INTRODUCTION TO THE FRENCH LANGUAGE (INTRODUCTION À LA LANGUE FRANÇAISE) Lesson 1 (Leçon 1)

The French Alphabet (L’alphabet français ) Lette r Sounds like Lette r Sounds Like Lette r 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) Numbe r Sounds LikeNumbe r 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 only Makes an “ay” sound French WordPronunciation L’éléphantlay-lay-fon(t) L’étéLay-tay L’éclairsLay-clair

Grave accent (L’accent grave) “Right hand accent” or “Right hand salute” à, è, ù Does not change sound, but makes the word pronounceable French WordPronunciation La fièvreLa feeEHvre voilàvwa-lAH oùoùoo

Cedilla (la cédille) Turns a “c” from a “kuh” to “sss” Ç French WordPronunciation Le fran çais Luh frehn-say Le garçonLuh gar-sohn FrançoisFrehn-swa

Circumflex (la circonflexe) Does not change the sound, this is a vestige from Old French It only affects writing â, ê, î, ô, û French WordPronunciation mâlemEHl êtreEH-tre Le dînerLuh dEE-nay L’hôtelLOH-tel sûrsOOUr

Diaeresis (le tréma) Used when two vowels are next to each other and are meant to be pronounced separately ë, ï French WordPronunciation Le noëlLuh no-EHl naïfnah-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  Madam e, Phillip e  Final –s: The final –s is not usually pronounced  Loui s, Charle s, trè s  Final consonants are not usually pronounced, the usual exceptions are: -c, -r, -f, -l, -k *Remember to be CaReFuL* which final consonants are pronounced  Rober t, Alber t, Eric, Marc, Raoul  H is never pronounced*  L’ h ôtel, L’ h ôpital, L’ h omme * 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, * TensenessENGLISH 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. RhythmENGLISH 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. LinkingIn 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. SyllablesIn spoken ENGLISH, many words and syllables end on a CONSONANT SOUND. In spoken FRENCH, syllables end on a VOWEL SOUND wherever possible.