Read French for Beginners Online
Authors: Getaway Guides
French for Beginners
Copyright 2014 by Getaway Guides - All rights reserved.
In no way is it legal to reproduce, duplicate, or transmit any part of this document in either electronic means or in printed format. Recording of this publication is strictly prohibited and any storage of this document is not allowed unless with written permission from the publisher. All rights reserved.
Chapter 1: The French Language
Chapter 2: The Role of Syllables in the French Language
Chapter 4: Tools for Building Phrases
Chapter 5: French Pronouns: Formal and Informal Usage
Chapter 6 : How Adverbs are Positioned in French Sentences
Chapter 7: Basic Vocabulary Words and Phrases
Chapter 8: Socializing in French
Chapter 9. More Tips For Beginners
Preview of Best of England
Introduction
I want to thank you and congratulate you for downloading the book
,
“French for Beginners: The Best Handbook for Learning to Speak French!”
This book contains proven steps and strategies on how to start learning the French language. I hope that through this book, you will gain the confidence to start learning a new language, no matter how old you are. Do not worry if you have not yet learned any foreign language before. In this book, you will find the basic principles of the language which can make it easier for you to build phrases and sentences in French. You will learn not just basic phrases, but also French alphabet, sentence construction, as well as pronunciation.
Thanks again for downloading this book. I hope you enjoy it!
Chapter 1: The French Language
People from all over the world love the French language and would love to learn it. In fact, there is a high likelihood that you are already familiar with some French phrases and words. Because of the French invasion in England during the eleventh century, the French language has given significant contributions to the English vocabulary. This means that even if you are not actively learning French but is adept in English, you are already using a lot of French words without you knowing.
Because of hundreds of years of interaction with the British and because of common ancient forefathers, French has offered English-speakers a fairly easy path to conversing using a different language. French and English share several similarities in sentence construction. You may even realize that a lot of French and English words have similar sounds. The limited French sounds may still be familiar to you because of movies and TV shows.
Some of these unique French sounds include the silent “h” and the gruff “r” sound; but this does not completely mean that everything you watch and hear on TV is totally accurate. Still, being able to adopt the French accent you have acquired from watching movies can help you a lot while learning the language.
Even if French is remotely related to the English language, it is more generally compared to other Romance languages such us Spanish and Italian. All these three languages were created from the Latin language used by the Romans during their invasions in 1 B.C.; but despite their common origin, the evolution of the French language is different from the evolution of Italian and Spanish (which still share a lot of similarities even up to today).
Currently, there are around thirty countries who name French as one of their official languages. In Canada, French is commonly used in the Quebec region only. While in Belgium, French is prevalently used in the Southern area only. The spread of the French language can be partly explained by the colonization of several nations in the Pacific, Africa and the Caribbean by France. On top of that, the French language was actually used as the official language for international diplomacy until the initial years of the twentieth century when the English language took over.
Until now, French is still used as the official language in several global organizations such as the United Nations, the Red Cross and the International Olympic Committee. It is also used by the International Postal System which is why you can see “par avion” in most letters sent abroad.
There are also hundreds of English words that have exactly the same spelling in French. It has to be noted, though, that the pronunciation of these words vary and depends on whether the speaker is French or English. Also, the meaning of the words may be the same depending on the context in which it is used. In most instances, the gender of the noun for which these words are used is the same in both the English and French usage.
Some examples of these words include:
Abattoir
- this word is spelled in exactly the same way both in French and English. It also has the same meaning even when it is used in various contexts. This is also one of the many words that originated in France and still retained its original French pronunciation.
Absinthe
- this word has the same meaning when used in most contexts. However, the spelling could vary a little bit with the addition of either the letter 'L' or 'D' at the beginning of the word when used in certain contexts in French.
Bourgeois
– this is one of the many words that migrated to the English world when the Normans conquered England in the mid-11
th
century. It is still pronounced in exactly the same way both in English and French and it has also retained its original meaning.
These similar words are one of the reasons that it is often very easy for native English-speakers to learn French in a matter of months. After all, these have given their tongues enough practice on how to roll about inside the mouth when pronouncing French words.
The similarity between these 2 words and a hundred or so other words can be attributed to the fact that the French and English alphabets both have the same basic letters. However, there are some variations on how each letter is pronounced, which is especially true with the consonants (this will be discussed further in succeeding chapters). Some letters are pronounced in a uniquely French fashion, while others such as the letter ‘z' are pronounced in the same way that other major English-speaking countries pronounce them.
