INTRODUCTION TO THE FRENCH LANGUAGE(INTRODUCTION À LA LANGUE FRANÇAISE)

Lesson 1 (Leçon 1)

The French Alphabet (L’alphabet français)

Letter

Sounds like

Letter

Sounds Like

Letter

Sounds Like

A “ah” J “jhee” S “es”

B “bay” K “ka” T “tay”

C “say” L “el” U “oo”

D “day” M “em” V “vay”

E “ur” N “en” W “dooble vay”

F “ef” O “oh” X “eeks”

G “jhey” P “pay” Y “eegrek”

H “ahsh” Q “koo” Z “zed”

I “ee” R “air”

Numbers 1-20 (Les nombres de 1 à 20)

Number

Sounds Like Number

Sounds Like

1 “unh” 11 “ohnz”

2 “doo” 12 “dooze”

3 “twa” 13 “trez”

4 “cat” 14 “catorz”

5 “sank” 15 “ganz”

6 “cease” 16 “says”

7 “set” 17 “deece set”

8 “wheat” 18 “deece wheat”

9 “nuff” 19 “deece nuff”

10 “deece” 20 “vah”

Accent Marks (Les accents)

There are 5 accent marks used in the French language Acute accent (L’accent aigu) Grave accent (L’accent grave) Cedilla (la cédille) Circumflex (la circonflexe) Diaeresis (le tréma)

Acute accent (L’accent aigu)

“Left hand accent” or “Left hand salute”é onlyMakes an “ay” sound

French Word Pronunciation

L’éléphant lay-lay-fon(t)

L’été Lay-tay

L’éclairs Lay-clair

Grave accent (L’accent grave)

“Right hand accent” or “Right hand salute”à, è, ùDoes not change sound, but makes the word

pronounceable

French Word Pronunciation

La fièvre La feeEHvre

voilà vwa-lAH

où oo

Cedilla (la cédille)

Turns a “c” from a “kuh” to “sss”Ç

French Word Pronunciation

Le français Luh frehn-say

Le garçon Luh gar-sohn

François Frehn-swa

Circumflex (la circonflexe)

Does not change the sound, this is a vestige from Old French

It only affects writingâ, ê, î, ô, û

French Word Pronunciation

mâle mEHl

être EH-tre

Le dîner Luh dEE-nay

L’hôtel LOH-tel

sûr sOOUr

Diaeresis (le tréma)

Used when two vowels are next to each other and are meant to be pronounced separately

ë, ï

French Word Pronunciation

Le noël Luh no-EHl

naïf nah-Eef

Silent Letters (Les lettres muettes)

In French, some letters are not pronounced, particularly at the end of words Final –e: The final –e is not usually pronounced

Madame, Phillip e

Final –s: The final –s is not usually pronounced Louis, Charles, très

Final consonants are not usually pronounced, the usual exceptions are: -c, -r, -f, -l, -k *Remember to be CaReFuL* which final consonants are pronounced Robert, Albert, Eric, Marc, Raoul

H is never pronounced* L’hôtel, L’hôpital, L’homme

* There is the h aspiré

Differences between English and French(Les différence entre l’anglais et le

français)

Spoken French differs from English *Valette, Jean-Paul, and Rebecca M. Valette. Contacts: Lange et culture françaises. New York:

Houghton Mifflin Company, 2001.

*Tenseness ENGLISH is a very RELAXED

language. Vowels are often glided. Some consonants may also be prolonged.

FRENCH is a very TENSE language. Vowels are short and clipped: they do not glide. Consonants are short and distinctly pronounced.

Rhythm ENGLISH rhythm is SING-SONGY. Some syllables are short and others are long.

FRENCH rhythm is VERY EVEN. Only the LAST syllable of a group of words is longer than the others.

Linking In spoken ENGLISH, words are usually SEPARATED. Your vocal cords may even stop vibrating in an instnat between words.

In spoken FRENCH, words are NOT SEPARATED. In fact, within a group of words, all syllables are LINKED or CONNECTED together.

Syllables In spoken ENGLISH, many words and syllables end on a CONSONANT SOUND.

In spoken FRENCH, syllables end on a VOWEL SOUND wherever possible.