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Élision
An elision is a type of contraction that occurs when two words are combined: one or more letters are dropped and replaced with an apostrophe. In English, elisions like "I’m" and "can’t" are optional and indicate informality. In French, however, written elisions are required, regardless of the register you’re speaking or writing in.
There are four main groups of written French elisions:
1) Definite articles
Le and la elide with nouns that begin with a vowel or h muet.
| le + animal | l’animal | |
| le + homme | l’homme | |
| la + école | l’école | |
| la + haleine | l’haleine |
Exception: la une (front page of a newspaper)
2) Direct object pronouns
Le and la contract with verbs that begin with a vowel, h muet, or adverbial pronoun y.
| je le + ai | je l’ai | |
| tu le + hérites | tu l’hérites | |
| il la + obéit | il l’obéit | |
| elle la + y voit | elle l’y voit |
3) Other two-letter words that end in e muet
These elide when followed by a vowel, h muet, or adverbial y.
| ce | ce + est | c’est | ||
| de | de + azur | d’azur | ||
| je | je + aime | j’aime | ||
| me | je me + habille | je m’habille | ||
| ne | il ne + aime pas | il n’aime pas | ||
| se | ils se + adorent | ils s’adorent | ||
| te | tu te + y mets | tu t’y mets |
Exception: No written elision when je is inverted.
| Puis-je + aller | Puis-je aller | |
| Ai-je + envie | Ai-je envie |
Je and tu have additional elisions in informal French.
3½) Que, jusque, lorsque, and puisque also elide in this way:
| que | que + elles | qu’elles | |
| jusque | jusque + à | jusqu’à | |
| lorsque | lorsque + on | lorsqu’on | |
| puisque | puisque + il | puisqu’il |
Exception: presque – presque à, presque impossible*
4) Elisions figées (Fixed elisions)
| aujourd’hui | today | contraction of au + jour + de + hui from the 12th century | ||
| d’abord | in the first place, first of all | |||
| d’accord d’ac | okay OK | |||
| d’ailleurs | besides, moreover | |||
| d’après | according to | |||
| d’habitude d’hab | usually, as a rule | |||
| entr’acte | ~intermission | contraction of entre + acte only used in English; the French write entracte | ||
| *presqu’île | peninsula | the only contraction with presque | ||
| quelqu’un | someone | |||
| s’il s’ils | si + il (if he/it) si + ils (if they) | but not | si + elle si + elles si + on | si elle si elles si on |
No elision
| Before … | |||
| h aspiré | la haine, je hoquette | ||
| onze | Je pense que onze euros seront suffisants. | ||
| oui | le oui et le non | ||
| nouns that begin with y | le yaourt, le yacht… | ||
| In … | |||
| la une | (front page of a newspaper) | ||
| After … | |||
| qui | Je ne sais pas qui il cherche. (qu’il = que + il) | ||
Elision also refers to the dropping of the e sound (e instable), which Le Bon Usage calls l’élision comme phénomène phonétique.
Two words that combine into one with a different spelling result in a contraction.
Related lessons
- Vowels
- H
- Contractions
- Informal elision
- Definite articles
- Direct object pronouns
- Euphony
- Adverbial pronoun y
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