"L'homme"

Translation: The man

[Rev01Yeti]

So as I can hear, words which begin with l' just needs to be pronounced with an L at the start, and in general, H is dropped? So l'homme is pronounced like the fictional word "lomme".

[Remy]

You are right.

[Foffern]

So why is 'the woman' la femme while 'the man' is l'homme? Why not le homme?

[ckirby]

The "h" is not pronounced. Since the word begins with a vowel sound, "le" becomes " l' " (other examples: l'hopital, l'hôtel)

[Remy]

Right, this is the general rule. Just FYI, there are a few exceptions where you have to put "le" before a noun starting with "h", for example: "le haricot" (the bean), "le hérisson" (the hedgehog).

[Cairbones]

The French have an aversion to a vowel sound and then another vowel sound. The h in homme is not pronounced, so they take the e off of Le and just use an apostrophe. If the h is pronounced in a word then they leave it le.

[Remy]

In French, elision refers to the suppression of a final vowel (usually "e") immediately before another word beginning with a vowel.

For example, "I love" is "J'aime" (and not "Je aime").

This rule also applies before most of words beginning with a silent "h":

For example, "the man" is "l'homme" (and not "le homme").

There are a few exceptions to this rule, for example "the bean" is "le haricot" (and not "l'haricot")

[marialucia.usai]

le"h" de homme est muet tandis que le"h" de haricot est aspiré.Aujourd'hui l'aspiré n'a plus de valeur phonétique mais elle fonctionne comme une consonne devant laquelle il ne faut pas faire l'élision de l'article. C'est le dictionnaire qui nous indique si le "h" est muet ou aspiré.

[Remy]

Right. Please have a look at this link:

http://french.about.com/od/pronunciation/a/h_3.htm

[Samba03]

What are the vowels of the french language?

[Remy]

A-E-I-O-U-Y

[Sefir]

"a man" was wrong as well....

[imaginelies]

because 'a man' would be 'un homme' in French, while l' (or le/la) means 'the'

[Suggs]

I put "the male" and it said I was wrong (my English-French Dictionary says I'm right)

[tylercushing]

I think what you are describing is the difference between a dictionary that may be rather cut and dry, versus a language course that is trying to produce colloquial speakers of French. While both answers are technically correct, "the man" is most likely what people would be referring to when it is used.

[Manizha_Baraki1]

do you know any sites that I can use for translating French-English or VS?

[Remy]

http://www.larousse.com/en/dictionaries/french-english

http://www.larousse.com/en/dictionaries/english-french

[Manizha_Baraki1]

Thank you very much Remy :)

[momodude15]

its not right if you put the male it might be if their is a french word for male

[AabLevellen]

Yes, mâle is male in French.