French 1001 Introduction to French Pronunciation

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French 1001Introduction to French Pronunciation

• Dr. Chesnut

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Four Vowels that differ greatly from Their
English Counterparts

• In general, remember that French vowels are
  produced with more muscular tension in the mouth,
  that they tend to be shorter than English vowels,
  and that they are not diphthongized.
• By diphthongized, we mean that in the production
  of the vowel, the mouth changes position during
  the production of the vowel.
• In French the mouth does not change positions
  during production of the vowel. The mouth
  (opening, tongue, etc) getS set and does not
  change as air passes through to produce the
  vowel. There is no diphthong. The vowel
  produced in French is a pure vowel.
• Click to hear accompanying sound file
• Phonetic symbol Written letters
  Examples
• /i/ i, î,
  y il, île, stylo
• /a/ a
  nation, papa, nationalité
• /y/ u
  tu, nature, sur
• /u/ ou
  tous, vous

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Three Sets of Open Closed Vowels

• There are three vowels that have open and closed
  variants. All that means is that in the
  production of the closed vowel, our mouth is more
  closed than in the production of the open vowel,
  where the mouth is more open.
• Often, the increased opening of the mouth is
  because a consonant follows the vowel. The
  consonant ends the syllable, and in pronouncing
  the consonant, we open our mouth a bit more,
  producing the open vowel sound.
• Click here to hear explanation and pronunciation.
• Phonetic
  Written letters
  Examples
• Symbol
• Closed / e / é, -er, -ez, es
  
  café, parler, parlez, des
• Open / e / è, ê, ai, ei, e
  consonant to end syllable crème, tête,
  faire, peine, bel
• Closed / o / au, eau, ô, o with
  no ending consonant, 0 /z/ autant, peau, côte,
  pot, rose Open / ? / o consonant t
  end the syllable botte,
  sotte, brosser
• Closed / ø / eu, oeu with no
  consonant to end syllable deux, peu,
  noeu
• Open / / eu, oeu with
  consonant to end syllable deuil,
  peur, soeur

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Mute e/? /

• Click here to hear the explanation.
• There is a third e sound, the e muet or mute
  e, whose phonetic symbol is /?/.
• It is represented in writing by an e and never
  has an accent on it. Sometimes it truly is
  mute, not pronounced. Other times it is
  pronounced, and when so, the sound is similar to
  the English uhhhh.
• When is it pronounced and when not pronounced?
  It depends on whether it is needed to support the
  pronunciation of consonants around it. For
  example, in the word appartement, we can not
  pronounce rtm together, so we keep the e muet
  sound to support the pronunciation / a par t?
  ma /. Whenever we have two consonants, the e,
  and then a third consonant (as in appartement),
  we pronoune the mute e.
• The mute e remains silent when we dont need
  it. It just drops out, as in the words,
  mademoiselle and bracelet. We say /mad moi
  sel/, not /ma d? moi sel/, for example.

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Four Nasals Vowels

• There are four nasal vowels in French. This means
  that some of the air is pushed up through the
  nose to give the vowel a nasal sound.
• Click here to hear the explanation.
• Phonetic Written
  letters Examples
• Symbol
• Nasal e / ? / in im
  ain ein pin, simple,
  syndicat
• yn
  ym aim eim
• Nasal a / ? / an en
  danse, lampe,
  vendent
• am em
• Nasal o / ? / on
  bon, mon, tombe
• om
• Nasal / / un
  un, parfum
• um

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Fin