28. Letter “ y” between vowels “decomposes” into 2 “i”: royal (roi – ial = [ rwa- jal]) .

• Between consonants it reads like [i]: stylo.

29. Letter combinations “ an, am, en, em” give a nasal sound [ɑ̃]: enfant [ɑ̃fɑ̃], ensemble [ɑ̃sɑ̃bl].

30. Letter combinations “ on, om” give a nasal sound [ɔ̃]: bon, nom.

31. Letter combinations “ in, im, ein, aim, ain, yn, ym ” give a nasal sound [ɛ̃]: jardin [ Ʒardɛ̃], important [ɛ̃portɑ̃], symphonie, copain.

32. Letter combinations “ un, um” give a nasal sound [œ̃]: brown, perfume.

33. Letter combination “ oin” reads [wɛ̃]: coin.

34. Letter combination “ ien” reads [jɛ̃]: bien.

35. Letter “ t” gives the sound [ s ] before “ i ” + vowel: national .

Exception: amitie , pitie .

• But, if the letter "s" is in front of the letter "t", "t" is read as [t]: quest ion .

36. Fluent [ǝ] in the flow of speech may fall out of pronunciation or, conversely, appear where it is not pronounced in an isolated word:

Acheter, les cheveux.

In the speech flow, French words lose their stress, uniting into groups with a common semantic meaning and a common stress on the last vowel (rhythmic groups).

Reading within a rhythmic group requires obligatory observance of two rules: coupling (enchainement) and binding (liaison).

a) Clutch: the final pronounced consonant of one word forms one syllable with the initial vowel of the next word: elle aime, la salle est claire.

b) The phenomenon of linking is that the final unpronounceable consonant begins to sound, linking with the initial vowel of the following word: c'est elle, à neuf heures.

Letter combinations in French

Rules for reading French numerals

This article is about reading final consonants in French numerals.

French counting (writing numerals and audio exercises for numerals) and pronunciation of numerals.

5-cinq

6 - six and 10 - dix

7 - sept and 9 - neuf

In these numerals, the final consonant is always pronounced:

Il y a sept chansons. [ sɛt]

Il y a neuf comediens. [ nœf]

The final f in the numeral neuf (9) is pronounced as [v] before the words ans (years), autres (others), heures (hours) and hommes (man / men):

Elle a neuf ans. [ nœvɑ̃]

Il est neuf heures. [ nœv-:r]

8-huit

There is no elision (dropping out of vowels) before this numeral:

Il ne reste que huit jours avant mes vacances.

Before this numeral, binding occurs only as part of a complex numeral:

dix-huit ans [ dizʮitɑ̃].

Exceptions:

88 - quatre-vingt-huit and 108 - cent huit [ sɑ̃ʮit].

20-vingt

20 - vingt [ vɛ̃].

If the word 20 is followed by a noun that begins with a vowel or a silent h, linking occurs, the final t reads:

vingt ans [ vɛ̃t ɑ̃].

In numbers from 21 to 29, the final t reads:

vingt-neuf [ vɛ̃t nœf],

but in 22 and 23 the sound [t] is usually replaced by [n]:

vingt deux [ vɛ̃n dø], vingt-trois [ vɛ̃n trwa].

80 - quatre-vingts / 90 - quatre-vingt-dix

If word 80 is followed by a noun beginning with a vowel or silent h, linking occurs, the final s reads [z]:

square vingts ans.

In numbers from 80 to 99, the final t in the word vingt is not pronounced!

square-vingt-un

quatre-vingt-onze.

21, 31, 41, 51, 61, 71

In these compound numbers, there is a link between ten and the union "and":

vingt-et-un [ vɛ̃teœ̃]

trente-et-un [ trɑ̃teœ̃].

100 cent

The final t in cent is pronounced when linked to the next word beginning with a vowel or silent h:

cent ans [ sɑ̃tɑ̃].

Exception: 101, where no linking is allowed between two words:

cent un [ sɑ̃œ̃].

