Some of my students and followers may know that after I stopped teaching high school and university French, I started a small personal travel business. For over 30 years, I took groups of high school French students to France for an unforgettable experience. I recently acquired a digitized copy of the publicity video I sent out to schools across the U.S. to inform them of my work. I am including below the link to that video. It shows all periods of French history, with appropriate background music. It was quite a task to produce this video, and I hope many will find it here and enjoy this little trip through French history and culture, called “The France Experience.”
French spellings and their sounds—Part 1
These you can count on--they are (almost) always like this
There are many times it is very hard to guess how to pronounce a word in French based on its spelling. In Part 2 we will look at some of these challenging ones. But in this article, I want to show you many French spellings that will ALMOST always have that sound. Of course there are aways exceptions and I have noted some of them in this article.
Most of these sounds come from vowels. Vowels are the foundation of French so we need to become very familiar with how to pronounce them.
The spelling “i” [i] ALMOST always has the sound as in ski: il, finit, midi, ski. These are cases where the “i” stands alone. Note: when the”i” is attached to a nasal consonant it becomes the nasal vowel [ɛ̃] as in “vingt” or “voisin” or “pain” (for more on nasal vowels see my blog on this subject. (https://pronouncingfrench.com/blog/frenchnasalvowels) The letter “i” is also different when attached to other vowels as in j'ai or ill (see below)
An “e” with the“accent aigu” (´) is always pronounced [e] as in café. Or allée, parlé, évident, télé
The vowel “e” with an “accent grave (`) or an “accent circonflex” (ˆ)is always pronounced [ɛ] as in chèvre, père, pêche.
The vowel ”e” followed by a pronounced consonant is also said like the above examples: telle, cette, elle. But the letter “e” can also be a “mute e” as in je, que, le, venir. So the letter”e” without an accent can have several pronunciations.
The spelling ”a” is almost always pronounced [a] as in la, classe, absent, salle. Sometimes it has a more open sound, as in “pas” or “cas”. Note: when followed by an “n” or an “m”, the “a” forms a nasal vowel as in France.
The spelling oi” is always pronounced “wah” as in moi, voilà, la foi
The spelling “au” (plus ô, ose and osse) are always pronounced [o] as in chose, grosse, autre, faute, drôle.
All other spellings of “o” in French are pronounced with the “open o” [ɔ] as in comment, école, professeur. This sound is similar to the English sound in “autumn”
The spelling “ou” is always pronounced [u] as in vous, toute, où, pouvez
Th spelling “u” in French (when it is a stand-alone vowel) is always the sharp “u” sound [y] as in tu, voulu, j'ai lu, utile, uni, This sound is hard for many English speakers. It is little bit like the sound at the end of the English word “few”. Note: when combined with other letters, the “u” makes other sounds as in the combination “ou” which is pronounced [u] as in vous. Or when followed by a nasal consonant, it becomes the nasal vowel [ɛ̃] as in vingt.
The spelling “il” or “ille” is pronounced [j] as in Versailles, Marseille, fouiller, travail, merveilleux. This sound is what is called a semi-vowel and has the sound like the English “y” as in “yes” or “yellow”. Note: in other contexts,”il” can be said [il] as in il or tranquil
The spelling “qu” is always pronounced “k” as in que, quel, attaque, qualité
one “s” between vowels is pronounced like a “z”: chose, choisi, saisi. tisane
Two s's between vowels is pronounced like “s”: choisisse finissent, possible
a “c” or a “g” followed by an “i” or an “e” is “soft”: as in: gîte, gèle, mangeons, général
or: ceci, cette, célébrer, ici
Followed by an “a”, “o” or “u”, these consonants are “hard” as in: gare, gouter, guide
or: catastrophe, couter, cuisine
the spelling “gn: is always pronounced “ny” as in: signe, agneau
The spelling “eu” varies a lot. If it is in an open syllable, that is, a syllable that ends in a vowel sound, it is pronounced [ɸ] a in deux, il peut, il veut
If the “eu” is followed by a pronounced consonant, it is pronounced [œ] as in soeur, peur, heure, jeune, seul, ils peuvent
Of course, most readers will already know that most final consonants are not pronounced, with the exception of c,r, f,and l, the consonants in the English word “careful”. : donc, mer, bref, mal. But even this rule has exceptions: for example the "f" in cerf is not pronounced.
The spelling -tion or -sion is pronounced [sjɔ̃] as in “nation” “conversation” “tension”
I have probably missed some other “almost always like this” spellings, so I invite you to send me an email with your suggestions.
Hard Sounds in French—Part 2: “eu” plus a pronounced consonant
In this article, we will examine another of the “combination vowels”, that is, those vowels that have the tongue position of one vowel, but the lip position of a different one.
This is the vowel spelled “eu” when it is followed by a pronounced consonant. Since we do not have this sound in English, most students find it rather challenging. You find it in words like coiffeur, soeur, jeune, seul, ils peuvent. (phonetic symbol [œ]. Notice that in each case, the spelling “eu” is “closed off” by a consonant sound.
