L’alphabet

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

L’alphabet

Influence of accent marks on pronunciation:

1. The tréma over the letters “i” or “e” makes each vowel sound independently Noël, Héloïse 
2. The letter “e” with the accent aigu sounds like a hard “a” as in the English word “ape” éléphant, général
3. The letter “e” with the accent grave sounds like the sound “eh” as in the English word “help” première, deuxième, Hélène
4. The letter “e” with no accent sounds like “euh” (we don’t have this sound in English) recevoir, rester

Other pronunciation tips:

• The letter c before e, y, i sounds like “s” certain, cycliste, cinéma
• The letter c before o, u, a sounds like “k” coucou, cuisine, calme
• The ç (cédille) sounds like “s” façon, ça
• The letter e before r, z, t sounds like “é” danser, rendez-vous, et
• The letters eu together sound like the French “e” feu, jeûne
• The letter h is always silent. French has two types of h: the h muet and the h aspiré.

h muet l’hiver, l’hôtel
h aspiré le hibou, le héros

• The letters ou together sound like “oo” où, beaucoup
• The letters qu sound like “k” que, quel, quand
• The letter s is generally silent at the end of a word souris, ils
• Exceptions: s sounds like “s” at the end of some words atlas, fils, bus, l’os
• The letter s sounds like “z” between vowels desire, plaisir, réseaux
• The letter x is generally silent at the end of a word prix, faux, réseaux
• Exceptions: x at the end sounds like “s” in numbers six, dix; x sounds like “x” in  ex, Félix

More about accents:

As we have seen, there are accent marks that change the pronunciation of a vowel, such as the accent aigu and the accent grave over the “e” or the tréma over “i” or “u.”

Accent marks can also change the meanings of words, even when there is no pronunciation change. The accent grave can be used over “a,” “e,” and “u” to change the meaning of the word and the accent circonflexe (sometimes called the little hat, le petit chapeau) over “u” can change the meaning of the word:

ou/où 

a/à 

des/dès 

sur/sûr

French also has the œ as in œuf (egg), sœur (sister), and cœur (heart) and is sometimes called “e dans l’o.”

Audio 1.b

Exercice 1.10

Exercice 1.11

Exercice 1.12