Answers
Jun 26, 2015 - 12:17 PM
It is always correct to use a liaison when speaking "suis allë" In your example there should also be a liaison between "les aider" You don't say specifically which lesson you are referring to so I am unable to listen for myself. I can say that my impression of the dialogs in the Fluenz program tend to be more natural rather than mechanically perfect. So it could be the person speaking dropped the liaison, or it was spoken in such a way that you didn't hear it.
Jun 27, 2015 - 12:00 AM
As a native French, I would say go for the liasion. You cannot go wrong. You may sound a bit posh sometimes, but it's better than not doing the liason when you absolutely need to do it.
Jul 10, 2015 - 04:37 PM
Thanks for your replies. This was in Level 4, lesson 10. I confess that I am still a bit confused by the answer. You state that it is always correct to use a liaison when speaking "suis alllee" ... and then you state later that the person speaking perhaps dropped the liaison. This is what I do not understand. If it is always correct, why would the Fluenz 'actress' drop it? Are there, in fact, situations or occasions when dropping it is acceptable or normal?
Jul 10, 2015 - 10:54 PM
@bgaeddert1 Thanks for the sharing the specific dialog. I agree with you, she either missed the liaison completely or it's very weak in this phrase. This could have been intentional to make the phrase a little easier to understand or could just be a flat out blooper, I won't try to speak for Fluenz on any account. I will tell with certainty that it is correct to use a liason between suis and allé, and it is in most cases with a word ending with a consonant proceeding a word beginning with a vowel. It's good that you asked the question because it is a little confusing the way it's presented here. And it shows you are paying close attention, I applaud you for that. My advice is to not get hung up too much on this detail in this one lesson, or if you come across others from time to time in example dialogs whether it be with Fluenz or other learning material. In the real world spoken language is rarely perfect, that is not an excuse for anyone, rather something you will encounter as you dive deeper in your language study.
Aug 07, 2015 - 12:14 PM
@Mike W Thank you so much for your reply (and my apology for the delay in thanking you - I've been travelling!) I am grateful for your insight. I am a language teacher myself (English) and I am very aware that any language, when spoken in the real world is rarely perfect. I do believe, however, that a lesson such as this should always be technically correct, even if people in the real world don't always speak that way. I want to learn the correct way to speak, and then I can learn to adapt it in conversations. Thank you for helping me to know that making the liaison is indeed the correct approach.
Aug 07, 2015 - 07:14 PM
@bgaeddert1 You're very welcome and I think that your expectation that it always be correct in the recording is fair. As a fellow student of French, I just didn't want you to get too distracted by the inconsistency. I wish you great success as you continue your studies!
Apr 04, 2017 - 10:19 AM
I understand liaisons can cause so much confusion, since the rules are quite complex. To give you a very quick and simplified summary, there are 3 types of liaisons:
- compulsory ones, liaisons that you always have to make, for example after plural articles: Les [zzz] amis, Des [zzz] oranges
- optional ones, liaisons that you're free to pronounce or not, for these generally not pronouncing them make you sound a bit more informal, this is the case in your example: Je suis [zzz] allée OR Je suis [-] allée -and generally after conjugated verbs you have the option of saying them or not: Ils sont [ttt] ici, or Ils sont [-] ici...That's why you sometimes hear the speakers pronounce things in different ways..
- forbidden ones, liaisons that you must never make, for example after "et", the T is always silent, so we say: Lui et [-] elle, Oliver et [-] Isabella
My advice for beginners would be to try to get used to how things are pronounced and try to imitate as much as possible, there are so many specific sounds that liaisons might not be the most crucial at first.., later on in more advanced studies it might be worth studying them more in detail and learn a few rules, yet that's something that definitely comes with practice.
- compulsory ones, liaisons that you always have to make, for example after plural articles: Les [zzz] amis, Des [zzz] oranges
- optional ones, liaisons that you're free to pronounce or not, for these generally not pronouncing them make you sound a bit more informal, this is the case in your example: Je suis [zzz] allée OR Je suis [-] allée -and generally after conjugated verbs you have the option of saying them or not: Ils sont [ttt] ici, or Ils sont [-] ici...That's why you sometimes hear the speakers pronounce things in different ways..
- forbidden ones, liaisons that you must never make, for example after "et", the T is always silent, so we say: Lui et [-] elle, Oliver et [-] Isabella
My advice for beginners would be to try to get used to how things are pronounced and try to imitate as much as possible, there are so many specific sounds that liaisons might not be the most crucial at first.., later on in more advanced studies it might be worth studying them more in detail and learn a few rules, yet that's something that definitely comes with practice.