French Pronunciation

Stress

English Syllable Length

• English words have their own stress, and changing the stress can change the meaning of the word– Object– Record– Content

• English is stress-timed (stressed syllables come at regular intervals in a sentence. ) = you can reduce syllables to make things fit . Mostly we reduce vowel sounds to “uh” or “I”

Example of how we mess up English

• Is he talking to me?• Izee tahkin ta me?

• I don’t know what’s going on• I dunno what’s goin on

• I’m going to change the slide• Imma (or im gunna) change the slide

English makes no sense

• 3+ syllable words depends on the ending– demoCRAcy– iCONic– PuppetEER– coMEdian

– ……. This is why it’s so hard to learn

Syllables

• A syllable is ONE complete sound – Thing ONE vowel + consonant• Dog = 1• Doggy = 2• Beautiful = 3

• In ENGLISH sometimes resonants (l/r) can occasion be syllabic.– You can’t do that in french

Syllables

English• Muscle (2)• Couple (2)• Capable (3)• Article (3)• Admirable (4)

French• Muscle (1)• Couple (1)• Capable (2)• Article (2)• Admirable (3)

English….

• PHOto• PHOtograph• PhoTOgrapher• PhoTOgraphy• photoGRAphic

French Syllable length

• Pronounce EVERY syllable for an equal length of time, stressed or not.

• Never reduce any vowels • Stress on the LAST syllable

English VS French

• teleVIsion• declaRAtion• ImagiNAtion

• Télévision• Déclaration• imagination

Rhythm

• In ENGLISH, words retain their syllabic stresses within sentences. They don’t in French really. The main stress is at the end of a sentence

• I’m VIsiting the caTHEdral• Je visite la cathéDRALE• I’m VIsiting the caTHEdral Notre DAME in PAris• Je visite la cathédrale Notre Dame à PaRIS

Intonation

• Short declarative sentences have a falling intonation– Il fait du soleil

• Longer declarative sentences have a rise and then a fall– Je préfère visiter un musée aujourd’hui

• Exclamative intonation has a sharp fall in pitch– Quel beau chateau!

• Imperative information has a sharp fall in pitch– Levez lamain!

Final Consonants

• Never trust French spelling!• NEVER pronounce a final consonant unless it is

:– C, R, F, L

Mostly?

• AvoiR • MeR• CheR

• But…• Manger• Aller• Parler…

• BoL• PrincipaL• AvriL

• But…• Travail• Ail…

The silent “E”

• Don’t pronounce the E at the end of a word!!!