N. T. Gore - French - Basics for Travelers

Aa, , , : No matter the accent mark over the letter, A carries the same /ah/ sound you make when the doctor looks down your throat, such as the A in "caw." AI: The mixture AI is pronounced like the long A in English, as in "pay." AU: The combination of AU is pronounced like a long O in English, as in "bode" or in the word "taupe." Ee: The letter E without an accent is pronounced like the schwa sound in English; it almost sounds like an "uh", and in the I in "pencil." : Knowing how to pronounce "E accent aigu" (E ack-saunt ay-gyoo) is very important in French. It takes on the same /ay/ sound as in "say." , : "E accent grave" (E ack-saunt grawv) and "E accent circumflex" (E ack-saunt seer-cohm-fleks) are pronounced similarly and make a flat, short E sound, like the e in "bet" or "pet." EAU: This combination, seen often in English, is pronounced much the same way as an /oh/, found in "home" or the end of "bureau." Ii, , : I is always pronounced like the long E in "see." For the most part, Y is treated the same way.

Oo: The French pronunciation of O is very similar to the English pronunciation of a long O sound, much like "oh" or "low." OI: The combination of O and I makes the /w/ sound, as in "water." OU: The O and U blending is an /oo/ sound, as in "soup." Uu: The French pronunciation of U is very tricky. It can be learned by saying /oo/ from "boot," except spoken as if one is about to say "ee". The French pronunciation of U is very similar to the U in "cute." UE: The combination of U and E in French makes a sound like "weh", such as in the word "suede." UI: Together, U and I make a sound like "wee." If a U follows a Q, however, it is never pronounced, no matter what vowels may follow it. While it is true that most consonants on the end of words are not pronounced, there is a term known as "la liaison" in which the final consonant of a word appearing before a word with an initial vowel is pronounced. Liaison examples: Mes chats (may chah) "My cats" Mes amis (maize ah-mee) "My friends" Deux chats (Deu chah) "Two cats" Deux amis (Deuz ah-mee) "Two friends" When the letters -s, -x and -z participate in a liaison, they make a /z/ sound. When the letters -d and -t participate in a liaison, they make a /t/ sound.

When -n participates in a liaison, the letter is fully realized and any vowels preceding it are not nasalized. When the combination of -er is blended into a liaison, the -er is pronounced and sounds more like the /-er/ sound found in English. Other rare examples of liaison can be found with -p (found only with the words beaucoup and trop , "a lot" and "too", respectively), -il and, very rarely, -g. In the final case, the -g is pronounced with a hard /k/ sound. Gender and French Another thing to be aware of when speaking French is that most nouns have a specific gender. As such, a noun is considered either feminine or masculine.

Some nouns, specific to people and job titles, can be either masculine or feminine. An example of this is the French word for "friend", ami/amie . When the -e is added to the end, it denotes a female friend. A good rule of thumb is that, if the word ends in an -e, it is a feminine word. The other way to determine the gender of a word in French is to look at the articles preceding it. The words le (masculine) and la (feminine) are singular articles; they translate to "the." For plural nouns, les (pronounced "lay") is used; for singular nouns beginning with a vowel, the article is elided to an l' , the word is pronounced as if it begins with an -l, as in l'amie (lah-mee).

Another article that occurs commonly in French is un / une (un, oone), which translates as "a, an" or can be used for the number "one". It follows the same rules as le / la ; un is used for masculine nouns and une for feminine, such as un ami / une amie.