In the words 200, 300, 400 ... 900, the ending -s appears in the word cent (in the absence of a subsequent numeral), so the binding will occur with this particular letter:

deux cents ans.

You can read more about this topic with our

I think that many have already noticed that sometimes there are different icons above and below the French letters: sticks, houses, dots, worms, commas ...

As you understand, they are drawn for a reason.

The letter of the alphabet already known to us is e (this is the one when we fold our lips as if we were talking about, but we say uh) with different icons is pronounced differently.

é

If you see such an icon above it (accent aigu (acute accent) or “stick to the right”), you need to pronounce it, smiling.

Prepare your lips for the sound and and say it yourself uh.

That is, stretch the lips to the ears as much as possible. And with such a smile from ear to ear and say uh.

fé e, bé bé, café, é cole, é tudie, ré cit, té lé, é té, é crire, litté rature, pré fé ré

Cé cile dé teste le café.
C "est l" é cole numé ro deux.
C "est la discipline pré fé ré e de Bé né dicte.
Le bé bé de Pé pé a le nez e pate.
Il a pitié des bé bé s.

e ê ё

The scientific name for these icons is: accent grave, accent circonflexe, tréma (let's call them in our own way - a stick to the left, a house, two dots).

All three options are pronounced the same, like Russian uh.

trè s, prè s, aprè s, frè re, pè re, mè re, poè te, crè me, problè me, modè le
fê te, bê te, rê ve, crê pe, forê t, fenê tre, Noё l

C "est le pè re de Pierre.
Le Noé l est ma fê te préférée.

I hope everyone knows that the French language grew out of Latin (as well as Italian, Spanish). That is, Latin roots predominate in French words.

So. Where in Latin the letter s was in this root, in modern French the letter is above house. But in other languages ​​(and not only Romance, but, for example, in English and Russian), this s has been preserved.

look at the word fê te!

Let's restore the letter hidden under the house. What happened? Festa.

What does it remind us of? Look at the Spanish word fiesta and the Russian word for festival. Correctly! It's a "holiday"! So you can guess the meaning of the word in which there is e with a house.

And now the word forê t.

We act in the same way. Restoring the letter s - forest.

Those who speak English have already understood that this is a "forest". By the way, this letter has been preserved in French, for example, in the word forestier (forester).

Two dots can stand not only above e, but also above other letters too.

The main purpose of this icon is to separate vowels.

Usually two vowels in a row make one sound. For example, the letter combination a i is read as uh(more on this later).

But if you put not one, but two dots over i, this letter combination will be read as ai.

naï f, égoï ste, Raphaé l, Noé l

The house (accent circonflexe) and the “stick to the left” (accent grave) can stand not only above the letter e.

These icons can be used to differentiate the meaning of words.

du - masculine partial article (or continuous article)
dû is the past tense of the verb devoir

sur - preposition "on, about"

a - verb avoir (to have) for pronouns "he, she"
à - preposition "in"

ou - union "or"
où is an interrogative word “where? where?"

la - pronoun "her" (answers the question "who?")
là - adverb "there, here"

Attention! It has no effect on pronunciation.

ç

garçon, leçon, maçon, façon, façade, limaçon, reçu

Apostrophe

This is such a comma above and to the right of the letter, which hides an extra vowel underneath.

In French, everything should be fine :) But two vowels in a row is a mess.

You can't leave de elle. It is necessary to hide the vowel in the preposition under the apostrophe. It turns out d "elle.

Instead of le arbre - l "arbre, je ai - j" ai.

You get used to it very quickly, because very quickly you realize that it is really much more convenient to pronounce it this way.