The French Alphabet
The French alphabet is listed as follows along with its corresponding pronunciation:
Aa –
[ɑ
]
Bb – [be]
Cc – [se]
Dd – [de]
Ee –
[ə
]
Ff – [εf]
Gg –
[ʒ
e]
Hh – [[
aʃ
]
Ii – [i]
Jj –
[ʒ
i]
Kk – [ka]
Ll – [εl]
Mm – [εm]
Nn – [εn]
Oo – [o]
Pp – [pe]
Qq – [ky]
Rr – [εr]
Ss – [εs]
Tt – [te]
Uu – [y]
Vv – [ve]
Ww – [dub
lə
ve]
Xx – [iks]
Yy – [i
g
ʀ
ɛ
k]
Zz – [zεd]
Note that the letter ‘z’ is pronounced as ‘zed’ in the same way that it is pronounced in Australia, New Zealand, Singapore, and other countries that use English as its primary language.
Chapter 2: The Role of Syllables in the French Language
In any language, syllables are always a necessary part of proper pronunciation. This is because syllables indicate the proper grouping, as well as the natural divisions, of the letters in every word. Syllables specifically affect the following aspects of pronunciation:
•
Rythm
•
Poetic meter
•
Stress pattern
Rhythm and Word Stress
Generally, all of the syllables in French words are stressed equally. It is common to hear English speakers put a stress on the 1
st
syllable which is certainly uncommon in French words. You can offset this minor error by trying to add a light stress at the last syllable of the word.
The rhythm of French sentences is established by cutting the sentence into relevant sections, and then putting a stress on the last syllable of every section. The stress on the last syllables is typified by a minor increase in intonation. Because of these stresses on the last syllables, the “beat” of French sentences is fairly regular.[transferred from Chapter 2 of the original book]
When dividing French words into syllables, the vowels that fall in each syllable should not be reduced into grunting ‘uh' and ‘i' sounds. This reduction may be common when speaking in English, but would be detrimental to the proper pronunciation of French syllables.
It should also be noted that French pronunciation has so-called open syllables. These are the syllables that end in vowel letters, specifically the letter ‘e' and the letter ‘a'. The pronunciation of open syllables often depends on the group of letters that come before andafter that syllable, as well as its placement within the group of letters that form the word. Often, the ‘e’ in an open syllable is pronounced as
/ə
/ though most native French speakers drop it completely on words that are used in daily life.
Examples:
- Ressembler
– there are three syllables: re-ssem-bler. Note that the first syllable ends in the letter ‘e’ while the second syllable has a consonant after the ‘e’. This means that the ‘e’ in re-is pronounced as
/ə
/ while the second ‘e’ is pronounced as a nasal vowel. So the pronunciation of the whole word would be
/
ʀ
ə
-
s
ɑ
̃
-ble/. - Maternel
/ma
t
ɛ
ʀnɛ
l/– on this example, the open syllable ends with the letter ‘a’ instead of ‘e’, but it is followed with two closed syllables that both have the letter ‘e’ as its only vowel. This means that the letter ‘e’ on both syllables would be pronounced as /ε/ like in the English words ‘help’ and ‘get’.
As opposed to open syllables where the pronunciation puts a stress on the ending vowel of a syllable, there are also several French words that end in consonants but are treated as open syllables because the last consonant letter is omitted. Most of these words are plural masculine forms and have the letters ‘e' and ‘s' at the end.
Examples are:
- les
(pronounced as /le/) - the plural form of the word
le
(pronounced as /
lə
/) - ces
(pronounced as /se/) – the plural form of the word
ce
(pronounced as /
sə
/)
People who are trying to learn how to speak French wouldn’t have too much difficulty in learning the accent if they keep in mind that the word stress on all French words is always on the last syllable and if they understand how open syllables are treated in everyday usage.
The different sounds you can hear in spoken French can nearly be heard in the English language, too, except for a few exceptions such as the deep-in-the-throat “r”, nasal vowels and the quaint “u” sound; but do not let these French sounds intimidate you. While learning the language, it can be quite effective to simply mimic the French accent you have heard from movies and TV shows.
Vowel Sounds
In general, the sounds of French vowels are short and do not glide into other vowels. For instance, the word “café” is both included in the English and French vocabulary but their pronunciations slightly differ. The “ay” in the French “café” sounds sharper and shorter.
