fr consonants

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FRENCH & ENGLISH CONSONANTS

IEnglish: 2 different “phonemes”

French: 2 “allophones” of the same “phoneme”

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English: 2 different “phonemes”French: 2 “allophones” of the same “phoneme”

CHEAT vs. SHEET

French spelling rule to represent this sound:

SH (English) = CH (French)ex: Charge Chester Charge!

CH (English) = TCH (French)ex: Tchad

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English: 2 different “phonemes”French: 2 “allophones” of the same “phoneme”

JEN vs. JANE


pleasure, garage = J / Gi/e/y

ex: le journalisme, la gym[nastique]

J (English) = DJ (French) (usually in words imported from other languages)

ex: le djihad, les djihadistes, Djibouti

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IIconsonants (letters of the alphabet)

that are usually pronounced the same way as in English

BDF, PHL, even when preceding an MMNPT, even before an H VZ

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III

consonants (sounds) with spellings specific to French

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snakeFrench spelling rule to represent this sound:• --vowels (usually in monosyllabic words), ex: la vis, l’as • vowelsconsonant , ex: l’astre, l’astuce• consonantsvowel , ex: le tsunami• sconsonant , ex: Stéphane• svowel , ex: Sophie, la sentinelle• vowelssvowel , ex: le poisson, l’assistant, le Missouri• --tiel/on , ex: les partielles, attention!• Ci/e/y , ex: le cinéma, Cyrille, le recensement• ça/o/u , ex: ça va?, le garçon, le reçu

• x [only in numbers] , ex: six, dix, soixante, soixante-dix

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girl


• gu/o/a , ex: Gustave, la garde, la gomme

• gui/e/y , ex: la guitare, la guerre, Guy

• gh [exceptional] , ex: les spaghetti (usually in words taken from Italian)

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Kim, cool, Q’uran, Christ

French spelling rule to represent this sound:• cu/o/a , ex: la cure, le coléra, la cantine

• qu , ex: qui?, que?, quand?

• k , ex: le kilomètre, Pékin

• ch [exceptional], ex: la chimiothérapie, Christophe (usually in

scientific words or words of Greek origin)

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onion

same as Spanish “ñ”, Portuguese “nh”


• gn , ex: l’Espagne, Magnifique!

• nh [exceptional], ex: Ho Chi Minh

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magazine


• z , ex: Zut!,

• vowelsvowel , ex: le poison, le désert

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the infamous French “r”(stable in European & Canadian French, unstable in African & Caribbean French)

a good approximation would be a “strong” English “h” or a Spanish “j”:

ex: Henri \ ah(n)-rHee


• r , ex: le rat, la souris

• rr , ex: Pierre, la terre

note: it is OK to use an English (or Spanish) “r”

if you cannot pronounce a French “r”

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IVconsonants (letters of the alphabet)

that are usually silent

in initial position & after the letter T:

h-, ex: Henri, l’hyper(marché), le thé, le théorème

in final position of monosyllabic & plurisyllabic words:

-d, ex: le remord

-p, ex: le camp, le champ

-s, ex: le temps, le printemps

-t, ex: le port, le tort,

-x [except in numbers], ex: la noix, la paix, la voix

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consonants (i.e.: letters of the alphabet) that are rarely ever used

• w , ex: le kilo-watt, le wagon

• k, ex: le karaté, le kung-fu, le Kilimandjaro

fr consonants

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