30.1: Stress and Intonation
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To develop good pronunciation in French, a student must: (1) pay close attention to stress and intonation; (2) listen actively to native speakers; (3) practice frequently (but not in long sessions) on individual sounds, preferably in context.
It is sometimes useful, for some students, to learn how sounds are produced and/or to learn the phonetic alphabet. We do not think that is the most effective way to use the time and space we have, so we have not included a discussion of articulatory phonetics and we use the phonetic alphabet only in a few instances.
Our recommendation for the use of this section on pronunciation is (1) for students to read the explanations and use the appropriate parts of the tape program often during the semester and (2) for instructors to select specific drills to use in class whenever they feel it would be most effective. We leave it to individual teachers to determine when (or if) to give explanations in class: we do not schedule any in the text.
Stress and Intonation
"Stress" in French refers to extra emphasis a speaker gives to one syllable as opposed to others. "Greater emphasis," for our purposes, just means that the speaker produces that sound somewhat more loudly than the other sounds in the same utterance.
"Intonation" refers to the variation of pitch over an entire phrase or sentence. It is very important in signalling the overall intent of an utterance: as a statement, a question, or a command.
Stress
Unlike English, French has a very simple stress pattern: it always comes at the end of a unit, that is, at the end of a word said in isolation, or at the end of a phrase or a sentence. Some long sentences may be broken up into fairly obvious units, but students at this level need not worry about how to do that.
In the following words, phrases and sentences, the stressed syllable is in bold print.
| 1 avoir | crayon | stylo |
| 2 poser | répéter | fenêtre1 |
| 3 content | fatigué | malade |
| 4 Elle est contente. | Êtes-vous malade? |
| 5 les enfants | mes étudiants |
| 6 votre voisin | sept éléphants |
| 7 J'ai trois enfants. |
| 8 Voilà la porte de la salle de classe. |
| 9 Voilà le livre du professeur. |
| 10 Posez la même question à votre voisine. |
| 11 Non, ce n'est pas un chat, c'est un chien. |
1 A final -e (without an accent mark), as in fenêtre, may be pronounced in some situations, but it never receives the stress.
Intonation
The intonation patterns in French are similar but not identical to those in English. Statements and "WH-" questions (those that ask for some specific piece of information) have a falling pattern at the end of the sentence. "Yes/No" questions have a distinct rising pattern at the end of the sentence. Long sentences may have a "continuation" (rising) intonation pattern at the end of certain phrases, but we wil l not include discussion of such sentences in this text.
Note that stress and intonation work together, each in its own way: you can stress the last word in a sentence, as you should (that is, say the last syllable more loudly), and at the same time, lower the tone of your voice if the sentence is a statement. You'll see how intonation and stress combine as you listen to and repeat these examples: we mark stress, as usual, with underlining, and add a line next to the sentence to indicate, loosely, the intonation pattern.
(A disclaimer: Phoneticians, linguists in general, and experienced language teachers can give you general rules for pronunciation and intonation, some of which can be very helpful. However, you will hear variants that seem at times to contradict what we say. That should not surprise you if you simply think about any "rules" you know for English and then listen to other speakers of English to see if they follow those rules. Many of you know the expression, "C'est là vie." Perhaps it should be "C'est là langue."
A. Statements
1 Je suis malade.
2 Il est petit.
3 Le professeur est devant le bureau.
4 C'est un stylo.
5 Ce n'est pas un crayon.
6 Nous allons faire nos devoirs demain.
B. Yes/No Questions
7 Tu es malade?
8 Vous comprenez la question?
9 Est-elle dans la salle de classe?
10 Est-ce que votre professeur est sympa?
11 C'est un crayon, n'est-ce pas?2
12 Vous allez partir ce soir?
2 Note that n'est-ce pas, which is called a "tag" by modern linguists, has its own short "yes/no" intonation pattern, added on to a statement pattern: the speaker states something, then asks if it's so.
C. WH-Questions
13 Qui est ce monsieur?
14 Pourquoi étudiez-vous le français?
15 Qu'est-ce que c'est?
16 Quand est-ce que les étudiants vont arriver?
17 Où sont mes lunettes?
18 A quelle heure vous levez-vous?