exercises to learn
A good start in French
On this page, you will find information to get a good start in French (pronunciation, rhythm ...)
The alphabet
But what is that for ? To spell your name, to spell the name of a street, to spell the name of a website ... In short, it's very useful.
Here are 2 videos.
The first one is a classic video to associate a letter of the alphabet with a picture
The second one is a video to understand how to properly pronounce the sounds of the alphabet, the basis of French pronunciation.
The sounds
Now that you know the alphabet, let's study the sounds!
A sound is represented by [ ].
Sometimes a sound has several spellings.
Ex: the sound [a] can have 3 spellings: a / â / à.
Other times, a spelling can have more than one sound.
Ex: o can have the sound [o] and [ɔ].
Some sounds are specific to French. Those are for example the nasal vowels [ɑ̃, ɔ̃, ɛ̃ , œ̃ , w] They may be difficult to pronounce at first, but don't be discouraged! Little by little, it gets easier.
Here are some basic rules to help you:
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The consonant at the end of a word is usually silent
Ex: white [blɑ̃], long [lɔ̃]
Exceptions: the letters C, R, F, L that follow a vowel:
Ex: park [park], neuf [node], lake [lak], sea [mɛr]
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The letter E at the end of a word is always silent.
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The H is always silent.
To study the different sounds, it's not here !
Combine sounds
In French, words are made up of syllables. The principle is that one syllable = one sound. Sometimes a word has only one syllable (eg : bar), sometimes a word has several syllables (eg: ami- 2 syllables a - mi).
How to recognize a syllable:
- A syllable can have only one letter. In this case, the syllable is a simple vowel (a, e, i, o, u, y) or nasal (an, en, un, on, oi ...)
- A syllable can have two or more letters. In this case, the syllable is made up of a consonant and one or more vowels.
For an explanation in picture, it's here !
For a little exercise on syllables, it's here !