Lesson summary"Letters with icons":

• é (lips for sound and and say it yourself uh):
  Cé cile dé teste le café.
• è ê ё (Russian uh):
  Le pè re de Noé l rê ve de fê te.
• ç (Russian with):
  Le garç on a reç u une leç on.
• apostrophe:
  instead of le arbre - l "arbre, je ai - j" ai.
• two dots above a vowel separate it from the previous one, that is, they do not form letter combinations, but are pronounced separately:
  egoï ste, Noé l
• house over a vowelû distinguishes the meaning of words, does not affect pronunciation:
  su r - preposition "on, about"
  sû r - adjective "confident"
• wand to the left above the letterà distinguishes the meaning of words, does not affect pronunciation:
  a - verb avoir (to have) for pronouns "he, she"
  à - preposition "in"

French writing is based on Latin alphabet, consisting of 26 pairs of letters (lowercase and uppercase). In addition, the French language uses diacritics(superscript) signs and 2 ligatures(weave of letters). A feature of French orthography is the use of letter combinations that perform the function of one letter, as well as the presence of diacritical letters that are not pronounced by themselves, but indicate the reading of an adjacent letter, or perform a separating function.

French alphabet

The French language uses the Latin alphabet, which has 26 letters to represent 35 phonemes.

The letters k and w are used only in words of foreign origin.

The letter h is not pronounced by itself, but may indicate readings of neighboring letters. When using the letter h at the beginning of a word in French, they distinguish h mute (h muet) and h aspirated (h aspire). With words that start with h aspirated, linking is prohibited. In addition, there is no truncation of the article before such words. In dictionary h aspirated, usually denoted by an asterisk (*).

Diacritics and ligatures

A feature of the graphic system of the French language is the use of the following diacritics:

• accent aigu or acute(´) is placed above the letter e to indicate [e] closed: l'été
• accent grave or gravity(`) is placed over the letter e to indicate [ɛ] open (mère), as well as over other letters to distinguish between homonyms (words with the same sound): la - là, ou - où.
• accent circumflexe or circumflex(ˆ) is placed over different vowels and indicates that the given sound is long: fête, ôter
• trema or diaeresis(¨) is placed above the vowels and indicates that they must be pronounced separately from the preceding vowel sound: Citroën
• cedille or cedilla(¸) placed under c means pronunciation [s], not [k], before vowels other than i and e : garçon
• apostrophe or apostrophe(') denotes the omission of a final vowel before a word beginning with a vowel or h silent: l'arbre (le => l'), j'habite ( je => j')

The following are French letters with diacritics:

French uses two ligatures: Æ æ and Œ œ .

Ligature œ occurs in both loanwords and native words, and can represent the sounds [e], [ɛ], [œ] and [ø], for example

- [e]: œdème (edema)
- [ɛ]: œstrogène (estrogen)
- [œ]: cœur (heart)
- [ø]: nœud (knot)

Ligature æ pronounced as [e] and found in words borrowed from Latin, for example, nævus (nevus), cæcum (caecum)

letter combinations

Due to the discrepancy between the number of letters and sounds, certain graphic principles are used. In French, the positional principle is used, which consists in the fact that the meaning of a given letter is specified by its connection with neighboring letters (in Russian, the syllabic principle: a combination of a consonant with a vowel receives a single designation). Thus, some letters in various combinations may indicate sounds that do not correspond to their alphabetic meaning.

There are 3 types of letter combinations, all of which are presented in French:

• progressive (x+ A): the reading of a letter depends on the next letter (letters c , g )
• regressive (A+ x ): dependence of reading a letter on the previous one (ill before a vowel or consonant)
• bilateral (A+ x+ B): s between two consonants

Spelling principles

French makes more extensive use of principles less closely related to the sound of a word or living phonetic alternations. This, for example, etymological principle (the spelling characteristic of the language from which the word is borrowed is preserved), traditional principle (the former pronunciation or outdated spelling techniques are reflected). This circumstance increases the discrepancy between sound and spelling in the text.

As you know, the letter e without signs in an open syllable (as well as in monosyllabic words like je, me, le) reads like [œ] (in passing, we note that phoneticians can designate this sound in transcription in different ways, depending on which letter or combination it is expressed ,-[ə], [œ] and even [ö]; but for convenience, hereinafter we will use one universal icon [œ]). Yes, this is the same sound that drops out in polysyllabic words (as in Madeleine - Madeleine).

