Prononciation: Introduction

Pronunciation: Introduction

1. Objectifs

Just as there are multiple English accents around the world and even in the United States, there are also many different French accents since French is spoken around the world! Just listen to the different accents of these French speakers!

In every chapter, you will encounter pronunciation lessons over an aspect of French pronunciation. They are often accompanied by exercises you will submit afterwards. Work through the lesson and mimic the pronunciation carefully.

While your native language will influence your accent in French as you begin to learn the language, the objective of these pronunciation lessons is to teach you fundamental sounds and rules that govern spoken French.

• Fundamental sounds – example: the letter “a” is pronounced:
  

• Fundamental rules – example: most final consonants are not pronounced in French. So the final “s” in the word “français” is never pronounced, regardless of the French-speaker and their accent:

Good pronunciation is very important in French, and spelling does not often align with pronunciation, as it does in languages such as Spanish, so it is crucial to complete these lessons in order to have a better understanding of French pronunciation.

2. Symbols: the phonetic alphabet

To write a sound, we use the phonetic alphabet. In this alphabet, a single symbol or letter corresponds to a single sound, unlike the traditional alphabets of English or French for which a single letter can make multiple sounds (for example, notice all of the sounds the “c” makes in the phrase “Pacific Ocean”). Renderings of sounds with the phonetic alphabet are often found in [brackets].

Example: the sound [e] is pronounced like the ‘ay‘ sound in the word “play“:

While we will not learn the entire phonetic alphabet, here are the vowel sounds (many of which differ from English):

Vowels

Nasal Vowels

Semi-Vowels