French 1.1.2. Consonants

There are 26 letter (20 consonants and six vowels) in the French alphabet. These are identical to the letters in the English alphabet, but are often different in their pronunciation.

“c”

The letter “c” in French forms the equivalents of the sounds “k” (hard “c”) and “s” (soft “c”) in English. The way this is achieved is as follows:

Notice that an equivalent to the “ch” sound in English does not exist. The “ch” combination in French is pronounced like “sh” in “sheep.” To summarize:

“g”

The letter “g” can have a hard sound like “g” in “gab” or a soft sound like “j” in “jam.”

The basic rules are:

1. If the letter “g” is followed by “e,” “i,” or “y,” it is considered a soft “g.” In this case, it is pronounced like “j” in “jam,” e.g., “général” /je-ne-яal/ (general).

2. If the letter “g” is followed by “n,” the combination “gn” is pronounced like “ny” in “canyon,” or “lli” in “million,” e.g., “espagnol” /es-pa-nyol/ (Spanish).

3. If the letter “g” is not followed by “e,” “i,” “y,” or “n,” it is considered a hard “g.” In this case, it is pronounced like “g” in “gab,” e.g., “gare” (station) is pronounced /gaя/.

Notice that the letter “u” is mute when it falls after the letter “g” to maintain the hard “g” pronunciation. For example, “guerre” /geя/ (war), “guitare” /gee-taя/ (guitar), etc.

There are only few exceptions in which the “u” is pronounced after the “g.” Examples include: “Uruguay” /µ-яµ-gwai/, “jaguar” /ja-gwaя/, “aiguille” /e-gµy/ (needle), and “linguiste” /lĩ-gweest/

Similarly, to maintain the soft “g” pronunciation before an “a,” “o,” or a consonant, the letter “g” is followed by an “e.” For example, “nous mangeons” /noo mã-jõ/ (we eat).

To summarize:

“h”

The letter “h” is generally not pronounced in French, unless it is part of the combination “ch” or “ph,” which form the equivalent English sounds “sh” and “f,” respectively.

Although the “h” is always not pronounced, there is a distinction between a mute “h” and aspirated “h.” This simply goes back to the origin of the word. Words of Latin origin tend to have a mute “h,” whereas words of Germanic origin tend to have an aspirated “h.” The difference is subtle and only appears in a few cases such as contraction with the definite article, which will be discussed in Lesson 7 of this level.

“l”

• The letter “l” is equivalent to the English “l” as in “lake.” However, the “l” sound in French is much lighter since the back of the tongue is not raised against the palate. Exceptionally, there are two cases in which “l” sounds like “y” in “yogurt.”

Case #1: The combination vowel + “il”

Examples include: “bail” /bey/ (lease), “œil” /euy/ (eye), “soleil” /so-ley/ (sun), etc.

Words ending in “-uile” are an exception, e.g., “huile” /ə-weel/ (oil), “tuile” /t-weel/ (tile), etc.

Case #2: The combination vowel/consonant + “ill”

If the combination “ill” is preceded by a vowel, then it falls under Case #1, e.g., “feuille” /feuy/ (leaf), “paille” /pay/ (straw), etc., and the “ll” is always pronounced like English “y.”

If the combination “ill” is preceded by a consonant, the “ll” is pronounced like English “y” in most words and like simple “l” in some words.

Here are some examples:

In addition to the above examples, the “ll” in numbers such as “mille^m” /meel/ (thousand), “million^m” /meel-yõ/ (million), “milliard^m” /meel-yaя/ (billion), and “billion^m” /beel-yõ/ (trillion), is pronounced like “l.”

Finally, if the “ll” is preceded by a vowel other than “i,” it is pronounced like “l.” For example, “salle” /sal/ (room), “belle” /bel/ (beautiful), “folle” /fol/ (crazy), “syllabe” /see-lab/ (syllable), etc.

In most cases, other than “ll,” double consonants generally do not change the pronunciation in French. For example, “annuler” /a-nµ-le/ (to cancel), “essai” /e-se/ (essay), etc.

“q”

The letter “q” is almost always followed by the letter “u” and sounds like “k,” e.g., “qui”/kee/(who/that).

There are only a few exceptions in which the “q” is not followed by “u,” such as “cinq” /sĩk/ (five), “coq” /kok/ (rooster).

In only a few words, the “qu” is pronounced like the English “kw” sound, e.g., “équateur” /ek-wa-teuя/ (equator).

“s”

The letter “s” can sound like English “s” or “z.” If the “s” falls between two vowels, it is often pronounced like English “z,” e.g., “rose” /яoz/ (pink).

In most other cases, it is pronounced like the English “s” in “start,” e.g., “salut” /sa-lµ/ (hi).

“w”

The letter “w” almost always appears in foreign words borrowed from other languages like English or German.

Depending on the source language, it can sound like “w,” e.g., “le weekend” /l(ə) wee-kend/, or “v,” e.g., “wagon” /va-gõ/ (wagon).

“x”

The letter “x” has a “ks” sound like the “x” in “fix” or a “gz” sound like the “x” in “exam.” The basic rules are:

1. If the letter “x” falls between two vowel sounds or at the beginning of a word, it often has a “gz” sound. For example, “examen” /e-gza-mã/ (exam), “xylophone” /gzee-lo-fon/ (xylophone), etc.

2. Only at the end of the numbers “six” /sees/ (six) and “dix” /dees/ (ten) the final “x” is pronounced like “s.”

3. In most other cases, the “x” has a “ks” sound, e.g., “taxe” /taks/ (tax).

“y”

The letter “y” is considered a semi-vowel in one case, that is, when it precedes another vowel. In this case, it is pronounced like English “y,” e.g., “yeux” /yeu/ (eyes), “yaourt” /ya-ooяt/ (yogurt), etc.

In all other cases, when it precedes a consonant or on its own, it is considered a vowel and is treated exactly like the vowel “i.” For example, “y” /ee/ (there), “cyclisme” /seek-leezm/ (cycling), “Yves” /eev/ (Yves), etc.

Next: Silent Final Consonants in French

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