zachs3667

[strange valve]

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.

[stoic moss]

Why does it need a -t-

[sage nimbus]

Because we want a liaison but there's no consonant

I think that only happens with 3rd pers sg pronouns in inversions

[cloud sand]

In the third person singular, the certain verb conjugations end in a vowel and the pronoun starts with a vowel. When we invert, that gap between vowels becomes… undesirable so we add a T sound

That’s an oversimplification but that’s all you need to know

[sage nimbus]

Btw inversion is the most formal way of asking questions in french, idk why ppl insist on teaching it lol

[cloud sand]

It generally happens in three contexts:
(1) All third person singular present conjugations of the first group (-er verbs)
(2) All third person singular simple future conjugations
(3) All third person singular passé composé conjugations whose auxiliary verb is « avoir »

[stoic moss]

Donc, c'est seulement to sound better? I am not missing a hidden rule between inversions apart from consonants?

[sage nimbus]

Oui, no

[cloud sand]

Yes there is a missing rule but you don’t need to know about it

It’s boring historical linguistic reasons

[sage nimbus]

(How are we supposed to answer if you ask two opposite questions 😭)

[stoic moss]

Merci beacoup to you both @cloud sand @sage nimbus

[bleak cargo]

this is the oft repeated answer, but the real reason has nothing to do with hiatus. It's just that historically 3rd person conjugations always ended with a t. That t would be pronounced in liaison when inversion was used. Eventually the spelling dropped the t but people continued to pronounce it, so it gets added back in in inversion.

[cloud sand]

(Hence me saying this)

[bleak cargo]

Totally not boring historical linguistic reasons tho lmao

interesting linguistic reasons

tbh I'm just sick of the "avoid hiatus" trope being dragged out all the time in explanations of French - it's false and tired

[golden chasm]

it created some cognitive dissonance for me while i was learning because every time I saw two vowel sounds together I was like wait doesn't that violate the rule??