Pronounciation

... THE VOWELS a = ah e = uh i = e as in "me." o = o as in "gold" u = oo VOWELS SIDE BY SIDE ai = ey as in "hey" au = o as in "gold" oi = wah ou = oo as in moose eu = ew ui = wee eaux = o as in "gold" (Okay, so there’s an x… Get over it) ...

... NASALS an en = sounds like the word "on" in = sounds similar to the "an" in the word "and." on un Nasals are very common in French. What do each of the five words above have in common? They start with vowels and they end with the letter "n." You say the vowel as normal, but the "n" changes the sound. However, if an "e" follows the nasal (Like in the name Martine), the "n" is pronounced like a typical English "n." ...

... CONSONANTS C is pronounced like an "S" in front of the letter "e" and "i." G is pronounced like the "g" in genre in front of the letters "e" and "i". Otherwise, it's said like the "g" in "go." H is always silent. J is pronounced differently from the English J. It's like the "g" in genre. R was one of the hardest sounds for me to pronounce. It sounds similar to the word "air." My teacher tells me that sometimes you have to hold down the tongue with your finger until you get the "r" right. The mistake I made was forcing the sound instead of actually making it… As my partner said, "Stop, it sounds like you’re throwing up!" LOL. The tongue doesn’t move up, it goes to the bottom of the mouth and nearly blocks the air flow to the throat. Pronouncing a lot of French "r"'s can give you a sore throat. S sounds like the letter "z." T is a lot stronger in French. X sounds like a "z" at the end of a word. One of my friends pointed out that the letters A, B, C, D, I, K, L, P(sorta), and V each sound like their Spanish counterparts. (Thanks, Capn Skippy!) CONSONANTS TOGETHER Ch = Sounds like "sh" Gne = nyuh Lle = yuh Ss = Sounds like an English "S." ...

... NEW SYMBOLS ç = This looks like a "c," but it has a little curve at the bottom. It’s pronounced like an "s" in front of every vowel. ACCENTS An accent is a line or symbol that goes over a letter. There are many accents in French and they change the pronunciation of the letter they go over. If you watched Pokémon, you may be familiar with the sharp accent "é." A regular French "e" is pronounced like "uh." With the sharp accent, it becomes é and is pronounced like "ay" as in day. é = ay There are other letters and accents as well. If you put a soft accent over "e," it becomes è and is pronounced "eh." Whenever you see two dots over a vowel, it indicates that the vowel gets its own syllable. For example, ou together is pronounced like "oo," right? If you put two dots over the o, like ö, then it gets its own syllable and is pronounced separately. ...

... One thing to remember is that at the last consonant of almost every French word is silent. The most common exceptions are the letters C, R, F, and L. An easy way to remember this is the word CAREFUL. If you’re careful, you won’t forget how to pronounce French words. :-D ...

... LIAISON Sometimes in French, a word will end in a consonant and the following word will start with a vowel. Such is the case with the following example. I have bolded the consonant and the vowel: Les amies "But wait," you say, "Remember careful? The ‘s’ is silent!" True… Which brings us to another rule in French pronunciation: if a word ends with a consonant other than "h," that consonant will usually carry over to the following word if it starts with a vowel. Remember that old phrase "Whazzup?!" This is a similar effect. The "s" in les carries over to "A" in "amie." It sounds like "Le zamie." Why the "z"? Remember, the French "s" sounds like a "z". However, it’s still spelled "les amies." This rule applies to pretty much every word in French, so memorize how consonants work in a liaison. I've listed the consonants that I've seen used. l = l r = r s = z... t = t... v = v... x = z... z = z... ...

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