It happens that due to a number of circumstances, in some places the letter e in an open syllable is not read as [œ], but is transformed into [e]. And in order to mark this in writing, the French came up with the idea of ​​putting accent aigu, or acute, over it. write é instead of e. In other words, we can deduce a clear rule that the acute is placed over the letter e only in an open syllable to change its pronunciation from [œ] to [e] .

Note: acute is also placed at the end of words like né, publicité, sé curit é etc, where, firstly, it shows that the final letter is readable, and secondly, it denotes its pronunciation as [e].

Remember: accent aigu in French can be only over e!

Lyrical digression No 1: about closed and open syllables

It was said above that accent aigu is placed over e in an open syllable. What is open syllable ? Everyone probably remembers from school that syllables are open and closed (I will add, to increase fear, that syllables are still covered and uncovered). The syllable is considered open, if during syllable division it ends in a vowel. The syllable is considered, respectively, closed if during syllable division it ends with a consonant (we can say that it, this consonant, “closes” the syllable). How does syllable division occur, where does the syllable boundary pass? The principles are:

1) there are as many syllables in a word as there are vowels (the combinations eau, eu, au, ai, ou etc, read as one sound, are equated to one letter).

2) if after vowel has only one consonant (and not two or three in a row), then the syllable boundary passes immediately after this vowel, and the consonant goes to the next syllable, and the syllable remains open: for example e couter; We divide: e-cou-ter ( the first two syllables are open).

3) if a vowel is followed by two or more consonants in a row, then the first consonant remains in the first syllable, and the rest go to the second syllable, so this first syllable remains closed: for example, regarder - we divide re-gar-der (the first syllable is open, but the second and third are closed). If a word ends in a consonant (as in our two examples), then the final syllable of that word is closed.

There is one small nuance: in French there is a so-called "indivisible group" - consonant + sonorant (sonorous consonants include voiced consonants that do not have a voiceless pair: m, n, r, l; accordingly, indivisible groups will be, for example, -br- , -cl-, -dr-etc.). In syllable division, such a group goes entirely into the next syllable. For example, the word écrivain will be divided into syllables like this: é-cri-vain (we leave the first vowel open, so there is an acute here). Combinations ch, qu and gue fall under this principle of “indivisibility” (pé-cher, é-qua-ris-seur, é-guine). But after the letter x, the syllable is always considered closed: examen (since the syllable boundary passes, as it were, in the middle of the letter x; this happens because this letter generates two consonants - or - one goes into the first syllable, closing it, and the second into the next ).

We must remember that the rules of syllable division only fix our intuitive desire to divide words into syllables, and not vice versa. Similar rules of syllable division operate in the Russian language, and we use them intuitively and divide words into syllables correctly, without thinking (bra- tim, not po-ra-tim, for example).

Accent grave

Accent grave, or grave, is placed above the letter e in the final open syllable , which turns out to be opened due to the mute letter e at the end, for example probl è m e. Let's break this word into syllables: pro-ble-me . Formally, the penultimate syllable is considered open, in which e formally should read like [œ]. About the essence - insofar as last e unreadable - word ends in a consonant: . To resolve this ambiguity, this contradiction between the formal and the factual side of the matter, over the letter e and an accent grave is placed.

The rule for arranging a grave is as follows: in this position, an accent grave is placed if in front of a mute e (i.e. between these two e at the end of a word):

1) there is one consonant: colè r e, frè r e,

2) goes described by us above indivisible group(consonant + sonorant): rè gl e,

3) there is a letter combination pronounced as one consonant sound: collè gu e, bibliothè qu e

Separately, it should be noted that gravity is also placed above the penultimate e and in words ending in s.

And again, there is an explanation for this. As we know, the singular and plural in French do not differ by ear, i.e. the addition of the letter s in no way affects the pronunciation / unpronunciation of the previous letter (for example, in the word chos e final e unreadable in both singular and plural: chos es ). But what to do in the event that we have before us not a plural, but a word that “by its nature” has at the end-es , such as progres, congres, pres, etc. After all, we, it turns out, should not read here e ! So, in order to eliminate ambiguity and distinguish between these two cases, it was decided here to put an accent grave over e before the final s (to confirm that e is read) - progrè s, congr è s and prè s ( in parallel, I note that the word express not included in this group, because has two at the end s and is a phonetic exception - in it ss are read).

