Let's start with the rules of reading. I just beg you: don’t try to learn them right away! Firstly, it won’t work - after all, there are a lot of them, and secondly, it’s not necessary. Everything will settle down over time. You can just look at this page periodically. The main thing is to read them carefully (maybe more than one sitting), look at the examples, try to do the exercises and check yourself - next to the exercises there is a sound - how the French pronounce the same words.
During the first six lessons, in a separate tab you will find a cheat sheet for all French reading rules, so you will always have all the material from this page in a compressed form at your fingertips. :)
During the first six lessons, in a separate tab you will find a cheat sheet for all French reading rules, so you will always have all the material from this page in a compressed form at your fingertips. :)
The main thing you need to remember is that the reading rules There is. This means that, knowing the rules, you can always - almost always - read an unfamiliar word. This is why French does not require transcription (only in the case of fairly rare phonetic exceptions). The beginnings of the first five lessons are also devoted to reading rules - there you will find additional exercises to consolidate skills. Starting from the third lesson, you can download the sound and listen to detailed explanations of the reading rules made by a professional phonetician.
Let's start learning :) Let's go!
In French, the stress ALWAYS falls on the last syllable... This is news to you, isn't it? ;-)
-s, -t, -d, -z, -x, -p, -g (as well as their combinations) at the end of words are NOT READABLE.
Vowels
e, è, ê, é, ё under stress and in a closed syllable it is read as “e”: fourchette [buffet] - fork. “But there is a nuance” (c) that can be neglected at the initial stage. Reading a letter e in all its guises is discussed in detail in the third lesson from the very beginning - I must say, there is a lot there.
e V unstressed syllable reads approximately like the German "ö" - like the letter "e" in the word Möbius: menu [menu], regarder [rögarde]. In order to make this sound, you need to stretch your lips forward like a bow (as in the picture below) and at the same time pronounce the letter “e”.
In the middle of words in an open syllable, this letter is dropped completely during pronunciation (e is fluent). So, for example, the word carrefour (crossroads) is read as [kar "fur] (the unstressed "e" in the middle of the word is not pronounced). It would not be a mistake to read it [karefur], but when you speak quickly, it falls out, as it turns out to be a weak sound . Épicerie (grocery) is read as [epis"ri]. Madeleine- [madeleine].
Madeleine metro station in Paris
And so - in so many words. But don’t be afraid - weak “e” will fall out on their own, because this is natural :)
This phenomenon also happens in our speech, we just don’t think about it. For example, the word “head”: when we pronounce it, the first vowel is so weak that it falls out, and we practically do not pronounce it and say [glava]. I’m not even talking about the word “eleventh”, which we pronounce as [one] (I discovered this in my son’s notebook; at first I was horrified: how could so many mistakes be made in one word, and then I realized that the child simply wrote this word down by ear - we really pronounce it that way :).
e at the end of words (see exceptions below) is not read (it is sometimes pronounced in songs and poems). If there are any icons above it, it is always readable, no matter where it stands. For example: régime [mode], rosé [rose] - rose wine.
In monosyllable words e at the end of words it is read - if it is not read there, a syllable cannot be formed at all. These are articles, prepositions, pronouns, demonstrative adjectives: le [le], de [de], je [zhe], me [мё], ce [сё].
Unreadable ending -s, forming the plural of nouns (something familiar, right?) and adjectives, if it appears, does not make a letter -e at the end of the word readable: régime and régimes are read the same - [mode].
-er at the ends of words it is read as "e": conférenci er[entertainer] - speaker, ateli er[studio], dossi er[dossier], canotier, collier, croupier, portier and finally foyer [foyer]. You will find -er at the end of all regular verbs: parl er[parle] – talk, mang er[manzhe] - there is; -er is the standard ending for French regular verbs.
a- reads like “a”: valse [waltz].
i(including with icons) - reads like "and": vie [vi] - life (quickly remember "C" est la vie" :).
o– reads like “o”: locomotive [locomotive], compote[compote] - fruit puree.
u reads like the "yu" in the word "muesli". Example: cuvette is read [ditch] and means “ditch”, parachute [parachute] - means “parachute” :), the same happens with purée (puree), and c configuration(jam).
