Grammar question in CH.4 lesson 3 Booking a Table

Bonjour! I got confused with this phrase: Avez-vous un numéro de téléphone où l'on peut vous joindre? I just want to clear up the "l'on." Why couldn't it have said, on peut vous joindre? I just don't know where the L came from. Merci beaucoup!

Wow, that's a good one. Even in the audio at the beginning of the lesson no explanation is given for this contraction. The "on" is easy. It means "we," but the preceding "l" and apostrophy are left unexplained. I wonder if this is another one of those places where we can't make word-for-word translations between the two languages. I, too, look forward to what Claire has to say about this one.

The <b>l'</b> is a reference to the earlier mention of the telephone number that you can be reached on. Oops, also adding to the explanation that you add the <b>l'</b> because you have 'où and 'on' so to avoid a vowel to vowel joindering/liaison, you add the <b>l'</b>. This is similar to adding the -t- in some phrases, like "Y a-t-il".

Merci, tous le monde! I now have the correct term: "vowel to vowel joindering/liason." Wow, that's a mouth full!

French often uses a contraction with an apostrophy where "la" or "le" precedes other word starting with a vowel. That's the second easy part of Taylor's example. However, I can't see that the L is either a direct or indirect object for the preceding noun "numero". The L-apostrophy isn't a liaison (at least I don't think so). My understanding of a liason is where words are spoken together when a consonant is followed by a vowel (e.g. vous avez). We also do that sort of thing in English without realizing we do it. The request in the above example could also have the subject-verb as ". . . où le nous pouvons vous joindre." I spelt out the l' as le, but I don't know if that's correct.

Ah, my mistake. About.com calls that vowel to vowel thing a <b>hiatus</b> so the addition of <b>l'</b> avoids that hiatus and creates <b>euphony</b>. http://french.about.com/library/pronunciation/bl-lon.htm

Merci Torusan. That link was helpful, but apparently on doesn't always mean we. Their examples didn't use "we" at all. But it did clear up that sometimes l'on comes after ou.

Ok, mon ami Torusan. I can add hiatus and euphony to my French phonics understanding. But what, then, is "joindering"?

You're right, Taylor, that "on" has other meanings than just "we", but in the example at the top of this conversation it means "we". When "on" is used, then the verb's third person singular is used, as in the example: "on peut". Although the example doesn't have two people talking at the beginning of the transcript, multiple people are implied in the same way as we often do in English. The Maître-d's "we" includes all the restaurant staff, not only himself personally. Consequently, it's later correct to say "on peut"; he might also have said "nous pouvons". As for "joindering": I've been studying French for two years by using multiple sources. I've yet to hear the word. Instead, I've heard the word "liaison" to describe the way words such as "vous avez" are spoken. I'm also not sure what the French call what we English call a contraction, as in "m'appelle" or "l'hotel".

Oops, didn't mean to confuse people. I learned it as joindering many moons ago in high school and it stuck, but it's the same as a <i>liaison</i> (she used it interchangeably as the verb for "creating a liaison").