Liaison needed here?

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Permalink Reply by Neil Coffey on January 11, 2012 at 4:41pm

No, in fact almost the opposite is true: it would hugely unusual to have liaison here. You might just about get it in the case of a very formal style of reading, e.g. by a politician reading a formal speech. But in everyday contexts, it would sound extremely unusual (perhaps "pretentious" is the right word) to put liaison here.

As a general rule of thumb, it is extremely unusual to have liaison between a verb and the following word. Depending on the exact circumstances and context, it does occur. But you shouldn't think of it as being necessary.

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Permalink Reply by Neil Coffey on January 11, 2012 at 4:49pm

Just to follow on from this, just about the only times you "need" liaison (i.e. cases where native speakers of French instinctively use liaison pretty much 100% of the time in spontaneous speech) are:

- between a pronoun and following verb (and between a pronoun and following pronoun, e.g. ils-y vont)

- between a plural adjective and the following plural adjective/verb

- between a determiner/number and the following word it specifies ("des hommes", "cet hiver", "divers autres", "cinq cents ans")

Pretty much all other cases turn out to be optional. Unfortunately, textbooks have a habit of overestimating the use/necessity of liaison, so you will find accounts claiming that liaison is "necessary" in other cases. But actual usage belies this.

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Permalink Reply by Jervon Voltage on January 11, 2012 at 6:07pm

Thanks ever so much, Neil.

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