / el_l3m / occurs with a consonant that you would hear in any case, whether or not it is followed by a vowel. Elle is always pronounced / el / , in the enchaînement the final consonant is merely attached to the next word. In contrast to that, nous, vous, and ils/elles all have silent endings when in front of consonants or when articulated in isolation.

More examples:

Enchaînement or liaison? sept enfants / se_tãfã /

Enchaînement or liaison? huit heures / wi_tœR /

Enchaînement or liaison? les élèves / le_zelev /

Enchaînement or liaison? trois hommes / tRwa_zom /

To find the answers ask yourself how you would pronounce each word in isolation. To refresh your memory, consult a free online dictionary that will give you both a phonetic transcription in IPA format(1) and an audio sample. For example, Pons will do that (en.pons.com).

1) Please note that the phonetic symbols used here are only approximations of the IPA symbols (they are difficult to generate with this word processor).