french pronunciations

[nomicity]

In the French book lesson 5, we are taught that the French strongly dislike two vowels next to each other. I am unclear, even after listening to the cd, on how to pronounce "Il a un an." It seems overloaded with piggybacking vowels! Help.

[pobrien]

There are many situations where two vowels come together, such as 'il a un...'. Sometimes an available elision is not even used -- it just depends on the speaker and the situation. Also, in certain dialects and regions, false elision is practiced -- that is, inserting between two vowels a consonant that isn't actually there. Like any real language, French has a great range of regional and personal variations. There are no real 'rules' in language -- just certain regularities among particular groups of native speakers. Paul.