To make an open sound “u”, use the combination ou(this is familiar from English: you, group [group], router [router], tour [tour]). Souvenir [souvenir] - memory, fourchette [buffet] - fork, carrefour [carrefour] - crossroads; pronouns nous (we) read [well], vous (you and you) read [vu].
Consonants
Letter l read softly: étoile [etoile] - star, table [table] - table, banal [banal] - banal, canal [channel], carnaval [carnival].
g read like "g", but before e, i And y it is read as "zh". For example: général - read [general], régime [mode], agiotage [excitement]. A good example is the word garage - read [garage] - first g before a reads firmly, and the second g before e- like "w".
Letter combination gn read as [н] - for example, in the name of a city Cognac[cognac] - Cognac, in the words champi gn ons [champignon] - mushrooms, champa gn e [champagne] - champagne, lor gn ette [lorgnette] - binoculars.
c pronounced as "k", mas ca rade [masquerade], already mentioned by us co mpote and cu vette. But before three vowels e, i And y it is read as "s". For example: ce rtificat read [certificate], vélo ci pède - [bicycle], moto cy cle - [motorcycle].
If you need to change this behavior, that is, make this letter read like [s] before other vowels, attach a tail to it at the bottom: Ç And ç . Ça is read as [sa]; garçon [garson] - boy, maçon (mason), façon (style), façade (facade). The famous French greeting Comment ça va [coma~ sa va] (or more often just ça va) means “how are you”, and literally “how is it going”. In films you can see - they say hello like that. One asks: “Ça va?”, the other answers: “Ça va, Ça va!”.
At the ends of words c is rare. Unfortunately, there is no hard and fast rule about when to read it and when not to. This is simply remembered for each word - fortunately there are few of them: for example, blanc [bl "an] - white, estomac [estoma] - stomach and tobacco[taba] is not readable, but cognac and avec are readable.
h NEVER read. It's as if she doesn't exist. Except for the combination "ch". Sometimes this letter acts as a separator - if it occurs inside a word between vowels, then this indicates their separate reading: Sahara [sa "ara], cahier [ka "ye]. In any case, it itself is not readable. For this reason, by the way, the name of one of the most famous cognac houses Hennessy correctly pronounced (surprise!) as [ansi]: “h” is not readable, “e” is fluent, double ss is used to silence s and as double [s] is not readable (see below for the rule for reading the letter s); other pronunciations are categorically incorrect. I bet you didn't know that! :) Combination ch gives the sound [w]. For example, chance [chance] - luck, luck, chantage [blackmail], cliché [cliché], cache-nez [muffler] - scarf (literally: hides the nose);
ph read as "f": photo. th read as “t”: théâtre [theater], thé [those] - tea.
p reads like a Russian "p": portrait [portrae]. In the middle of the word, the letter p before the t is not readable: sculpture [sculpture].
j- reads like a Russian "zh": bonjour [bonjour] - hello, jalousie [blinds] - envy, jealousy and blinds, sujet [plot] - plot.
s reads like Russian “s”: geste [gesture], régisseur [director], chaussée [highway]; between two vowels s is voiced and reads like “z”: fuselage [fuselage], limousine [limousine] - very intuitive. If you need to make s unvoiced between vowels, it is doubled. Compare: poison [poison] - poison, and poisson [poisson] - fish; the same Hennessy - [ansi].
The rest of the consonants (how many of them are left? :) - n, m, p, t, x, z- read more or less obviously. Some minor features of reading x and t will be described separately - rather for the sake of order. Well, well n And m in combination with vowels they give rise to a whole class of sounds, which will be described in a separate, most interesting section.
Here is a list of words given above as examples - before doing the exercise, it is better to listen to how the French pronounce these words.
menu, regarder, carrefour, régime, rosé, parler, cuvette, parachute, confiture, souvenir, fourchette, nous, vous, étoile, table, banal, canal, carnaval, général, valse, garage, cognac, champignons, champagne, certificate, chance, théâtre, thé, portrait, sculpture, bonjour, sujet, geste, chaussée.
