Abbreviation of TA or TON.....

Question

Why wouldn't you abbreviate ta or ton to t' before a vowel?

Accepted Answer

Hi Victoria Lange,
The rules of elision do not include possessive adjectives. Take a look at the following Kwiziq page on elision -
https://french.kwiziq.com/revision/glossary/contraction/l-elision-elision
et bonne continuation!

Answer

An elision only happens (with only a very few exceptions) if the -e of a word ending meets a vowel or h muet starting the following word. However, since the meeting of two vowels taxes the French tongue and ear, instead of an elision, they simply change the gender of the possessive pronoun.

Ma amie --> mon amie.
Sa excéllent travail --> son excellent travail.

Answer

9/21 I'm watching a lot of French police series on Netflix in French with French subtitles and my phone in my hand with context reverso on safari just in case. I notice that there's a lot of 't'as' and other contractions in the speech. I suspect the natives may not always abide by the rules. FYI I'm also picking up a lot of unusual vocabulary. I recommend La Foret, Black Spot (Fargo meets Stephen King), The Frozen Dead. There's lots of other progs too, including the essential Call My Agent. Spiral (Engrenages) which is the ur-French tv policier here in the UK, is available here on the BBC. If you don't have Netflix, or even if you do, The Bureau (Bureau des Legendes) on Amazon is arguably the best spy thriller series ever made, and I include Le Carre.

Answer

9/21 I'm watching a lot of French police series on Netflix in French with French subtitles and my phone in my hand with context reverso on safari just in case. I notice that there's a lot of 't'as' and other contractions in the speech. I suspect the natives may not always abide by the rules. FYI I'm also picking up a lot of unusual vocabulary. I recommend La Foret, Black Spot (Fargo meets Stephen King), The Frozen Dead. There's lots of other progs too, including the essential Call My Agent. Spiral (Engrenages) which is the ur-French tv policier here in the UK, is available here on the BBC. If you don't have Netflix, or even if you do, The Bureau (Bureau des Legendes) on Amazon is arguably the best spy thriller series ever made, and I include Le Carre.