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The following French tutorial was written by a soon to be graduate student in linguistics named Jennifer Wagner, who runs a fantastic website called Indo-European Languages - ielanguages.com. We thank her for generously allowing us to post her work here! |
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2. French Pronunciation
| French letter(s) | English Sound |
| a, à, â | ah |
| é, et, and final er and ez | ay |
| e, è, ê, ai, ei, ais | eh |
| i, y | ee |
| o | oh |
| o | shorter and more open than aw in bought |
| ou | oo |
| oy, oi | wah |
| u | ew |
| u + vowel | wee |
| c (before e, i, y) | s |
| ç (before a, o, u) | s |
| c (before a, o, u) | k |
| g (before e, i, y) | zh |
| ge (before a, o) | zh |
| g (before a, o, u) | g |
| gn | nyuh |
| h | silent |
| j | zh |
| qu, final q | k |
| r | rolled |
| s (between vowels) | z |
| th | t |
| x | ekss, except as s in six, dix, and soixante in liaisons, like z |
Note: French pronunciation is tricky because it uses nasal sounds which we do not have in English and there are a lot of silent letters. However, if a word ends in C, R, F or L (except verbs that end in -r) you usually pronounce the final consonant. Their vowels tend to be shorter as well. The French slur most words together in a sentence, so if a word ends in a consonant that is not pronounced and the next word starts with a vowel or silent h, slur the two together as if it were one word.
More about Pronunciation
1. The "slurring" that I mentioned is called liaison. It is always made:
- after a determiner (words like un, des, les, mon, ces, quels)
- before or after a pronoun (vous avez, je les ai)
- after a preceding adjective (bon ami, petits enfants)
- after one syllable prepositions (en avion, dans un livre)
- after some one syllable adverbs (très, plus, bien)
- after est
It is optional after pas, trop fort, and the forms of être, but it is never made after et.
2. Sometimes the e is dropped in words and phrases, shortening the syllables and slurring more words.
- rapid(e)ment, lent(e)ment, sauv(e)tage (pronounced ra-peed-mawn, not ra-peed-uh-mawn)
- sous l(e) bureau, chez l(e) docteur (pronounced sool bewr-oh, not soo luh bewr-oh)
- il a d(e) bons copains (eel ahd bohn ko-pahn, not eel ah duh bohn ko-pahn)
- il y a d(e)... , pas d(e)... , plus d(e)... (eel yahd, pahd, plewd, not eel ee ah duh, pah duh, or plew duh)
- je n(e), de n(e) (zhuhn, duhn, not zhuh nuh or duh nuh)
- j(e) te, c(e) que (shtuh, skuh, not zhuh tuh or suh kuh - note the change of the pronunciation of the j as well)
3. In general, intonation only rises for yes/no questions, and all other times, it goes down at the end of the sentence.
4. Two sounds that are tricky to an American English speaker are the differences between the long and short u and e. The long u is pronounced oooh, as in hoot. The short u does not exist in English though. To pronounce is correctly, round your lips as if to whistle, and then say eee. The long and short e are relatively easy to pronounce, but sometimes it is difficult to hear the difference. The long e is pronounced openly, like ay, as in play. The short e is more closed, and pronounced like eh, as in bed.
6. And of course, the nasals. These are what present the most problems for English speakers. Here are the orthographical representations, and approximate pronunciations. Nasal means that you expel air through your nose while saying the words, so don't actually pronounce the n fully.
| My Representation | Pronunciation | Orthographical Representation |
|---|---|---|
| ahn | an apple | in, im, yn, ym, ain, aim, ein, eim, un, um, en, eng, oin, oing, oint, ien, yen, éen |
| awn | on the desk | en, em, an, am, aon, aen |
| ohn | my own book | on, om |
In words beginning with in-, a nasal is only used if the next letter is a consonant. Otherwise, the in- prefix is pronounce een before a vowel.