Personal pronouns in French they are divided into independent and verbs.
Independent personal pronouns always have their own stress and are called stressed. They can be used independently (without a verb), performing in a sentence the function of the subject, the nominal part of a compound predicate, direct and indirect object:
Qui veut repondre? —Moi.
Independent forms:
Independent personal pronouns are used as subjects:
- In incomplete sentences without a verb:
Qui saura le faire? —Moi. Who can do this? - I. - To logically highlight the subject, which is expressed by a verb personal pronoun:
Moi, je saurai le faire. - I can do this. - When a sentence has two subjects, at least one of which is expressed by a pronoun:
Lui et moi, nous sommes des amis. - He and I are friends. - In exclamatory or interrogative sentences with a subject expressed by an indefinite form of the verb, as well as when the pronoun acts as the subject of a participle:
Moi, la punir? Should I punish her? - As the antecedent of a relative pronoun:
Moi qui faisais de mon mieux! Me who tried my best!
Independent personal pronouns are used as complements:
- To logically highlight an object expressed by a verb personal pronoun:
Je le connais bien, lui. - I know him well. - In the function of a prepositional object:
Il est content de moi. - He is pleased with me. - When a verb has two objects attached to it, at least one of which is expressed by a pronoun:
On invite toi et lui. - I invite both you and him. - After que in a negative construction ne…que:
Ils n'aiment que lui. They love only him. - When comparing:
Elle est plus intelligente que lui. - She's smarter than him.
Pronoun le represents any phenomenon, action, quality, expressed using an adjective, an indefinite form of a verb, a sentence and can replace:
- whole sentence: Il fait mauvais, je le vois. — Bad weather, I can see it.
- nominal part of the predicate: Etes-vous contents? - Nous le sommes. Are you satisfied? - Yes, we are satisfied.
Indefinite personal pronoun on
used to refer to one or more people. It is used only as a subject, while the verb is placed in the third person singular. Design with on corresponds in Russian to the indefinite personal form: they say, believe, decided, said, etc.:
On dit que son fils est malade. — They say that his son is sick.
In colloquial speech on can replace any person's pronoun:
Nous le savons or on le sait. - We know that.
Reflexive pronoun soi
replaces the forms lui, elle, eux, elles if the statement is general:
Il faut tout faire soi-même ici. Here you need to do everything yourself.
Pronoun soi in a sentence it functions as a direct or indirect object. It is used if the subject is expressed:
- indefinite pronouns on, chacun(every), personne(nobody), tout le monde(all): On n’est bien que chez soi. “It’s only good at home.”
- a word of generalized meaning: L’égoïste ne pense qu’à soi. - An egoist thinks only about himself.
Personal pronoun y
replaces an indirect object denoting an inanimate object and expressed by a noun with a preposition à
or sur:
Nous pensons à cette rencontre. Nous y pensons. — We are thinking about this meeting. We think about her.
Also pronoun y can replace an entire sentence introduced by a preposition à
:
Nous pensons à ce que nous avons fait. Nous y pensons. “We think about what we did.” We are thinking about it.
If we are talking about living objects, then the pronoun y practically not used.
Personal pronoun en can replace:
- animate and inanimate noun as a direct object:
J'ai une soeur. J'en ai une. - I have a sister. I have it.
J'ai fait de la confiture de fraises. J'en ai fait. — I made strawberry jam. I cooked it.
J'ai trois soeurs. J'en ai trois. — I have three sisters. I have three of them. - inanimate noun as an indirect object with a preposition de:
Etes-vous content de ce travail. Oui, j'en suis content. —Are you satisfied with this job? Yes, I'm happy with it. - object of a noun introduced by a preposition de. In this case en has a possessive meaning:
La maison était fermée. Joseph m'en a ouvert la porte. — The house was closed. Joseph opened his door for me. - complement clause introduced by a preposition de:
Je suis certain de ce que vous ferez bien ce travail. J'en suis certain. - I am confident that you will do this job well. I'm sure of it.
