Leçon 1.

1: Les composants de la langue française

A B C D E F G H I J K L M N O P Q R S T U V W X Y Z
ba ca (ça) da fa ga ha ja ka la ma na pa qua ra sa ta va wa za
be ce de fe (ge) he je ke le me ne pe que re se te ve we ze
bi ci di fi (gi) hi ji ki li mi ni pi qui ri si ti vi wi zi
bo co (ço) do fo go ho jo ko lo mo no po quo ro so to vo wo zo
bu cu du fu gu hu ju ku lu mu nu pu quu ru su tu vu wu zu

ex: comme ci comme ça (ok, average, “so-so”, not bad)

langage, langue
YOUTUBE:
1. imagiers phonétique-image alphabet:
http://www.youtube.com/user/imagiers#p/search/13/5-eZh2qZ340
2. imagiers phonétique-image les accents:
http://www.youtube.com/user/imagiers#p/search/4/guOFKcotpiU
3. imagier Nasales #1:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Q2wB04PD4og
I. Accents
There are five French accent marks. Four are used with vowels, and only one is used with a consonant.
The easiest way to know when to use an accent mark is by memorizing the correct spelling of each
word. It's tedious, but necessary.
Chart of French Accent Marks

Name of Mark What It Looks Like Letters Used With Example

Accent aigu or acute accent é Only used with E étudiant (student)
Accent grave or grave accent à, è, ù Used with A, E, U où (where)
Accent circonflexe or accent circumflex â, ê, î, ô,û A, E, I, O, U forêt (forest)
Accent tréma or umlaut ë, ï,ü E, I, U naïve (naïve)
Cedille or cedilla ç Only with letter C garçon (boy)

There are four accent marks used with vowels. (Everything except cedille which is only used with C.)
Accents may change how a word is pronounced or distinguish between two words that are spelled the
same but have different meanings.

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Accent Aigu
It can only be used with the letter E. The accent changes the pronunciation of the vowel from an 'ah'
sound to an 'ay' sound.
• l'école (school)
• étudier (to study)
• méchant (mean)

Accent Grave
An accent grave may be used only with vowels A, E, and U. When the accent grave is used with the
letters A and U, it's usually used to distinguish among two words that are spelled the same but mean
different things. Some examples of words using the accent grave include:
• Austère (austere or stern)
• L'élève (student or pupil) - used both accent aigu over the first E and accent grave over the
second E
• Confrère (colleague)
An example of an accent grave used to distinguish between two words includes:
• Ou, a conjunction that means 'or' or 'either'
• Où, meaning 'where'

Accent Circonflexe
The accent circonflexe may appear over any vowel. Use the accent circonflexe in such words as:
• Hôpital (hospital)
• Forêt (forest)

Note that many words in French that use an accent circonflexe once included the letter S after the
vowel. Words like hospital and forest transformed over time into the shortened form above using the
circonflexe instead of the letter S.

Accent Tréma
It appears only over the vowels E, I and U. This accent indicates a pronunciation change. Whenever
you see accent tréma, you must pronounce each vowel separately.
• Naïve (naïve, or innocent)
• Aïeul (male ancestor)

Accent Cedille
Accent cedille, or the cedilla, is also easy for most students to remember since it's only found under the
letter C. The cedilla changes the pronunciation of the letter C from a hard sound to a soft sound.
• Garçon (boy)
• Soupçon (suspicion)
II. Pronunciation

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When speaking French, you need to keep your muscles in your jaw tighter than you would when
speaking (American) English. This is known as “la tension musculaire” and prevents diphthongs.
A. Pure Vowels = no diphthongs!
Long Vowels Short Vowels Similar English
[a] [ə] not - nut
[i] ---- sheep
[e] [ɛ] wait - wet
[o] [ɔ] coat - caught
[u] ---- moon

Words in Contrast
[a] - [ə] rapporter reporter
[e] - [ə] des mains demain
[e] - [ɛ] pré près
[o] - [ɔ] paume pomme

French has three front rounded vowels that do not exist in English, you need to round your lips to
pronounce these words in contrast:
[u] - [y] sous su
[ə] - [ø] ce ceux
[ø] - [œ] jeûne jeune

Review of vowels:
Phonetic spelling
IPA Sample words French spelling
(Eng)
i, y
[i] ee vie, midi, lit, riz
[y] oo rounded rue, jus, tissu, usine u
[e] ay blé, nez, cahier, pied é, et, final er and ez
[ø] ay rounded jeu, yeux, queue, bleu eu
[ɛ] eh lait, aile, balai, reine e, è, ê, ai, ei, ais
[œ] eh rounded sœur, œuf, fleur, beurre œu, eu
[a] ah chat, ami, papa, salade a, à, â
[u] oo loup, cou, caillou, outil ou
[o] oh eau, dos, escargot, hôtel o, ô
[ɔ] aw sol, pomme, cloche, horloge o
[ə] uh fenêtre, genou, cheval, cerise e
B. Semi-Vowels

