FRENCH & ENGLISH

CONSONANTS
I
English: 2 different phonemes
French: 2 allophones of the same
phoneme
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English: 2 different phonemes

French: 2 allophones of the same phoneme
CHEAT vs. SHEET
French spelling rule to represent this sound:
SH (English) = CH (French)
ex: Charge Chester Charge!
CH (English) = TCH (French)
ex: Tchad
2

English: 2 different phonemes

French: 2 allophones of the same phoneme
JEN vs. JANE
French spelling rule to represent this sound:
pleasure, garage =
J / Gi/e/y
ex: le journalisme, la gym[nastique]
J (English) =

DJ (French)

(usually in words imported from other languages)

ex: le djihad, les djihadistes, Djibouti

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II
consonants (letters of the alphabet)
that are usually pronounced
the same way as in English
B
D
F, PH
L, even when preceding an M
M
N
P
T, even before an H
V
Z

III
consonants (sounds) with spellings
specific to French

snake
French spelling rule to represent this sound:
--vowels (usually in monosyllabic words), ex: la vis, las
vowelsconsonant , ex: lastre, lastuce

svowel , ex: le tsunami

consonant

sconsonant , ex: Stphane

svowel , ex: Sophie, la sentinelle
vowel
ssvowel , ex: le poisson, lassistant, le Missouri
--tiel/on , ex: les partielles, attention!

Ci/e/y , ex: le cinma, Cyrille, le recensement

a/o/u

, ex: a va?, le garon, le reu

x [only in numbers] , ex: six, dix, soixante, soixante-dix

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girl
French spelling rule to represent this sound:

gu/o/a , ex: Gustave, la garde, la gomme

gui/e/y , ex: la guitare, la guerre, Guy
gh [exceptional] , ex: les spaghetti (usually
in words taken from Italian)

Kim, cool, Quran, Christ

French spelling rule to represent this sound:
cu/o/a , ex: la cure, le colra, la cantine
qu , ex: qui?, que?, quand?
k , ex: le kilomtre, Pkin

ch [exceptional],
ex: la chimiothrapie, Christophe (usually in
scientific words or words of Greek origin)
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onion
same as Spanish , Portuguese nh
French spelling rule to represent this sound:

gn , ex: lEspagne, Magnifique!

nh [exceptional], ex: Ho Chi Minh
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magazine
French spelling rule to represent this sound:

z , ex: Zut!,

svowel , ex: le poison, le dsert

vowel

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the infamous French r

(stable in European & Canadian French,
unstable in African & Caribbean French)
a good approximation would be
a strong English h or a Spanish j:

ex: Henri \ ah(n)-rHee

French spelling rule to represent this sound:
r , ex: le rat, la souris
rr , ex: Pierre, la terre
note: it is OK to use an English (or Spanish) r
if you cannot pronounce a French r

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IV
consonants (letters of the alphabet)
that are usually silent
in initial position & after the letter T:

h-, ex: Henri, lhyper(march), le th, le thorme

in final position of monosyllabic & plurisyllabic words:

-d, ex: le remord

-p, ex: le camp, le champ
-s, ex: le temps, le printemps
-t, ex: le port, le tort,
-x [except in numbers], ex: la noix, la paix, la voix
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consonants (i.e.: letters of the

alphabet) that are rarely ever used
w , ex: le kilo-watt, le wagon
k, ex: le karat, le kung-fu, le Kilimandjaro

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