Un 1.2

Pronunciation – Consonants

Consonants, as opposed to vowels, involve a complete or partial closure of the vocal tract. The pronunciation of most individual consonant letters in French are similar to those in English. There are some slight differences.

Explanation

Exercises

Differences compared to English consonant letters - Les différences comparées aux consonnes anglaises

Letters	Pronunciation Notes	Examples
Cc	/k/ – when followed by ‘a’, ‘o’, or ‘u’ /s/ – when followed by ‘e’, ‘i’, or ‘y’	commencer /kɔ.mɑ̃.se/
Gg	/g/ – when followed by ‘a’, ‘o’, or ‘u’ /ʒ/ – when followed by ‘e’, ‘i’, or ‘y’	garage /ɡa.ʁaʒ/
Hh	Two forms, aspirated and mute, where the former acts like a consonant, while the latter acts like a vowel. This, however, primarily changes how the letter interacts with other sounds around it; the letter itself is not pronounced. As the mute form is more common, any good dictionary will somehow indicate if an ‘h’ is aspirated.	l’homme /lɔm/ le hockey /lə.ɔ.kɛ/, (Québécois /lə.ɔ.ke/)
Jj	/ʒ/ – uniformly	je /ʒə/
Qq	/k/ – with or without ‘u’	quinze /kɛ̃z/ cinq /sɛ̃k/
Rr	Various versions, depending on region spoken and on place in sentence. Most commonly guttural or trilled (‘rolled’)	matière /ma.tjɛʁ/ géographie /ʒe.ɔ.ɡʁa.fi/
Ss	/s/ – when not between vowels /z/ – when between vowels	spécialisation /spe.sja.li.za.sjɔ̃/

Final Consonants - Consonnes finales

Many words in French, although written with a final consonant letter, do not end with a final consonant sound. There is, unfortunately, no perfect rule to this. There is, however, the generalized rule ‘CaReFuL’ that can help. Words ending with one of the consonants in the word ‘careful’ typically have a final consonant that is pronounced.

e.g.