In this French lesson, you will learn to read the letters eu, œu, e.
eu, œu = [œ] (like “ir” in “girl”)
The letter combinations eu, œu are pronounced as [œ] before all pronounced consonants, except z.
heure [œ:r] – hour
leur [lœr] – their
beurre [bœ:r] – butter
sœur [sœ:r] – sister
cœur [kœ:r] – heart
fleur [flœ:r] – flower
peur [pœ:r] – fear
elle a des amies [ɛladezami] – she has friends (female)
il a peur [ilapœ:r] – he is afraid (literally: he has fear)
directeur [dirɛktœ:r] – director
il pleure [ilplœ:r] – he cries
il pleut [ilplœ] – it rains
Il a quatre filles.
La fleur est très belle.
Nana est malade. Elle a peur. Elle pleure.
Ma sœur travaille. Elle est directeur.
e = [ə] The vowel [ə] is the same sound as [œ], but it never lengthens.
The same sound is represented by two symbols because it allows distinguishing in transcription between the letter combinations eu, œu – [œ] and the letter e – [ə].
The letter e is pronounced as [ə] when:
1. It is final in a one-syllable function word (article, preposition, etc.).
2. It appears at the end of a word after two consonant sounds before another word beginning with one consonant sound.
3. It appears at the end of an unstressed syllable in a multi-syllable word.
le [lə] – the (definite article for masculine singular nouns, usually not translated)
ce [sə] – this, that (used with masculine singular nouns)
de [də] – preposition expressing possession, for example: la malle de Pierre – Pierre’s suitcase (i.e., the suitcase belonging to Pierre)
le fils de ma sœur
le travail de ma fille
le cœur de la capitale
Fermez ce livre!
Apportez le café et le verre!
Quittez le stade!
le livre de Pierre [ləlivrədəpjɛ:r] il a quatre filles [ilakatrəfij] les vestes sales [levɛstəsal]
première: pre-mière [prəmjɛ:r] – first (for feminine nouns)
petite: pe-tite [pətit] – small (for feminine nouns)
regarder: re-gar-der [rəgarde] – to look, to watch
mercredi: mer-cre-di [mɛrkrədi] – Wednesday
In rapid conversational speech, the sound [ə] at the end of an unstressed syllable often drops out, as if swallowed. Therefore, this sound is called the fleeting [ə]. But since you are just beginning to speak French, we recommend pronouncing the fleeting [ə].
Only omit [ə] when this sound occurs between two consonants, and these consonants themselves are surrounded by vowels. Let’s analyze an example. For this, we’ll highlight consonants like this: [s], and vowels like this: [a].
samedi m – Saturday; on Saturday.
You can see that [ə] is between consonants [m], [d], and they, in turn, are surrounded by vowels. The sound [ə] drops out, and consequently, the word samedi sounds like this: [samdi].
le bracelet [ləbraslɛ] – bracelet
la fenêtre [lafnɛ:tr] – window
ma petite [maptit] – my little one (feminine)