30.4: Some Recommendations

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Some Recommendations

1. Pronounce all vowels except so-called "mute e" fully, sharply, clearly: never reduce them to the schwa sound (like the e in English "the"); never diphthongize them by adding a w or y glide.

2. Never pronounce the n or m when the preceding vowel has been nasalized by that nasal consonant. (There are exceptions, some of which you'll learn in this course, but it's best to follow this rule until you hit the exceptions.)

3. Don't worry too much about the distinction between close e /e/ and open e /\(\varepsilon\)/, close o loi and open o , and close eu /\(\phi\)/ and open eu /œ/: in general, the second one in each pair occur when followed by a consonant sound in the same syllable, while the first one will be "free"—at the end of a word. Again, there are exceptions, but you will develop the right pronunciation without worrying about the rules and exceptions if you practice sufficiently.

(We are referring here to the difference between fée /e/ and fête /\(\varepsilon\)/; dos /o/ and donne ; and peu /\(\phi\)/ and peur /œ/. As we say, there are some cases where the difference is important, but you need not focus on those cases now.)

4. Never pronounce the t of the conjunction et! Never, not even when it looks like there should be liaison.

5. Never pronounce the letter a (all alone) as an /e/! (Corollary: in a dictation, never write a when you hear /e/, as in, for example, "Il est bon", where the second word is /e/.