Learning French Lesson – 2

Welcome to the second chapter of free french courses online! Today we’ll talk about the linguistic characteristic of French.

A.                 THE LINGUISTIC CHARACTERISTICS OF FRENCH

Before starting the lesson, you can click here to access the course schedule and download it as PDF from here.

Learning French could be a hard journey, but you should pay attention and be patient. Before the beginning, you should learn the alphabet.

1.                 The French Alphabet (Alphabet français)

N	/ehn/	n
O	/oh/	o
P	/peh/	p
Q	/keoo/	q
R	/ehr/	r
S	/ess/	s
T	/teh/	t
U	/eew/	u
V	/veh/	v
W	/doobluh veh/	w
X	/eeks/	x
Y	/ee grehk/	y
Z	/zehd/	z

There are 26 letters (typefaces) in the French alphabet. According to its reading, it is as given in the table below:

Capital and lowercase letters (Majuscules et Minuscules)

A	/ah/	a
B	/beh/	b
C	/seh/	c
D	/deh/	d
E	/uh/	e
F	/eff/	f
G	/zheh/	g
H	/ah-sh/	h
I	/ee/	i
J	/zhee/	j
K	/kah/	k
L	/ell/	l
M	/ehm/	m

Although not shown as a separate letter, the writing unit “ç” exists in French (like garçon) and is called “c cédille”.

Consonants	Vowels
b, c, d, f, g, h, j, k, l, m, n, p, q, r, s, t, v, w, x, z	a, e, i, o, u, y(semi-vowel)

2.                 Liaison in Speech (Liaison)

You wonder how to learn French like how French people talk! But remember that, in French, the words in the sentence are sometimes spoken by being linked to each other in pronunciation. For example, the normally unreadable -s sound at the end of “vous” (you), if a word that begins with the vowel (a, e, i, o, u, y) comes after vous (you), it is added to the next word, vous avez (z‿ /). In liaison;

• -s and -x at the end are spoken as “-z”;
• the sound “-d” at the end is spoken as “-t”;
• the letter -f in the word “neuf” is pronounced as -v;
• Liaison to the next word is made without changing the sound at the end.

This situation, called liaison, is sometimes compulsory, sometimes forbidden, and sometimes optional.

a)                 Situations Where Liaison Is Mandatory

Required between the determinant and the name. This can be an adjective, an adjective or an adverb that complements:

Article	Noun	Meaning
Les	enfants	children
Mon	ami	my friend
Un petit	enfant	a small child
Un	oiseau	a bird
Six	étudiants	six students
Neuf	ans	nine years
Grand	événement	big event
Cet	homme	that man

Best way to learn French is trying to speak. You could try to prononce!

If you’d like to see our program, click here.

Additionally, you can download the PDF version of this class. Don’t hesitate to contact us! We will always be happy to help you!