AS French�2023-24 Spring term
Pronunciation
The subjunctive
Card A – speaking exam
Direct & Indirect Object Pronouns
AS French�2023-24 Spring term
Pronunciation:
the oral exam
Bonjour!
Madame
Pritchard –
Ysgol Gymraeg
Bro Dur
L’objectif:
For some people one of the most difficult aspects of learning a foreign language is the pronunciation. When we learn a foreign language, there are sounds that we are not used to making. For example, nasal vowels, back of the throat “r”s, and silent letters make French pronunciation one of the biggest obstacles in learning the language.. Let’s see if we can address some of these…
Les Franco-phoniques�
A: Les Accents
a hard “c” into a soft “c”.
In French, as in English,
the letter “c” makes the soft “s” sound in front of ‘e’, ‘i’ and ‘y’,
and the hard ‘k’ sound in front of ‘a’, ‘o’, and ‘u’, so the cedilla softens the c.
Some common words with a cedilla are: garçon, ça va, français.
France doesn’t need a cedilla because “c” comes before “e”.
However, in français, it comes before “a”.
French sometimes uses the cedilla in their verb tenses to keep the pronunciation correct.
For example, the past participle of “recevoir” is “reçu”.
The “c” sounds the same in both words thanks to the cedilla.
2. The accent aigu is the most common French accent mark. It only appears over the letter “e”.
“ é ” with the acute accent it’s pronounced “eh”.
Think of the way you say the vowels in “way” and “say”, then stop before you get to the final “y” sound.
Some common words with an accent aigu are:
Je suis allé, fatigué, amusé,
3. The accent grave is used with a, e and u.
The grave accent has a few different uses.
When it appears above an ‘e’ you pronounce it like the ‘e’ in ‘bear’.
When it appears over ‘a’ or ‘u’, it’s to differentiate between two words with the same spelling, like ou and où, a and à, la and là.
There are exceptions like voilà and déjà, which were originally contractions of words that used the accent grave.
Some words have more than one accent: élève, déjà, préfère, préféré…
musée
collège
frère
Je préfère
J’ai mangé
café
tête
règle
préféré
élève
classe
bière
4. There are 3 main reasons for the accent circonflexe:
Help with Pronunciation
It can indicate how to pronounce the vowel it’s over.
‘â’ becomes “ah”: tâche, ‘ê’ becomes “eh” (like the grave accent): pêche, and ‘ô' becomes “oh” (like the French pronunciation of “au”): tôt.
Separate From Other Words
It also helps distinguish between other homonyms, such as du (of the) and dû (had to), sur (on) and sûr (sure), mur (wall), and mûr (ripe).
Indicate a Missing Letter
Sometimes it’s a remnant of the past.
“Forêt” for example looks like the English word “forest”.
In linguistics terms, they’re “cognates”.
English and French share much of their languages with Latin, so they have many similar words but somewhere along the line the French stopped pronouncing the “s”, replacing it with a ê to show they dropped a letter.
It’s like an English contraction, where the apostrophe shows that there’s (there is) a dropped letter. More examples are: hôpital, côte, hôtel…
5. The purpose of le tréma is to tell you to pronounce
consecutive vowel sounds.
Normally the French language does NOT like two vowel sounds together, and makes specific rules to combat this.
Dropping the vowel of “le” and “la” in front of a noun that starts with a vowel, such as in “l’accent”, is a perfect example.
Sometimes though you just need to have that second vowel sound. That’s where the umlaut (tréma) comes in.
Most famously it’s found in “noël”.
In English we leave off the trema (although linguists suggest we should use it: reëvaluate and coöperation).
In French you have to have the trema or the 2 (or 3) vowels will only make one sound, as in “mais” (but) but “maïs” (maize).
In adjectives ending in “gu”, the feminine form is “gue”.
The problem is, “gue” is pronounced just “g”,
like in the English word “vague”.
To remind you to pronounce the last “u” sound, we add the tréma over the “ü”.
The adjective “aigu” (acute) becomes “aigüe”.
B: Les Liaisons
Qu’est-ce que c’est que faire la liaison ?
Quand on parle de faire la liaison en français, il s’agit de prononcer la dernière consonne muette qu’il y a à la fin d’un mot et de la lier au début du mot suivant qui commence par une voyelle.
B: Les Liaisons
A liaison is when you pronounce the ending consonants of some
words if it’s followed by a vowel or the letter “h”.
An example would be, “les enfants” where you would pronounce the “s” as a ‘z’ because an “e” begins the next word.
This process is called l’enchaînement (word linking).
Les Liaisons Interdites Forbidden liaisons
Before h aspire: en haut, les héros
Before onze & oui: les onze enfants, deux oui et un non
After names (proper nouns): Robert a 15 ans, Paris est très beau.
After singular nouns: mon chat aime jouer, un garçon intelligent
After et: avant et après
After interrogative adverbs & toujours:Comment est-elle? toujours aimable
After inversion: Parlez-vous español?
Les Liaisons Facultatives Optional liaisons
Some liaisons are optional, so it’s up to you whether to pronounce them.
More liaisons means more formal speech, so fewer liaisons means more informal, even familiar speech.
Par exemple:
Paul joue avec ses amis
Michel est un enfant intelligent
Pierre et son frère vont à l’école
Liaison obligatoire: ses amis
Liaison interdite: enfant intelligent
Liaison facultative: vont à
z
Some letters change sounds:
Un grand escargot
deux enfants
Je suis heureux
J’aime mes amis
t
z
z
z
C: « R »
The gutteral R
It’s often considered challenging and may take some practice. It is pronounced at the back of the throat, by vibrating the root of the tongue against the throat.
