Elision and "ne ... pas allé."

Question

The spoken example of "Je ne suis pas allé au cinéma." has no hint of elision between 'pas' and 'allé'. I am always baffled by where things get elided and where they are not. Are there any rules about this?  Where should I look?
Merci beaucoup,  Ian L.

Aurélie Drouard · Accepted Answer

Bonjour Ian !

In such cases, there are two ways to pronounce them in French:
- either you do the liaison with "-s", linking the two "a"s with a [z] sound
- or omit the liaison (quite common in speech nowadays), which is the case here, and you pronounce the two "a"s next to each other. As a native French speaker, I do hear her pronounce both "a"s, but I completely understand that it's tenuous enough to be missed by less fluent ears :)

I decided to re-record this example, and mark the liaison to make it clearer.

I hope that's helpful!
À bientôt !

ian Luckraft · Answer

Thanks, Aurelie,
The new recording sounds great! I think I'm beginning to get to grips with this now!
Ian.

Bill Alexander · Answer

Just would like to clarify when it comes to ellision with "pas" - it is completely optional?  Seems i hear more without elision than with.  Thanks very much.

Traky D · Answer

Interested to know what Bill asked as well

Cécile Janty-Davies · Answer

Hi,
 I think Ian meant 'liaison' between pas and allé and not 'elision'.