Now let's learn how to pronounce the consonants.
But first of all, let's have a little celebration time, because many of the sound
that we are going to see today are really similar to those found in English.
And to make things even easier, we are going to separate these letters in two groups.
The one that sounds like English and the one that don't sound like English.
And of course, we will start with the one that sounds like English to build our
confidence. For each one, let's see the letter, how it sounds and a word as example
to see how it looks like.
Combine with all the letters.
Let's start.
So the letter B sounds like be be.
For example, in the word bras bras.
Repeat after me bras.
The letter D sounds more like De De De like in the world.
Dedans, dedans.
Repeat after me.
Dedans. The letter F sounds more like Fe.
Like in the world.
Fou. Fou.
Repeat after me. Fou.
The letter K.
Sounds like K in the word koala.
Koala. Repeat after me.
Koala. The letter L sounds like L L like in the
word Lapin Lapin.
Repeat after me.
Lapin. The letter M sounds like.
Mm mm.
Mhm. Like in the word mer.
Mer. Repeat after me mer.
The letter M sounds like.
N. N.
N. Like in the favorite word of parents.
Non. Non.
Repeat after me.
Non. And then we have the letter P which sounds more like.
Like in the world.
Poule. Poule.
Repeat after me.
Poule. The letter Q Which sounds more K
like in the word Quoi.
Quoi. Repeat after me.
Quoi. The letter S sounds like S like
S a snake.
For example, the word son repeat after me son.
The letter T sounds like Te Te Te.
Like in the world.
Ta ta ta.
To repeat after me.
Tata. And the letter V sounds like V.
Almost like a phone vibrating, like in the word.
Vélo. Vélo.
Repeat after me.
Vélo. Vélo.
And the letter Z sounds like.
Like Z in the world.
Zen. Zen.
Repeat after me.
Zen. As you can see, there is a large group of letters that you
already knew how to pronounce.
So keep this Zen mode and let's attack the second group.
This is a group that doesn't really sound like English at all, or just sometimes
because it depends on what letter is front of it or behind.
Let's start with the letter C.
So when this letter is front before A O U, it will sound like K.
For example, in the word carte carte, as you can see behind the C, there is a R, so it
sounds like ka carte.
Repeat after me carte.
And same when there is a little cedilla under the letter c.
C in french.
The letter which sounds like S.
The letter resounds like S.
S. For example, in the world.
Garçon. Garçon.
Can you repeat after me?
Garçom. Let's see the letter G.
When J is before o, r or U.
It sounds like G G G G.
For example, in the word guerre guerre.
Repeat after me.
And then there is the letter H.
And for this one, it's really easy.
H is always silent.
I mean, always. You will see that it's not always, always.
But for now, it's always silence.
So you don't pronounce it.
You act like it doesn't exist, for example, in the world.
Hibou. Hibou, repeat after me.
Hibou Yeah.
So it's always silent, except.
There is always exceptions in French language.
So always silent, except when there is a S or a C front of the letter h.
When there is this, it sounds like sh.
It's like S in the world chat.
chat. chat.
Repeat after me.
chat. Then there is the letter J that always sounds like.
Like in the word.
Jamais. Jamais.
Jamais. Can you repeat after me?
Jamais. Yes.
Then I'm going to talk about the letter R.
That sounds like Rrrr.
But don't worry about this one too much right now, because we are going to have a
lesson special for this one later.
It's only day one.
Don't worry, you don't have to pronounce it perfectly.
But just in case, let's try to repeat after me.
Riche. Yeah.
And where is the letter X?
The letter X is really particular because when it's inside a word or followed by a
consonant, it sounds like x x.
For example, in the word expert.
expert. Can you repeat after me?
Expert. When X is at the beginning of the word or followed by a vowel
or a H, it will, sounds like Gkz.
Like in the word xylophone.
xylophone. Repeat after me.
xylophone. Now we know how sound the letter X when it's at the beginning of the
world or in the middle of the world.
But you might wonder what happened when it's at the end of the world.
So when X is at the end of the world, it sounds like it's Ss like the snake again, for
example, in the word Dix Dix repeat after me ?
Dix. Yeah.
Great job. Now you are ready to follow me at the next part.
That will be about the complex sound.