Here are some examples:
rue, regarder, partir, respirer, frère, rouge…
D: Les Lettres Muettes Silent Letters
D: Les Lettres Muettes Silent Letters
Have you heard of the CaReFuL letters?
If a French word ends with C, R, F, or L (consonants), the final letter is usually pronounced. Otherwise, the final letter is silent.
Words ending with B, K and Q also have their final letters pronounced (Burger King and Queen). Le club, un steak, cinq…
Most other consonant letters are NOT pronounced at the end of a word: froid, dragon, parfum, coup, riz, deux, vingt, stylos, oiseaux…
Les Lettres Muettes Silent Letters
Of course, like with most grammatical rules, there are exceptions:
Un truc, le chef, avril, …
Verbs ending in –er have a silent ‘r’:
Aimer, manger, tuer...
E: Autres sons phoniques importants
Other important phonic sounds
ai = (ay) : j’ai, lait, fait
ain = (an) : pain, américain
an = (on) : anglais, français, ans
au = (oh) : au, jaune, au revoir
ç = (s) : ça va ?, français, garçon
ch = (sh) : cheval, chien, chat, château
-d = (/) : chaud, canard
e = (euh) : le, je, ne
é or ez = (ay) : café, joué, allé, cinéma
è = (air) : père, mère, frère, collège
eau = (oh) : eau, beau
en = (on) : en, comment, Henry
eu = (euh) : deux, jeudi
g / gu = (g) : garder, dialogue
ge / gi = (jh) : génial, rouge
gn = (ng) : Espagne, araignée
h = (/) : huit, hamster, hôtel, hôpital, heureux, heure
i / ie / it / is = (ee) : ils, avril, merci, biologie
ille = (eel) : ville, famille
im = (am) : impossible, important, imbécile
in = (an) : juin, cinq, lapin, vingt, intéressant
j = (jh) : je, jeu, jouer, déjeuner
on = (on) : bonjour, mon, bon, onze
oi = (wa) : moi, trois, au revoir, oiseau, soixante
ou = (oo) : ou, où, joue, bonjour, oublier, sous
qu = (k) : quatre, quinze, quart, quand
r = (rr) : rêve, rendre
-s- = (z) : cousin, saison
se = (z) : grise, rose
-t = (/) : finit, jouet,
u = (oo) : une, sur, rue
ui = (ooee) : huit, oui, suis, aujourd’hui
un = (an) : un, lundi, brun
une = (oo) une, lune
-x- / -x = (s) : soixante, dix
-x = (/) : rideaux, châteaux
-z = (ay) : avez, chantez
1: J j = jhee
Je ….
j
Je ….
j
J’ai
Je ….
j
Je suis…
Je ….
j
Bonjour!
Je ….
j
J’aime…
4: é, er, ez, ai, ais, ait, ay, et, aient
– they all aound like ai (fel mai)
J’ai joué au foot. J’aime jouer au foot.
Vous jouez au foot? Je jouais au foot.
Il jouait au foot. Ils jouaient au foot.
J’aime le foot et le rugby.
é, er, ez, ai, ais, ait, ay, et, aient
– they all aound like ai (fel mai)
J’ai joué au foot. J’aime jouer au foot.
Vous jouez au foot? Je jouais au foot.
Il jouait au foot. Ils jouaient au foot.
J’aime le foot et le rugby.
5: an / on / en & in
an on + en
they have the same sound “on”
anglais, oncle, enfant
in makes the sound “an”
intéressant, enfin, lapin
intéressant
mince
fantastique
intelligent
en France
vin
décevant
quinze
singe
cousin
| | |
| | |
| | |
le poisson
le vin
le jeu-vidéo
le midi
les dents
le pont
la poule
la lune
les ciseaux
oi
in
eu
au
en
on
i
ou
u
| | |
| | |
| | |
la maison
la tête
la sourcière
les fruits
Espagne
la question
la pollution
tion
qu
r
ill
ui
gn
ai
ê
è
le requin
le gorille
Voyage (Travel)
Ecureuil (Squirrel)�Accueillir (To welcome)�Fourrure (Fur)
Important (Important)
Intéressant (Interesting)�Porte-à-porte (Door-to-door)�Serrurerie (Locksmith)�Ennuyeux (Boring)�Mercredi (Wednesday)
Les Virelangues… peuvent être un bon moyen d’améliorer la prononciation.
« A chacun son choix » se dit sa soeur Sylvie, suivant son chemin. ��Ce ver vert sévère sait verser ses verres verts. Je cherche Serge.��Cinq chiens chassent six chats. Dans ta tente ta tante t'attend.��La mule du juge butte contre le mur. Ce glougu a voulu tout ce qu'il a vu sur le menu.��La robe rouge de Rosalie est ravissante. Lily lit le livre dans le lit.��La sole a salé son lit mais la mer a lavé le lit que la sole a salé et la sole rissole dans la casserole.��On part de la gare St. Lazare pour les ports de la mer du Nord. ��Que c'est crevant de voir crever une crevette sur la cravate d'un homme crevé dans une crevasse.��Si ceci se sait, ces soins sont sans succès. Son chat chante sa chanson.
Posez vos gros pots d'eau au chaud.
�Trois tortues trottaient sur un trottoir très étroit.�
Comment réussir?
Listen to French songs, podcasts, videos
Read texts aloud
Revise the rules
Practise speaking French aloud as much as possible to improve your confidence
Watch French films or TV
Go to : http://phonetique.free.fr/alpha.htm
Vous avez des questions?
L’objectif:
Au revoir!