definitive nouns

why is the hotel written l'hotel when h is not a vowel?

but the h in french is not pronounced in this instance it is pronounced like "lotel", it flows better. you will find lots of occurrences of that. L'homme-- for example. pronounced like "lomme" La pomme ! there may be much better explanations, since my grammar is not the best either in english nor french

Hello, This is a good question,and the answer is really simple:in french don't take care of the esthetic of the beginning of the word following the article,only the pronounciation account. Here ,we consider that the article is followed by a vowel,as the h isn't pronounced. Only the oral,the vocal,the sound in fact determine the form of the artical,so there: l'. "Le hotel" would be considered clumsy,the pronounciation should be fluid,flowing always. Always think to the french language as a poetry,and you will achieve the truth,really... yours. Julien.

Sorry,I have forgotten to tell you I'm french,don't take the title "french novice" as granted... Think I'm not able to change it,since I'm here to learn hindi.