Depuis qu' vs Depuis que Amandine est partie, vous êtes triste.

Question

I got marked wrong for writing "Depuis que Amandine...". This is correct, I believe, given that Amandine is a proper noun. Am I wrong here?

Accepted Answer

Bonjour Sympathetic,
Your answer has now been marked as "nearly correct".
I hope this is helpful.
Bonne journée !

Answer

Bonjour Sympathetic,The grammar doesn't allow two vowels to run together as in "depuis que Amandine ...." and so this is why only depuis qu' Amandine is acceptable.Bonne continuationJim

Answer

The answer to the question here is - it depends !

Both should be accepted, but see the 2nd link for a description of current practice. As you will see, as Amandine is well known to be a name in French, it will often be written nowadays with elision, rather than without.

I can't find this addressed in the lessons here, although I am sure it has come up before and been addressed somewhere in QandA.

There are a number of exceptions to the '2 vowel rule' - for a very specific example, the only 'correct elision' with presque is in " presqu'île ".

https://www.projet-voltaire.fr/regles-orthographe/presqu-ou-presque/

https://www.frenchtoday.com/blog/french-pronunciation/elision/