French vowels are also divided into soft vowels (the letters e and i) that are pronounced with a soft intonation, and hard vowels (the letters a,o, and u) that are pronounced with hard intonations. One thing to take note of about the vowel letters of the French language is that these are often pronounced in their purest forms. This is in contrast to the way that vowels are often pronounced by English-speakers with a ‘y' or a ‘w' sound at the end. For instance, in English, the letter o is often pronounced as ‘oh' or ‘ow', but in French it would just be pronounced as a short, sharp ‘o'.
There are also two different ways of writing, and therefore pronouncing, the letter ‘u'. When it is written as a single vowel right after a consonant, it should be pronounced with a short and sharp u sound similar to the English words ‘do', ‘who', and ‘shoes'. Some examples of French words with a short sharp u sound are:
•
fut
•
jus
•
tu
•
vue
A native English-speaker might pronounce these words with a ‘y' sound before the ‘u' so that the word
vue
would be pronounced as ‘view’. In order to avoid this mistake, the speaker would have to make sure that the tongue is in the right position. Specifically, it should be bending slightly upward at the front portion of the mouth. The tip of the tongue should be reaching upward towards the alveolar ridge though it should not make contact with the ridge completely. The lips should be puckered in an o-looking position.
On the other hand, the letter u is also often written with a letter ‘o' before it. Some examples of words with a combined o and u are:
•
fou
•
tout
•
vous
•
bourreau
The combined o and u vowels is pronounced in much the same way English-speakers would pronounce the word ‘soup’ albeit with a slight sound of the tongue sticking to the roof of the mouth. When pronouncing ‘ou', the tongue is positioned in much the same way as pronouncing the single ‘u' though this time it would be pulled backward instead of forward.
The slight differences in pronouncing French vowels, especially the ‘u' and ‘ou' sounds requires a lot of practice especially for English-speakers who are more used to pronouncing ‘u' as ‘yu'.
Nasal Vowel Sounds
A nasal vowel is pronounced as if you are attempting to push the sound out of your nose instead of your mouth. Don’t be intimidated because it is really simpler than you think. There are also some nasal vowels in the English language such as “sing” where “i" acquires a nasal sound because of the “ng”. In French language, on the contrary, it is the nasal vowels that cause the succeeding nasal consonant sound to be dropped, but a “trace” of the dropped consonant can at times still be heard.
Most of the time, French nasal vowels are written right before the letters ‘m’ and ‘n’. There may just be a single vowel causing the nasal quality of the word, such as the following:
•
blanc
- pronounced as /blông/ with a slight hint of a pronounced k at the end.
•
brun
- pronounced as /brung/
•
parfum
- the nasal sound is on the last syllable while the vowel on the first syllable is pronounced with a short and sharp intonation. This would then be pronounced as /pâhr-fang/, also with a slight trace of the m being pronounced at the end of the nasal sound.
Or there could also be two vowels that cause the nasal sound of the word. This often happens when the letter ‘a’ and ‘i’ or ‘i and e’ placed together right before the letter ‘m’ or ‘n’ in a sentence. Examples include:
•
faim
- pronounced as /fang/
•
certain
- pronounced as /cer-täng/
•
chien
- pronounced as /chi-yông/
Aside from all these, the French alphabet also has what is known as the open ‘eu’. Pronouncing these vowels would require the speaker to round his lips while keeping the mouth open. Words with open ‘eu’ vowels are pronounced in much the same way that the English words set, pet, and get are pronounced. Examples of words with open ‘eu’ vowels are:
•
fête
/fεt/
•
tête
/tεt/
•
père
/pεr/
•
mère
/mεr/
As is the case in French pronunciation of most words, the last vowel is clompletely omitted when pronouncing the words listed above.
There are also a lot of French words that contain the combined letters ‘e’, ‘a’, and ‘u’, such as the words
beau
,
chapeau
, and
chateau
. The combined ‘eau’ on these words is pronounced with a short ‘o' sound, i.e. /bô/, /sha-pô/, and /sha-tô/. This is the same way that words with the combined letters ‘a’ and ‘u’ are pronounced, such as in words like
chaud
(hot) /shô/,
cauchemar
(nightmare) /k
ôʒ
h-mä/. Note that the final consonants are omitted from the pronunciation.
The Unstable ‘E’ Sound
The letter ‘e’ is often considered as an unstable vowel in the French language because it is either pronounced or completely dropped when pronouncing certain words. Dropping the letter ‘e’ is often refererred to as
èlision
and the dropped ‘e’ can either be called an
e muet
or
e caduc
.