Before a doubled consonant, as well as before the letter x, the grave over e is never placed. This can be remembered as a simple rule, and below it will be explained why.

Digression No 2: open and closed sound e

As already mentioned at the very beginning, there is one caveat in reading the letter e (when it is not read as [œ]). This letter can have, as phoneticians say, an open and a closed pronunciation. Physiologically, openness/closeness is expressed by the opening (opening) of the mouth. At the same time, there are sounds that are always only closed (say, [i]), and there are sounds that are always only open (for example, percussion [a]). But e behaves like a chameleon, adapting to the environment - its phonetic environment. In general, openness-closedness depends on how convenient it is for the organs of speech to pronounce this sound in each case. For example, in Russian in the word these we pronounce the first vowel rather closed (of course, because here comes the naturally closed [i]), but in the word this the first vowel is closer to an open one (after all, the letter o is next, which is pronounced as an open sound [a]). In Russian, vowels are more subject to adjacent influence than in French, but in general this phenomenon is present in both languages. Let's say if a French letter e stands in closed syllable, as well as in the ending -et (once t read, and for him it is necessary to expand the opening of the jaws), then it has open pronunciation [ ɛ ] . And now, if we remember that the letter x, as well as two or more consonants, the syllable will certainly close, then the icons are not needed there, because there must be an open e. AT other endings with unreadable consonants (except -et), including in infinitive endings in -er, verb forms in -ez, in monosyllabic words in -es (and in some cases in an open syllable) it is more convenient for the organs of speech to pronounce closed version .

How is closeness/openness related to icons? The thing is that in an open syllable, the sound [œ] can only be transformed into a closed sound [e], so the acute icon is also called the closed icon. And the grave, if we look at the examples, is placed at the end of words in cases where the syllable is essentially closed (and the vowel, respectively, is pronounced openly), but due to the fact that the mute e is at the end of the word, the syllable may be incorrect interpreted as open (in other words, the gravity is set to eliminate ambiguity). Therefore, it is called the sign of openness (meaning the openness of pronunciation, and not the openness of the syllable, here, by the way, the mnemonic rule is appropriate: a closed syllable is an open vowel, and vice versa!).

But what if suffixes are added to the word or endings are discarded, and the vowel e changing neighbors? In this case e passes like a pendulum from one"positions" in another. This happens in verbs like acheter, and signs are placed according to the above rules: in the infinitive acheter, the letter e , denoting an unstable sound [œ], drops out (no signs are needed), however, when conjugated in the present tense, the ending -er is discarded, and the sound, ending up in the last syllable (which opens the silent e) , becomes open [ ɛ ]. In order to indicate such a transition of sound, over e gravity is set: j "ach ète, tu ach etes , il ach ète .

Note: there are some exceptions here - where instead of the icon, they simply forcibly double the consonant after e, which gives us a closed syllable in which e will be read closed anyway (for example, appe l er, but je m'appe ll e) . The French Academy (the regulatory body of the Francophone community) has long tried to determine which verbs should be considered exceptions. Usually they called those infinitives where the “reborn” e is followed by t or l, but this did not always work. Therefore, the academicians decided that it is necessary to apply the doubling principle in two verbs - appeler (je m'appelle) and jeter (je jette) and their derivatives.

By analogy, the verb cé is also conjugated l e brer, only here there is an alternation of not [œ] and [ɛ], and [e] and [ɛ]: c é l é brer - je cé l è bre.

Sometimes double pronunciation and spelling of words is generally acceptable, say é v é nement and é v è nement ( the dictionary gives two versions of this word, separated by commas).

