invicta5

[blissful condor]

Please be patient

Our volunteers look into many questions every day; sometimes it takes them a little while to answer.

Pro tip: you can rename the thread title with `.tr <thread name>`

Make it descriptive, including relevant context, but also to the point. This way you improve your chances of getting a more relevant and specific answer.

[fluid star]

it's a question based on inversion, pretty formal, the t is euphonic and avoids the hiatus that would be in "fonctionne elle"

[frank hound]

The sentence would work fine with out the t-elle, but would be made clear through intonation. But if you want to do it with inversion, the t is indeed required

[jovial oasis]

Yes, I'm wondering why I need 'elle' there ? Is it like there are multiple clocks in the room, and the speaker is pointing to a particular one and asking whether it's working ?

[steep harbor]

In most cases you can only invert with pronouns so if the subject is a noun, you have to repeat it in pronoun form

Les gens sont**-ils** prêts ?
ils refers to les gens

Les voitures coutent**-elles** cher ?
elles refers to les voitures

[jovial oasis]

ohh .. I didn't know this. It makes sense now..

Thank you @steep harbor , @frank hound and @fluid star !!!

[crude dove]

Why would there be a hiatus in "fonctionne elle"?

There is no hiatus in phrases like "une aile" or "bonne amie". We don't feel compelled to add a -t- and say "bonne-t-amie".

The -t- isn't to avoid an imagined hiatus, it's just a relic of old French, when all third person singular verb forms ended in a T sound.
It was organically (not purposely / by design) kept in inverted forms before vowels probably for there to be a way to immediately tell that it's a verb and not something else (for example, "fonctionne elle" would sound like the adjective "fonctionnel").

[fluid star]

hmm, that's what i learned, i might be wrong after all. but say the schwa at the end of fonctionne is pronounced, there would be a hiatus right ?

[crude dove]

Yes, but there's no reason to pronounce the schwa, just like how it's not pronounced in "une aile".
In fact, it's not even pronounced in "fonctionne-t-elle". It's pronounced as /fɔ̃k.sjɔn.tɛl/

the "euponic t" thing is folk etymology, and lots of teachers believe it. But it doesn't hold up to even the slightest scrutiny

[fluid star]

i see

thanks for the details

[crude dove]

You'll also hear things like "the French language hates it when two vowels are next to each other", which isn't true at all, it happens all the time. Just the sentence "il est en haut ou en bas?" or "il a trop bu et a eu un accident" both have 5 consecutive vowel sounds in a row in normal spoken French, yet no native would even bat an eyelid at them.

[crude anchor]

aja, the "french doesn't like consecutive vowel sounds" explanation never made a lick of sense to me, molière be smashing vowels together like it's his job

i have the impression that it's much more true in English that we avoid consecutive vowel sounds, I've had to practice "vowel morphing" on word boundaries a lot in French because it's so unfamiliar to my mouth

the longest sequence of vowels in English i can think of is "oh uh yeah i am" kinda cheating tho since the y is used as a consonant

plus uh isn't a word

oh yeah i owe a IOU i eyed earlier

[frank hound]

“uh” isn’t a word?

what is a word?

[crude anchor]

whatever we agree is a word???

i could be convinced that uh is a word with minimal effort

I'm pretty much convinced just by you posing the question