contraction rules - French Language2024-03-28T17:55:58Zhttp://www.forum.french-linguistics.co.uk/forum/topics/contraction-rules?commentId=3179028%3AComment%3A118321&feed=yes&xn_auth=noContracting is just more comm…tag:www.forum.french-linguistics.co.uk,2015-04-18:3179028:Comment:1184522015-04-18T20:26:06.048ZAntoine Olivierhttp://www.forum.french-linguistics.co.uk/profile/AntoineOlivier
<p>Contracting is just more common language.</p>
<p>Contracting is just more common language.</p> Firstly: it arguably isn't so…tag:www.forum.french-linguistics.co.uk,2015-04-17:3179028:Comment:1183212015-04-17T22:50:18.432ZNeil Coffeyhttp://www.forum.french-linguistics.co.uk/profile/NeilCoffey
<p>Firstly: it arguably isn't so much that French doesn't like having a word ending in a vowel followed by another starting with a vowel. You could argue that the condition is more that French has evolved to have a slight preference for syllables made up of consonant-vowel (rather than, say, just a vowel, or consonant-vowel-consonant).</p>
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<p>But, however you analyse it, the important thing to realise is that this is just one of many "preferences" or pressures on the language. You could…</p>
<p>Firstly: it arguably isn't so much that French doesn't like having a word ending in a vowel followed by another starting with a vowel. You could argue that the condition is more that French has evolved to have a slight preference for syllables made up of consonant-vowel (rather than, say, just a vowel, or consonant-vowel-consonant).</p>
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<p>But, however you analyse it, the important thing to realise is that this is just one of many "preferences" or pressures on the language. You could argue that if the language evolved to elide vowels in more cases, such as this, then it would fit in with the preference of avoiding two adjacent vowels/keeping certain syllable structures. On the other hand, the language is also evolving in the face of other competing pressures-- the language may avoid two adjacent vowels, but not at the expense of every other preference.</p>
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<p>In this specific case, there's maybe pressure for "tu aimes" not to evolve to "t'aimes", because then it sounds a little like "t'aime" (as in "loves you"). And there's pressure for the language not to "solve the problem" by evolving "tu aimes" to (say) "tu z'aimes" (adding a liaison consonant, just as you do in e.g. "les_enfants"), perhaps because other consonants already occur in this place and when they do they tend to be interpreted as pronouns (e.g. if you make the consonant a "m" then it means "me": "tu m'aimes").</p>
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<p>That said... as it turns out, in very informal speech, "tu" is actually sometimes elided to "t'". In other words, it *is* possible to pronounce "tu aimes?" as "t'aimes?" (it's probably rare with "est-ce que", though). However, this phenomenon is restricted to very informal speech, and is most common with "t'as" (=tu as) and "t'es" (tu es). It's possible, but less common, with other verbs.</p> I think you can pronounce it…tag:www.forum.french-linguistics.co.uk,2015-04-15:3179028:Comment:1183112015-04-15T21:44:16.673ZGeorge Hunthttp://www.forum.french-linguistics.co.uk/profile/GEORDIEHOUND
<p>I think you <em>can p</em>ronounce it like that but is is a bit "slang"</p>
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<p>For example :" Est-ce que t'aimes le chocolat " might be heard (and written) ,I think.</p>
<p>I think you <em>can p</em>ronounce it like that but is is a bit "slang"</p>
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<p>For example :" Est-ce que t'aimes le chocolat " might be heard (and written) ,I think.</p>