Lyrical digression No 3

Again about the openness and closeness of sounds e. It must be admitted that in modern French the difference between them can be erased - the French speak very quickly, vowels and consonants are reduced, and in general the language itself does not stand still. It was said above about doubling consonants in writing in order to close the syllable in this way - both in verbs and in other parts of speech, this formally guarantees us an open sound e , say t e rre, f e sse, inté r e ssant. However, today there are practically no cases left when these consonants were pronounced doubled. The question arises - after all, if ss, tt, ll, rr etc in speech are pronounced as one letter, then the syllable should open (and open e should we not pronounce? The answer is yes and no. Phonetically - the syllable opens (and this is reflected in the transcription), but the vowel continues to be pronounced as before, as if the syllable is closed. This happens due to the special phonetic memory of native speakers (from the same series h is aspirated: the letter is not pronounced, but the memory remains)! Therefore, writing double consonants for the French is not just a whim: in this way, once closed (and now actually open) syllables are marked, in which the vowel is read in the old fashioned way. This, by the way, also explains the need to preserve the letter ç in the language. ( c ce dille, which was borrowed from the Spaniards, and the creators themselves quickly abandoned it), because, say, the word leç on with such spelling it is read, and write his lesson- it will be already. You can, of course, write with one s, but then it will definitely sound between vowels and will be ( in Spanish there is no such phenomenon - voicing s in intervocalic position - s is always pronounced dull)

With other vowels, everything is much simpler - here accent grave is used only to distinguish between the words à (preposition in) and a (verb avoir in the form "he / she"), là (there) and la (article), où (where) and ou (or).

Accent circumflex

Circumflex , or, as it is also called, “house”, can be placed above all vowels, except y . Historically, this icon began to be written over a vowel, after which in classical Latin there was a combination s +<согласный>, but by now s dropped: fenê tre ( window, lat. fenestra), cha teau ( lat. castellum), être (Old French estre, from Vulgar Latin essere, from Latin esse) .

Finally from the letter s, which by that time was no longer pronounced in many words, the French got rid of it at the beginning of the 18th century. The illustrations show the entries for the same word fenêtre / fenestré in dictionaries published by the French Academy in 1694 and 1740 respectively.

It is believed that the vowels ô and ê standing under the “house” are lengthened and pronounced closed. Vowel û does not change its quality, and the circumflex is used rather to distinguish the words sû r( confident) and sur (over), dû ( participle of the verb devoir) and du (the fused form of the masculine article and the partial article). The use of the house on the letter â , in addition to dropping s , is due to the fact that back-lingual long was once widely represented in French. Today, this sound is almost closer to the usual a, however, “house” is written according to tradition: théâ tre.

Accent tre ma

Trema ( pronounced with the accent on the last syllable), or a colon, is used when it is necessary to show that the vowel is not included in the combination and is read on its own: é goïste, naïf etc. A special case of using tré ma: above letter ë it is placed after the combination gue at the end of words to indicate that u(!) is read (and she e still not!). There are few such examples: aiguë ( feminine from aigu - sharp, high). Sometimes trema can also occur above the letter ü itself. after g in the middle of a word with the same purpose - to indicate that u is not a defense against e , but acts as a full-fledged sound. However, French orthography does not completely regulate this case of use, so in some places you can see both linguistique and lingü istique. The trema also persists in a number of words with combinations that used to give a special sound, but are now gradually leaving the arena, say in the word Noë l the colon is placed because before, and even now in some places, the combination oe without colon pronounced similarly oi those. (although in this form, i.e. without trem, this combination occurs in only a few rudimentary words that should be remembered as phonetic exceptions). If you need to say oe separately - put three.

According to the rules of French orthography, writing letters without icons is considered a mistake, an exception is made only for large (capital) letters. However, in practice, the French themselves can often ignore les accents.

apostrophe

Apostrophe in French is put when it happens elision - loss of final–a and –e in function words and merging with subsequent words - c'est, l'é cole etc. Letter Dropout i only happens on collision si with the pronouns il and ils: s'il, s'ils. An apostrophe is also written in a number of words that are formed as a result of a merger, for example, aujourd'hui (a_le_jour_de_hui)

Consonants.