Èlision
often happens when two vowels are placed next to each other in two different words.
The vowel letter ‘e’ is often located at the end of the first word, and it is dropped if the second word starts with a vowel too. This means that the final pronunciation of the syllable with the
e muet
is completely without the
e
and with a stress on the vowel that has taken its place on the syllable. This often happens when any of the 9 basic French single-syllable pronouns are used before any word that starts with a vowel. These 9 syllables are:
Ce
/sε/
De
/dε/
Je
/ʒ
ε/
Le
/lε/
Me
/mε/
Ne
/nε/
Que
/kε/
Se
/sε/
Te
/tε/
Some examples include:
- Je ne
(I do) – elided to
j’ne
/
ʒ
ə
n/ - Le arbre
(the tree) – elided to
l’arbre
/l
aʀbʀ
/
Other instances when the letter ‘e’ is dropped from pronunciation is when it is located beside other silent letters (letters that are completely dropped from intonation), especially if it is the last letter of the word.
Examples of these words include:
- Homme
/awm/ - Femme
/fεm/
In some words, the letter ‘e’ is not completely dropped. The pronunciation is simply changed into a different vowel sound. This happens mostly on words wherein the letter ‘e’ is squeezed between two single consonants. Some examples include the following words:
- Devoirs
/duh-vwar/ - Logement
/
lɔ.
ʒ
ə
.
mɑ
̃/ - Galetas
/galta/ - Parfaitement
/p
aʀfɛ
t
mᾶ
/
On the other hand, emphasis is given to the pronunciation of the letter ‘e’ if it preceeds a double consonant, such as on the following words:
- Verrai
/
vɛ.
ʁ
ɛ
/ - Dessert
/dεsεr/
Being able to determine when to pronounce the letter ‘e’ and when not to is a basic necessity when on the process of learning the French accent. This is because a lot of French words contain this letter in the written spelling though only about half of these words actually pronounce the ‘e’ during intonation.
Consonant Sounds
The consonant sounds in French are almost the same as the consonant sounds in English except for the “r” sound which is created at the back of the throat and somehow sounds like a roar or a growl. Of course, you can speak French using the English “r” but you will sound more like a natural French speaker if you can learn the French “r” sound. Believe me, it will be well worth your effort.
It is also important to remember that French consonants are pronounced with the tongues remaining tensed the whole time. And in order to properly pronounce the consonants, it is necessary to maintain an open mouth while enunciating. This is unlike the enunciation of most English words wherein the mouth is almost closed and the last letter, especially the consonant, is ‘swallowed’.
The Semi-consonant W or Double V
A lot of phonetics experts in the English language often refer to the letter ‘W’ as a vowel, specifically as a derivative of the letter ‘u'. This is because it is often pronounced in a semi-vowel sort of way wherein the mouth is positioned in almost the same way as pronouncing the vowels. For instance, when trying to pronounce the word ‘word', you might notice the lips puckering up at the beginning of the sentence.
On the other hand, the letter W is referred to as a semi-consonant in French because the letter itself is pronounced as a double v or du-blah-vay (since the letter V is pronounced as 'vay'). Most of the French words that have the semi-consonant double v are borrowed English. One example is the word
wagon
that denotes ‘a train car’ or ‘a truckload of something’ and is pronounced as /va-gôn/.
The Semi-consonant Letter Y or i-grec
The French term for the letter Y, which is igrec, could be confusing for many non-French speaking individuals. But note that igrec does not denote how the letter is pronounced. It used as a description or an indication of the letter's origin. Simply put, igrec should actually be written as "i grec" which means that it is the Greek symbol for the letter 'I'. This is also the same way that the letter Y is referred to in other European languages such as Russian and Italian.
There aren't that many native French words that use the letter y or the igrec because it is often used only in borrowed English words. This letter functions as either a consonant or a vowel depending on its placement:
- If it is placed at the beginning of either a word or a syllable, then Y functions as a consonant. It would then be pronounced in the same manner that the letter Y is pronounced in English. Examples are the words
yaourt
/yéurt/ (French word for yogurt) and
yeux
/yuh/ (eye). - It is used as a vowel when placed in between 2 consonant letters and is pronounced like the y /e/ in the English word happy. One good example of this is the word
cyclisme
/sek-lez-mé/ (cycling).