fr vowel, sounds and spellings

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FRENCH & ENGLISH VOWELSsounds vs. letters of the alphabet

How many vowel-sounds do we have in English?

How many vowel-letters do we have in the alphabet in order to represent all the

vowel-sounds available in English?

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I vowel-sounds common to both French & English

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ENGLISH: 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

SUMMERFrench spelling rule to represent this sound =

-e* / eu /uex: le feu l uf le buf me te se

(*) when placed at the end of a multisyllabic word, the letter -e is usually silent

ex: le meuble

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BOOK vs. BOOTFrench spelling rule to represent this sound =

ouex: le fou le pou doudou

exception => oo mostly in words borrowed from Englishex: cool, le look

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CAT vs. CARTFrench spelling rule to represent this sound =

a / / ex: Papa Tata Nana la pte la patte Canada

exception => e in la femme

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TO LIVE vs. TO LEAVEFrench spelling rule to represent this sound =

i / yex: Tim lami(e) Annie la vie

exception => ee mostly in words borrowed from Englishex: le tee-shirt

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COCK vs. COKEFrench spelling rule to represent this sound =

o / / eau / auex: le job - de leau le taureau le veau le dodo

Note => some dialects of French have retained the distinction between closed o and open o, usually in order to indicate gender difference

ex: Paul vs. Paule

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I vowel-sounds common to both French & English

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ENGLISH: 2 different phonemes

FRENCH: 2 different phonemes too!

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ENGLISH: 2 different phonemes FRENCH: 2 different phonemes too!

BAIT vs. BETFrench spelling rule to represent these 2 different sounds =

BAIT: / / -ed / -et / -er / -ezex: le pr le prt le nez le pied chez Dd

BET: / ai / ei / -elle / -enne / -ette / -esseex: la mre le pre le frre la craie elle la veine

lolienne les fesses la cassette

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II vowel-sounds specific only to French

1le u

and German2

nasal vowelsand Portuguese

3some diphthongs

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1) the (in)famous French usame as German

In theory, no equivalent in English. Good approximation:

Phew! Pappi LaPhew!

French spelling rule to represent this sound = u / ex: a pue! tu pues! il pue! mre le mur plus!

exceptions => -preterit forms & imperfect subjunctive forms of avoir (not longer in use)

-past participle of avoir, spelled = euex: jai eu

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nasal vowel 1same as Portuguese bem

if it were written phonetically in English: [e(n)], good approximation in English: aint, the saint

French spelling rule to represent this sound = in / imp/b(1) / ain / aimp/b(1) / ein / i/en(2)

ex: cinq limpt le pain le chien europen Calvin Klein

Note => adding the letter e to a nasal consonant (in final position) de-nasalizes the sound

ex: le vilain / la vilaine

(1) spelled with an m before the letters p or b(2) the vowel that comes before is also pronounced

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nasal vowel 2if it were written phonetically in English:

[euh(n)], where [euh] is pronounced more or less like the oo in good and (n) equals the nasal sound

French spelling rule to represent this sound = un / um

ex: un lundi parfum - brun

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nasal vowel 3same as Portuguese

if it were written phonetically in English:[ah(n)] => Henri \ ah(n)-rHee

approximation in English: arent, aunt

French spelling rule to represent this sound = an / amp/b / en / emp/b / aen / aon

ex: la tante la tente le temps le champ

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nasal vowel 4

same as Portuguese bomif it were written phonetically in English:

[o(n)], where [o] is pronounced like the O in cold and (n) equals the nasal sound

French spelling rule to represent this sound = on /omp/b

ex: onze le bonbon le comptable

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3) DIPHTHONGS & TRIPHTHONGS

What are diphthongs?Diphthongs occur when 2 vowel-sounds (i.e.: 2 distinct

syllable nucleii) merge into 1 vowel-sound (i.e.: 1 syllable). Thus, the first vowel-sound becomes a semi-consonant.

Some diphthongs in English: yes, yeah, water, watt

In written English, the letters y and w (followed by another vowel) are usually used to represent diphthongs occurring in initial position

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DIPHTHONGS & TRIPHTHONGS

In French, there are 3 vowel-sounds that can produce a diphthong when combined with another vowel-sound:

1) the vowel-sound i (initial & final positions)2) the vowel-sound ou (initial position only)3) the vowel-sound u (initial position only)

there are, however, specific spelling rules to represent these diphthongs in writing

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Written representations in French of a diphthong that uses the vowel-sound i as a semi-consonant

In FINAL position, spell it this way = vowel other than i + il(l)

ex: la feuille, la rouille, le conseil, la fille, lal; exception: la ville (same pronunciation as in English)

In INITIAL position, spell it the following way = i + vowel

ex: la viande, la commission, le pied

In INITIAL position, some words (usually imported from other languages) are also spelled with the letter

y ex: le yakuza, le yatch

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Written representations of a diphthong that uses the vowel-sound ou as a semi-consonantA few words are spelled this way = ou + vowelex: ou + i => oui

ou + => ouaisou + in => ouinou + a => oua

Most words that include this last diphthong (ou + a), however are spelled the following way =

oiex: la joie, le foie, la foi, loie, toi, moi

exception: le quauadrilatre, le kilo-wawatt, le wawater-polo, le/la drag-queeueen (usually in scientific words or words imported from other languages)

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Written representations of a diphthong that uses the vowel-sound u as a semi-consonant

French spelling rule to represent this diphthong =

uiex: lhuile, la tuile, suivre, huit, cui-cui

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Function of the letter yWhen placed after the letter a, the letter y can represent

in writing the following sounds: ai + i(as a vowel) + consonantex: le paysan, le paysage ai + i(as a semiconsonant) [+ vowel]ex: payer, le crayon

When placed after the letter o, the letter y will represent in writing the following sound:

oi + i(as a semiconsoant) [+ vowel]ex: le voyou, le voyage

FRENCH & ENGLISH VOWELS sounds vs. letters of the alphabetI vowel-sounds common to both French & EnglishENGLISH: 2 different phonemes FRENCH: 2 allophones of the same phonemeSlide 4Slide 5Slide 6Slide 7I vowel-sounds common to both French & EnglishENGLISH: 2 different phonemes FRENCH: 2 different phonemes too!II vowel-sounds specific only to French1) the (in)famous French unasal vowel 1nasal vowel 2nasal vowel 3nasal vowel 43) DIPHTHONGS & TRIPHTHONGSDIPHTHONGS & TRIPHTHONGSWritten representations in French of a diphthong that uses the vowel-sound i as a semi-consonantWritten representations of a diphthong that uses the vowel-sound ou as a semi-consonantWritten representations of a diphthong that uses the vowel-sound u as a semi-consonantFunction of the letter y

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