Spelling of participles with endings [i](forms m.s. units are given)

Other models of participle formation

Well, special cases of formation for a number of verbs:

1) clos (clore, close), é clos (é clore, blossom)

2) eu (avoir), é t é (ê tre), mort (mourir), n é (na î tre)

As in any other language, the words of the French language are built from the letters of the alphabet. It is these very letters, as well as the sounds of the French language, that we will discuss today.

Many letters of the French alphabet are read in their own way, in speech they have their own pronunciation. Let's quickly begin to consider the situation in the French alphabet!

Friends, if you are already fairly learning French, then, of course, you know its alphabet! But, as they say, repetition is the mother of learning, so pay attention once again to the French alphabet. And most importantly, what does the transcription of its letters look like.

The French language uses an alphabet of Latin origin, which consists of 26 letters representing 35 phonemes.

A few remarks should be made about some of the letters in the alphabet. Letters k and w are written only in words with a foreign origin. Letter h not pronounced, but it may indicate readings of adjacent letters. If letter h used at the beginning of a word, in French they distinguish h mute-h muet) and h aspirated- h aspire. With words that start with h aspirated, binding is prohibited. In addition, there is no truncation of the article before such words: lehero - hero. In dictionary h aspirated, as a rule, in dictionaries is indicated by an asterisk (*). French alphabet with words in pictures

A few words about reduction and sounds

Reduction in the language is the weakening of the sound of vowels in an unstressed position. In French speech, partial reduction (changing the timbre of vowels) is less common. It is more characteristic of a complete reduction (compulsory cases of dropping a fluent [ə]).

About vowels, it is worth mentioning the fact that in French an important role is played by the labialization of vowels (and hence the participation of the lips in speaking).

As for consonants, the polarization of consonants at the place of articulation attracts attention here. This suggests that French has relatively more labial consonants, which form at the very front of the vocal apparatus.

Spelling marks of French letters

In this section, we will talk about the well-known accent grave, accent aigu, accent circonflexe and other sticks and dots over French letters.

• The sign ` above the letter è is an orthographic sign that indicates the openness of the sound (accent grave):

la mere, le pere, le frere

The same sign over the letter à and over the combination of letters où, which has a semantic and distinctive meaning:

a - 3 l. verb (il a)
a - preposition

ou - or
où - where

• The sign ´ above the letter é is an orthographic sign that indicates the closed sound (accent aigu):

le café, j'ai parlé, capacité

• The symbol ˆ above the letter ê, ô, î, â is a spelling mark indicating the openness and elongation of the sound or the omitted consonant (accent circonflexe):

la tête, la fenêtre, les vêtements, l'âme, il plaît, le dôme

• The sign ̈ of two horizontal dots above a vowel indicates that this vowel is read, it is pronounced (tréma):

le maïs, Citroën, naïf

• The tail ¸ under the letter ç is an orthographic sign indicating that ç is read [s] contrary to the usual rule (cédille):

Francais, Besancon

• The apostrophe ‘ sign indicates the omission of a vowel before another vowel, or before a mute h:

l'eleve, l'heure

Dividing words into syllables

Now let's see how French words are divided into syllables.

First, consider the cases of a syllable boundary before a consonant:

• When a consonant is between two vowels:

fatigue
la chaleur
jamais [ʒa-‘mε]

• When there are two identical consonants in a row, which are pronounced as one sound: mm, tt, ss, rr, pp, etc.

appeler
casser
laisser
grammar

• If two consonants are in a row, of which the second is a sonant (r, l, m, n). Such a group is called an indivisible consonant group (for example: br, cr, fl, gr):

fabricator
ecrire
agreable

• When the consonant + semivowel are in a row (for example: j, ɥ):

le mariage
spirituel
le metier

Cases where the syllable boundary passes between consonants:

• If two different consonants go in a row in any combination (excluding one: consonant + sonant):

marcher
parler
l'artiste
la gymnastics
detector
servir

• If two lls are in a row:

il l'aime
il lit

Well, here we have dismantled the French letters. Now we know how they are pronounced and how to divide words into syllables. We wish you good luck and see you soon!