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 IPA Phonetic spelling Sample words French spelling
[w] w fois, oui, Louis oi, ou
[ɥ] ew-ee lui, suisse ui
[j] yuh oreille, Mireille ill, y
Some words ending in -ille(r) pronounce the l, however: ville, mille, tranquille, distiller, osciller, etc.
Words in Contrast
[wa] - [a] loi la
[ɥ] - [y] lui Lu
[ej] - [e] pareil paré
[aj] - [a] bail bas

C. Nasal Vowels (un/une)

IPA Phonetic spelling Sample words French spelling
[ã] awn gant, banc, dent en, em, an, am, aon, aen
in, im, yn, ym, ain, aim, ein, eim, un, um,
[ɛ]̃ ahn pain, vin, linge
en, eng, oin, oing, oint, ien, yen, éen
[œ̃] uhn brun, lundi, parfum un
[õ] ohn rond, ongle, front on, om

Words in Contrast
Nasal Vowel Nasal Consonant
franc franche
brun brune
bon bonne
Remember: un bon vin blanc

D. Consonants
Many of the consonants in French are very similar to the consonants in English. However:
1. The letter h is never pronounced, but you need to remember to distinguish the h non-aspiré
from the h aspiré. The h aspiré has two characteristics: the definite article does not reduce to l'
(called elision) but remains le or la and word boundaries are maintained so that sounds do not
link (absence of liaison - see below). Most words with an h aspiré are of Germanic origin.
h non-aspiré h aspiré
l'habitude la hache
l'herbe le hall
l'heure le haricot

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 2. [R] is articulated further back in the throat (with the back of the tongue). It does not have an
effect on preceding vowels the way that American English r does. It must remain consistent in
all positions, regardless of the other vowels and consonants that may be adjacent to it.

After Before
Initial Intervocalic Final
consonant consonant
rusé droit arrêt partout mer
rang gris courir merle pire
rose trou pleurer corde sourd

3. In the majority of words with the grapheme ch, the pronunciation is [ʃ], but it is also
pronounced [k] in words of Greek origin. It is silent, however, in the word almanach.

ch = [ʃ] ch = [k]
chercher archéologie
réchauffer chaos
chérubin chrétien

4. Even though most final consonants are not pronounced in French (see below), there are a few
exceptions, especially with words ending in -s. In words ending in a consonant + s or -es, the s
is silent. However, if a word ends in -as, -ès, -is, -os, or -us, then the s is sometimes pronounced.

s = silent s = pronounced
cadenas atlas
débarras pancréas
accès sinus
exprès ours

E. Silent Letters
French, like English, is not written phonetically. Vowels can be represented by several different letter
combinations and many letters are actually not pronounced.
• The final consonant of many words is silent. Sometimes a final c, f, l or r are pronounced
though.
Final c, f, l, r silent
blanc cléf outil parler

Final c, f, l, r pronounced
bouc œuf fil car
• Similar to English, the final -e in most words is not pronounced. For feminine adjectives and

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 nouns, this generally means that the final consonant of the masculine form will now be
pronounced.

Masculine Feminine
vert verte
grand grande
canadien canadienne
boulanger boulangère
chat chatte

F. Liaison
A loss of word boundaries in French makes it difficult to comprehend the spoken language for
beginning learners. All of the words seem to be linked together without any clear divisions because the
syllable boundaries do not correspond to the word boundaries. In many cases, the last consonant from
one syllable (which is usually silent) will become the first consonant of the next syllable (therefore, it is
no longer silent).
The consonants involved in liaison generally include d, s, and x ([t], [z] and [z])
elles arrivent mon amour
vieux arbres dans un sac
attend-il ? plus ouvert
grand ami il est allé

G. Informal Reductions
In everyday speech, there are other reductions in addition to e caduc. Many of these reductions are
made for ease of pronunciation and are considered informal. The most common ones are reducing tu to
t' before a vowel and omitting the final syllable of words ending in -re. Listen to these reductions in
careful speech and everyday speech:

Informal Reductions in Spoken French

Careful Speech Everyday Speech
tu es t'es
tu as t'as
tu étais t'étais
mettre mett'
notre not'
il y
il y a ya
Pasq'
parce que

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