A difficulty that often arises for students of French is that many French words end in a written consonant that is not actually pronounced. For example, the French words handsome Y hot rhyme, although the second one ends in a written consonant while the first does not. But at the same time, unfortunately the situation is not as simple as saying that final consonants are never pronounced. In this article, I give some tips for deciding when to pronounce a final consonant in a French word.
Very general rule of thumb
Before going into a bit more detail, it is worth mentioning a general rule. Broadly speaking, French makes a distinction between what I will call consonants on the tip of the tongue and other consonants. The approximate pattern is that:
- Except for me, final consonants on the tip of the tongue are usually not pronouncedexcept in binding (see below);
- Final me and other consonants are more likely to be pronounced.
By tip of the tongue consonants, I mean the consonants that are normally pronounced with the front part of the tongue: , your, s, z, No. (Technically, linguists refer to this type of consonant as coronal and the part of the tongue that makes contact is not always what is strictly called the “tip.” But we can use the “tip of the tongue consonant” as an informal and non-technical description). Try pronouncing one of these consonants and you will feel the front of your tongue making contact with the front of your mouth.
So, as a general rule, these tip-of-the-tongue consonants are usually not pronounced at the end of a word: for example, in hotchayourbasNozOkayNo, the final consonant is not pronounced. In the case of a final Nothis actually signals nasalization of the front vowel, a problem we’ll mention in passing but won’t go into detail in this article.
the consonant me is a minor exception: although it is a tip-of-the-tongue consonant, it is usually pronounced at the end of a word, with occasional exceptions ending in -The (e.g gentle, tool).
Bail
Consonants on the tip of the tongue, which we have said are generally not pronounced, are sometimes pronounced in a process called bail. This is a complex topic, but the basic idea is that the consonant is pronounced before another word beginning with a vowel if the following word is “closely linked” with it grammatically. A typical case of two closely related words would be an adjective and a corresponding noun. So while the No of Good is not pronounced when the word is said in isolation (although it does mark that the oh the vowel is nasalized), it is pronounced in rightNo little boy Prayed rightNo dude. Similarly, the final of great normally not pronounced, but can be pronounced in great Author. (Much more rarely, p Y r can also participate in the link, but it is mainly a characteristic of the consonants on the tip of the tongue.)
One slight complication is that the pronunciation of a consonant link may actually differ from what would be expected from the written letter. When s pronounced as a link (as is commonly the case between a plural adjective and a noun), it actually represents a “z” sound, just like a written X. So Goods friends is closer to pronounced “bo’z friend“, with the s at the end of Okay like a “z” (i.e. link to the next vowel), but the one pronounced s of friends unpronounced (there is no following vowel, so there is no reason for the link). In conection, it is actually pronounced like a “t”. So great authorIf he is, it would be pronounced “great author”.
Some more details and exceptions
What we have described so far is a rough rule of thumb and it will come as no surprise that there are many exceptions and details to be aware of. It’s impossible to go into all of these here, but below are some more detailed rules and patterns that are worth gradually becoming familiar with certain letters. First of all, some more details about the consonants on the tip of the tongue:
: pronounced at the end of known and one or two names. The letter occurs silently at the end of many verb forms (eg. he drinks) However the is pronounced at the end of a verb form when followed by a pronoun beginning with a vowel (i.e. in inverted forms such as he drinks, we sell etc). At the end of an adjective like great, -d can be pronounced before a noun beginning with a vowel as shown above, although this is actually rare in everyday speech.
No (sometimes written meter): these special consonants usually mark the nasalization of the previous vowel, and are not pronounced as such; but at the end of “learned” words or loans, they are likely to be pronounced, for example maximummeter, sampleNo;
s: some common words where the end -s pronounced is included son (“sound”) and March (“March”/”March”). Note that the final -s is in pronounced corn (“corn”) but not in but (“objective”).
your: This letter appears at the end of many adjectives and verb forms, and is usually not pronounced in such cases. But as same as must be pronounced at the end of a verb when followed by a pronoun beginning with a vowel (i.e. in inverted forms like The, they say etc).
Finally, here are some details about various other written consonants when they appear at the end of a French word:
against: practically never pronounced afterwards No at the end of a word (exception: Donagainst), but pronounced at the end of some common short words, notably with, bag, dry, crash, lake, park;
F: although it is usually pronounced, it is not pronounced at the end of wrench (commonly written wrench today), deer, nerveand plural eggs Y oxen (while singular egg Y beefthe end -F is pronounced as expected);
p: for the purposes of everyday speech, it can usually be assumed that -p it is never pronounced at the end of a word. One notable exception that intermediate students may encounter is disability. Very occasionally, essentially in a very formal speech, it may be given in liaison at the end of too Y much.
r: usually pronounced when the preceding vowel is not me (because, flower, tower etc); is not pronounced in many cases when it follows a meparticularly at the end of a -er verb or at the end of -er Prayed -ier suffix on a large number of “longer” adjectives and nouns (including job titles such as fireman etc); there are some common short words that end in -er where it is pronounced, including bitter, dear, iron (“iron”), proud (“proud”), winter, sea.
X: this letter is pronounced, like “ks”, at the end of a bunch of “learned” words like index. Otherwise, it usually occurs as a silent letter, effectively a variant of s-on the ending of various adjectives and common nouns. At the end of a plural adjective followed by a noun or adjective beginning with a vowel, along with a few other cases, it is pronounced in the linking process described above. As mentioned above, it is then pronounced as a “z” sound. So ancientX friends would be pronounced closer to “old friend”.
conclusion
As we have seen, whether or not a final consonant is pronounced in a French word can be tricky, but it is not completely arbitrary. By learning a few rules of thumb, we can gain a good degree of certainty in many common cases.
