Posts Tagged ‘phonetic spelling’

If you want to learn to speak French, the best place to start is the pronunciation of the French alphabet. While the letters appear much as they do in English, the pronunciations can vary greatly in some cases. These are also a number of symbols and accent marks that are utilized in the French language. The following is the English alphabet with the French spelling and pronunciation of each letter:

Letter			Spelling		Pronunciation A			a			"ah" B			be			"bay" C			ce			"say" D			de			"day" E			e			"uk" F			effe			"ef" G			ge 			"ghay" H			ache			"ash" I			i			"ee"		 J			ji 			"jhay" K			ka			"ka" L			elle			"el" M			emme			"em" N			enne			"en" O			o			"op" P			pe			"pay" Q			cu 			"koo"	 R			erre			"ehr" S			esse			"es" T			te			"tay" U			u 			"oo" V			ve			"vay" W			double ve 		"doo-blaw-vay" X			ixe			"ex" Y			i grec			"ee-grek" Z			zede			"zed"

French vowels are pronounced according to any accent marks or the lack of them. The following is a guide to pronouncing vowels when you are trying to learn to speak French:

Letter,		General Spelling,	Phonetic Spelling, 	French Examples: i		i, y			ee			vie, midi, lit y		u			ee rounded		rue, tissu e		, et, final er and ez	ay			ble, pied,cahier o		eu			ay rounded		bleu, queue oe		u, eu			eh rounded		fleur, sur  a		a, a, a			ah			chat, salade, papa u		ou			ah longer		chateau, grace o		o, o			oh			escargot, eau oe~		un			uhn			parfum, lundi o~		on, om			ohm			front, brun

There are also a number of consonant combinations that you will need to know when you learn to speak French. Below are a few examples of these:

Letters				Pronunciations 		 French Examples c and a, o, u			k			 car, caillou c and e, i, y; or 		s			 macon,	 ceinture ch				sh			 architecte, archives								 ex and a consonant		eks			 expression, exceptional ex and a vowel			egz			 examen g and a, o, u			g			 ganglion, gomme g and e, i, y			zh			 gingembre, genou h				silent			 herbe, hazard j				zh			 jeune, jambe qu, final q			k			 que, quoi th				t			 theme, thym ti and vowel (except e)		see			 nation, democratie a vowel and a s and a vowel	z			 falaise, rose x and a vowel			z			 beaux arts, six ans final x				s			 (only these words) six, dix

There are also a few exceptions to the rules of pronunciation that you will need to know when you learn to speak French. For example, in words that begin with in-, the nasal sound is only used if these letters are followed by a consonant. If they are not, then the correct pronunciation would be “een.” Also, in a word ending with a consonant, it is usually not pronounced, unless that consonant is “a,” “c,” “r,” “f,” or “l.” If a word ends in an “r” and is a verb, it also remains silent. There are a number of other pronunciation rules that you will become more familiar with as you learn to speak French.

Learning French can be a challenging and rewarding experience. Knowing the French alphabet as well as the pronunciation of it can go a long way in helping you to accomplish this goal.

Author: Francis Belcher
Article Source: EzineArticles.com
Provided by: Digital Camera Times

Tags: accent marks, consonant combinations, english alphabet, french alphabet, french letter, french spelling, french vowels, jhay, phonetic spelling, spelling pronunciation