There are other cases where the”eu” is NOT closed off by a pronounced consonant and this is a different sound, as in “deux, il peut, je veux, il pleut.
So for the “eu” sound in words like ”professeur” the tongue is going to say the vowel “e” as in “sept” or “fête” or “elle” (phonetic symbol [ɛ]). To make this sound, the tongue is just slightly rounded in the front of the mouth. (Remember again, that in the “French mouth” the tip of the tongue is always behind the lower teeth with tension in the tip.)
Keep saying that sound as in “elle”. But then, you have to round your lips AS IF you were saying the “o” of “école” or “comment”. (phonetic symbol [ɔ]). In my video course, Mastering French Pronunciation, I teach that the correct lip position for this vowel has the corners of the lips coming in towards each other, with tension in the lips. This sound is fairly close to the English “au” as in “autumn”. So you pass from “cette” to “soeur”, from “quel” to “coeur”. It's a little hard to describe these sounds without hearing them, so be on the look-out for a video that I will post soon on my You Tube channel so you can hear the sounds. (https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC9Ei4rO_PLwhmyClIe6ABog).
In the Rick Steves' little book, French Phrase book and Dictionary, he gives some English equivalents for those who may not know any French at all. These substitute sounds he offers are NOT the correct French sound, but they may get you close enough to the sound to be understood by the French listener. So for the sound in “seul” or “jeune” he suggests the English “uh” as in “but”. And for words with an “r” like “soeur” he suggests the English “ur” as in “purr”. But to make the authentic French sound, refer to the paragraph above.
In Part 3 of this series, we will look at this sound again, this time with some different spellings—just to confuse the student of French! Again, send me an email to let me know how you are doing.
Hard Sounds in French—part 1--”u”
Most French vowels are not THAT much different from English ones. (Although as I am fond of saying, “there is NO sound in French that is exactly the same as English due to the radically different basic mouth position of the two languages”)
But there are two vowels in particular that need some extra help. These are what we call “combination vowels”--so named because they are a combination of the tongue position of one vowel, and the lip position of a different one.
In this article, we will look at one of these: the sound spelled “u” as in “tu” or “vue” or “futur”. (phonetic symbol is [y]. Most students who have trouble with this sound replace it with the sound spelled “ou” as in “vous” or “fou”. (phonetic symbol is [u]. But this incorrect sound changes the meaning of words and so it is not an acceptable substitute. Here are a few examples: j'ai bu—le bout; j'ai lu—le loup; tu—tout. “Tu vas bien” is very different from “Tout va bien.!”
The secret to pronouncing this French vowel is to take the tongue position of “i” inside the mouth. (as in 'ski”) This is “the note” to hit to get this sound right. To make an “i” the tongue is rounded very high in the front of the mouth. Remember, as I teach in my video course, Mastering French Pronunciation, in the “French mouth” the tip of the tongue is always behind the front teeth with tension in the tip. And the rounding of the tongue to make the sound “i” is right behind the upper teeth along the gum ridge. (If you look in a mirror, you can see the tongue.)
Now, the other half of this sound is rounding the lips. And here is the problem: when rounding the lips, as if to say “ou”, many students also change their tongue position as if to say “ou”, and that makes the sound come out as ou”. So instead of “tu vas bien” it comes out as “tout va bien”--an entirely different meaning. The secret, again, is to hold fast to the “i” position of the tongue, at the same time as rounding the lips.
In the Rick Steves' little book, French Phrase book and Dictionary, he presents a fun way to produce this sound: “pucker your lips and say 'i.'” But once more, the key is to keep saying ”i” no matter what!
For students who have a hard time with this vowel, I have suggested actually replacing the “u” sound by the “i” sound. Say 'j'ai bi le ji” (j'ai bu le jus); or “Ti vas bien” (Tu vas bien); j'ai vi le garçon (j'ai vu le garçon). Although this would sound strange to the French listener, it would sound closer to the desired “u” sound than replacing it with “ou” as in “jai bou le jou”. Repeat the “wrong” way over and over (j'ai bi, j'ai bi, j'ai bi etc. and then finally round the lips around that sound, and you will fall naturally onto the correct sound.
I hope this helps a bit in pronouncing this challenging sound. Send me an email to let me know how you're doing.
NASAL VOWELS IN FRENCH, d'accord—But In English??
Most people think of French as a nasal language, primarily because French has nasal vowels. I used to think that nasal vowels did not pose a problem for English students of French, but the more I engage with students in private lessons, the more I realize that these vowels need more attention.
Those of us who learned French “in the old days”, were taught that there are 4 nasal vowels: [ɑ̃] (as in “France”); [ɔ]̃ (as in “mon”); [ɛ]̃ (as in vingt); and [œ̃] (as in “un” or “brun”). That last nasal vowel has been eliminated over the years, and the sound for that spelling is now the same as the vowel in “vingt”. Most students of French will have no regrets about this change, since the sound for that vowel was pretty unattractive and a bit hard to produce.
French Pronunciation Tips & Tricks #3 The Mute E
The mute e is not hard to say; the hard part is knowing when to say it and when NOT to say it. It really helps to have a good teacher as you navigate spoken French.
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