Lesson - French Sounds (Pronunciation) - #7

[CFHollister]

Please see the following for introduction and citation information:
http://moi-alizee.us/forums/showthread.php?t=1101

Accent Marks; é, è

There are three different accent marks in French.
́ accent aigu
` accent grave
ˆ accent circonflexe

The acute accent appears only on é. That é is pronounced ay.
é....................... été.................... allé..................... tué

The grave accent appears on è (père) and is pronounced eh.
It appears also on à and in là to differentiate from la.
It appears also on ù in où to differentiate from ou.

The circumflex accent appears on all vowels. It lengthens the vowel slightly
â........... pâte (paste)
ê........... fête (feast)
î............ île (isle)
ô........... drôle
û........... sûr
Note the s in English replaced by the accent.
mât = ?
forêt = ?

Pronounce:
(the accented e’s in the 2nd and 3rd columns are pronounced eh)
café................... près................... être
épée.................. très.................... tête
étage................. mère................... prête
Léon.................. frère.................... prêt
numéro............... chère
étoile................. scène

sound of é
Let’s study now the various spellings that have the sound ay.
é..................... in........... été
er final............................ aller
ez final............................ allez
ai in some words**............ j’ai
et meaning “and”
** the sound of ai is a matter of variation among French speakers. For mai some say mé, others mè.

This brings up a point about the et endings in words you have seen in English:
bouquet.............. Bizet
gourmet.............. Monet
filet.................... Chevrolet
Most careful French speakers say:
boo keh.............. rather than boo kay
goor meh............ rather than goor may

Try to make your closed e (é) a tense sound, with teeth fairly close together. Now for the open e (è or ê) loosen the tension slightly for the eh sound.

Contrast: bée........ bête......... belle
With the tense lips and small opening between the teeth for a closed e sound, words like bouquet will be correctly pronounced and will still follow the rule of a closed vowel in an open syllable.

sound of è
Now the spelling for the open e sound:
e + 2 consonants.............. elle
e in monosyllables............. mer
è................................... très
ê................................... prêt
ei in closed monosyllables... pleine
ai in closed monosyllables... aile