Become fluent in French pronunciation with 1min a day
Check out these 1 min videos to learn everything you need to know about French pronunciation.
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#1 What to expect
#2 The alphabet
#3 The vowels
#4 Pronunciation challenge I & U
#5 Pronunciation challenge A & O
#6 The letter E and its 4 forms
The letters NOT to pronounce at the end of a word
When in English, consonants at the end of a word are pronounced, in French it is rather the contrary and most consonants are silent.
Pronouncing the end of the word is a common mistake among English speakers. But it is a really bad mistake as it really annoys French people and can even lead to misunderstandings.
So before you get used to badly pronouncing words, here is a simple sentence that you can use to remember which consonants are usually silent. A friend sent it to me and I find it very useful.
Hey Guys Don’t Sound This Please X
So here are some examples
Consonants always silent
H (Hey)
Oh!!!!!
Mammouth
S (Sound)
Indicating a plural form, most of the time.
Des chats (cats)
Des tables (tables)
Paris
T (This)
Il est (he is)
Petit (small)
Un élément (an element)
X
Indicating a plural form, most of the time
Des morceaux (pieces)
Un prix (a price) – ok this is singular, an exception!
P (Please)
Un camp
Un coup (a knock)
Beware, for the below letters, you may have to pronounce the end consonant if the word has got one syllable or is from foreign origin, especially Engligh
D (Don’t)
Un pied (a foot)
Un accord (an agreement)
But words from foreign origins can have a pronounced G
Un fjord
G (Guys)
Un hareng (a herring)
Un shampoing (a shampoo)
But words from foreign origins can have a pronounced G
Zapping
Un iceberg
Or words with only one syllable
Une tong
Hep!!!
More about the vowels
There are 6 vowels in French A E I O U Y
The first 5 vowels will be pronounced as they are heard, whereas Y will be named by its letter Y.
Here they are
i-grec, this anomaly
When in English Y can either be a consonant or a vowel, Y in France is known as a vowel.ounced, in French it is rather the contrary and most consonants are silent.
So why is ‘y’ not pronounced but named?
It dates the Roman time. The letter ‘y’ was initially used to name and spell foreign words and was used a lot in Greek language. However, this Greek letter or sound /y/, similar to modern German ü or French u did not exist in latin language. Therefore, in Latin, Y was named I graeca (“Greek I”), since the classical Greek sound /y/, similar to modern German ü or French u, was not a native sound for Latin speakers, and the letter was initially only used to spell foreign words. This history has led to the standard modern names of the letter in Romance languages – i grego in Galician, i grega in Catalan, i grec in French and Romanian, i greca in Italian – all meaning “Greek I.
Old English borrowed Latin Y to write the native Old English sound /y/ (previously written with the rune yr ᚣ) which later became ‘wy’.
If you want to know more about this letter you can check the very interested English and French Wikipedia articles.
All about the E accents
Yes! There is a rule explaining why and when you should use the accents on the E.
Well at least for the accent aigu é and accent grave è! As there is no specific rule for the accent circonflexe ê…. Sorry it is a french rule after all , so easy would not be french!!!!
The different accents on the E
– Accent aigu ‘é’
– Accent grave ‘è’
– Accent circonflexe ‘ê’
You can hear the pronounciation here
L’accent aigu – é
- When ‘e ’is at the beginning of a word
-Une échelle (a ladder), un éléphant (an elephant)
- When ‘e’ is between 2 consonants and the next ‘e’ is not a silent ‘e’
-Un mélange (a blend), préféré (prefered, adjectif MS), une génération (a generation)
- When ‘e is at the end of a word, even if it finishes with the plural ‘s’ or a silent ‘e’
-La liberté (the freedom), des canapés (sofas), un lycée (high school)
L’accent grave – è
- In front of ‘ere’ and ‘es’
– Une ère (an era), une patissière (a pastry chef F) des aloès (aloe veras P)
- When the word is singular and finishes by ‘s’
-Après (after), un décès (a death), très (very)
- When ‘e’ is following by a consonant + ‘l’ or ‘r’
– Une fièvre (a fever), un lièvre (a hare), un trèfle (a clover)
- When ‘e’ is followed by a syllable with a silent ‘e’
– Un problème (a problem), un évènement (an event)
No accent, but pronounced
- A word finishing by –d, -f, -r, -z,(pronounced ‘é’)
-Un pied (a foot), une clef (a key), chanter (to sing), un boulanger (a baker M), un nez (the noise), vous mangez (you eat)
- In front of ‘x’ (pronounced ‘é’)
-Flexible (flexible)
- In front of a double vowel ‘mm’, ‘tt’, ‘ll’, ‘nn’, ‘rr’ (pronounced ‘è’)
– Une étiquette (a label), belle (beautiful M), ancienne (old F), une femme (a woman), une pierre (a stone)
No accent, the silent ‘e’ not pronounced
A lot of words in French finish with a non pronounced ‘e’
– Une année (a year), la joie (the joy), la pluie (the rain), une étiquette (a label), j’achète (I buy), un problème (a problem), une patissière (a woman pastry baker).
Beware: The ‘e’ at the end does not mean the word is feminine.