![]() These sounds are 'voiced' which means the vocal cords vibrate to create the sound.It is produced by blocking air from leaving the mouth and released instead through the nose.These nasal sounds are quite distinctive of the French language and are characterized by the following: What Are French Nasal Sounds?Īsk any non-French speaker and they'll usually describe the French language as being a bit nasal. In fact, the English language has three nasal sounds too, namely the m sound, the n sound, and the ng sound. And we are using these to speak flawlessly (or not!) everyday. Try saying the words sing, sang, song and sung and notice the following:įrench has four nasal sounds which are more similar to its English counterparts than we realize. We mentioned that there are four nasal French sounds but you must be wondering why there are five listed. This is because some French speakers do not make distinctions between um* and im* and both are being pronounced as 'ang' like we do in sang. Now read up carefully because this here is where non-French speakers often get in trouble. Listed below are some pronunciations for syllables that, when spoken, differ quite well from how it is spoken in English. Those Flowing, Connected Sounds and How It's Done SyllableĪt the end of a word of two syllables or more sounds like 'ay'Ħ. We are all quite aware that the French language sounds flowing and continuous, or to put it jokingly, like speaking in cursive. To get this delightfully melodious sound in intonation, here's a simple rule for you to remember: This lends itself a lot of charm and that very noticeable melodic sound that foreigners simply love. If a word that begins with a vowel or a silent H follows a word which ends in a consonant, the consonant is linked to the beginning of the second word.Ģ nd word - begins with a vowel or silent H To illustrate, let us make use of these examples: Result: the consonant in the end of the first word is automatically linked to the beginning vowel of the second word. ![]() To pronounce it: noo zah-vong ( meaning, we have) Nou s a vons – the 1 st word ends with the consonant s while the 2 nd word begins with a vowel. To pronounce it: ung p'tee tahng-fahng (meaning, a small child)Ī few guidelines to remember when using other letter combinations Letters Un peti t enfant – petit ends with a consonant while enfant begins with a vowel. Accent Marks (and the difference it makes) See also: 12 Things You Need to Remember about French Liaisons 7. ![]() Just like several other languages, French makes use of accent marks. Accents are a type of diacritic marks which are basically glyphs or small signs attached to a letter. These are commonly used in Latin-derived alphabets as well as non-Latin ones like Chinese, Arabic, Greek, Hebrew, Korean and others.įrench makes use of three main accents, and these are:ġ. They are used to change how a letter sounds. The unaccented e – sounds like er in 'her'įor the cedilla, remember the rule discussed earlier wherein c is only pronounced as a soft s when placed before an e or i? The cedilla totally changes that.
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