In this French lesson, you will learn to read the letters ch, g, j, â.
ch = [ʃ] (like in “shoe”)
la chaise [laʃɛ:z] – chair
marcher [marʃe] – to walk
chaque [ʃak] – each, every (determiner)
cher [ʃɛ:r] – dear, expensive (for masculine nouns)
chère [ʃɛ:r] – dear, expensive (for feminine nouns)
cacher [kaʃe] – to hide
chercher [ʃɛrʃe] – to look for, to search
travailler [travaje] (to work)
il travaille [iltravaj] (he works)
arriver [arive] (to arrive)
elle arrive [ɛlari:v] (she arrives)
parler [parle] (to speak)
il parle [ilparl] (he speaks)
chercher [ʃɛrʃe] (to search)
elle cherche [ɛlʃɛrʃ] (she searches)
cacher [kaʃe] (to hide)
il cache [ilkaʃ] (he hides)
marcher [marʃe] (to walk)
elle marche [ɛlmarʃ] (she walks)
Pierre marche vite.
Anne cherche ce livre.
Elle cache la clé.
Ma chère amie arrive chaque hiver.
Cette chaise est très chère.
Sa fille travaille chaque mercredi.
G, g, J, j = [ʒ] (like in “jeans”)
The letter g is pronounced as [ʒ] before e, i, y.
The letter j is pronounced as [ʒ] in all positions.
Please note! From now on, in many cases we will indicate the gender of French words using special markers:
m – masculine gender; f – feminine gender.
For example: livre m – book (French masculine noun); chaise f – chair (French feminine noun). Such markers are used in French dictionaries. Note that dictionaries usually indicate only the gender of nouns, but here for educational purposes we also indicate the gender of adjectives.
général [ʒeneral] m – general
geste [ʒɛst] m – gesture
Gérard [ʒera:r] – Gerard (male name)
gymnastique [ʒimnastik] f – gymnastics, exercise
je [ʒə] – I jamais [ʒamɛ] – never
jeudi [ʒœdi] m – Thursday; on Thursday
jeter [ʒəte] – to throw
jeune [ʒœn] – young
déjeuner [deʒœne] – to have lunch
If a word ends with the sound [ʒ], any stressed vowel before it is usually lengthened, for example: visage [viza:ʒ] m – face.
fromage [frɔma:ʒ] m – cheese
sage [sa:ʒ] – well-behaved, obedient
neige [nɛ:ʒ] f – snow
âge [ɑʒ] m – age, years
collège [kɔlɛ:ʒ] m – college (secondary school in France)
étage [eta:ʒ] m – floor, story
plage [рlа:ʒ] f – beach
bagage [baga:ʒ] m – luggage
image [ima:ʒ] f – image, picture
gymnastique, glace, génie, gare, guerre, mage, regarder, gêne, grammaire, gai, cage, geste, fatigué
Â, â = [a:] (like in “bark”)
The capital letter  is more commonly written as A.
The French sound represented by the letter â can be pronounced like the French [a] you already know in positions where it is lengthened, for example, gare [ga:r]. We deliberately use the words “can be pronounced” because, strictly speaking, there is another [a] in French: the so-called back [a] – a sound similar to the English vowel in words like star, bar. However, not all French people distinguish between these two [a] sounds in their speech.
The sound represented by the letter â loses its length when it appears at the very end of a word.
âge [аʒ] m – age
bâtir [ba:ti:r] – to build
grâce [gra:s] f – grace
pâle [pa:l] – pale
théâtre [tea:tr] m – theater
patte [pat] f (paw) – pâte [pa:t] f (dough)
ma [ma] f (my) – mât [ma:] m (mast)
mal [mal] m (pain) – mâle [ma:l] m (male)
Il aime les théâtres de Paris.
Elle cherche ses bagages.
Gérard est sage et calme.
Le général arrive jeudi.
Anne imite ses gestes.
Nana est jeune et très belle.
Il a le visage pâle.
Ce fromage est très cher.