Verbs pronouns are service forms, since they always stand with the verb, indicating the subject or object of the action. They form the same rhythmic group with the verb and are usually not stressed. Therefore they are called unstressed personal pronouns.
Personal verbal pronouns have forms corresponding to the nominative, accusative and dative cases in the Russian language, and perform the functions of the subject and direct or indirect object in a sentence:
He sees/ subject
I his I see/ direct object (action object)
I to him I give you the book/ indirect object (direct is "book")
Subject | Direct object | Indirect addition |
|
Singular |
|||
1st person | je- I | me- me | me- to me |
Plural |
|||
1st person | Nous- We | nous- us | nous- us |
Place of personal verb pronouns
In the affirmative and negative forms, personal unstressed pronouns used in the role subject, are placed before the verb and can be separated from it only by service words (verb pronouns, service adverbs, negative particles ne):
Je lis. Il écoute. I'm reading. He listens.
Je ne pense pas à ses mots. I don't think about his words.
In the interrogative form, the subject pronoun comes after the verb:
Va-t-il à l’école? — Is he going to school?
Pronoun il can replace a person or an object, but in some cases it acts only as a formal subject that introduces an impersonal verb:
Il neige. — It's snowing.
Il fait froid. - Cold.
Verb pronouns, used as direct and indirect objects, are placed before the verb:
Je vous cherche. - I was looking for you.
Only in the affirmative form of the imperative mood do pronouns as objects appear after the verb, and the form is unstressed me replaced by the stressed form moi:
Montrez-moi votre devoir! - Show me your written work!
When an unstressed pronoun comes after a verb, a dash is placed between them.
If you liked it, share it with your friends:Features of the French indefinite personal pronoun on
Traditionally, the entire variety of French pronouns is divided into/ordered within the following main types/categories: Pronoms personnels (je/tu/toi/lui…) - personal/Pronoms possessifs (le mien/le sien/la tienne/les tiens…) - possessive /Pronoms reflechis (Se/soi) -reflexive/Pronoms interrogatifs (qui/lequel/laquelle/auquel…)-interrogative/Pronoms relatifs (que/quoi/laquelle/lesquels…)-relative/Pronoms demonstratifs (celui/celle/ceux… )-indicative/Pronoms indefinis (aucun/chaque/quelque...)-indefinite.
At the same time, the difficulty of the French language lies in the fact that here we can observe the presence of certain pronominal units that will be difficult to unambiguously attribute to one of the categories/categories we stated above. A striking representative of such controversial units is French pronoun on , which linguists often refer to as a mixed type and are positioned as an indefinite personal pronominal unit.
The fact is that this (usually untranslatable into Russian) pronoun is used in French exclusively as a subject and in the meaning of one of the personal pronouns (combines it with the characteristics of personal pronominal units) in conjunction with a verbal unit, which is necessarily in the third person form - singular (on+verbe-3 personne/singulier), while presenting/pointing to an object/person as generalized/indefinite (characteristic of units of indefinite type - On parle-say (= someone/someone speaks)).
Thus, the main features of the French indefinite personal pronoun on suggest the possibility of its use provided that it is not indicated to the person performing this or that action/deed:
On+dit=tell
On+bien voit=see well
On+éprouve un remords=experience remorse
It is easy to notice that in Russian correspondences there will be no subject (on is not translated), and the verbal unit will no longer be used in the singular (as in French), but in the plural.
When the pronoun on is used in French in conjunction with verbs like sait/doit/peut, etc., similar constructions will be translated into Russian by sentences of the impersonal type:
on+voit=visible
on+doit=need/must
on+sait=known
When constructing negations with the pronoun on, the following scheme is usually followed: on+ne-1st negation+verbe-3rd personne/singulier+pas-2nd negation+….
On+ne+perd+pas pied ici. (They don't lose ground here).
On+ne+se grise+pas ici. (They don't get drunk here).
Interestingly, in colloquial French this indefinite-personal unit on can be used in the function/meaning of any personal pronoun (usually in the meaning nous=we). At the same time, the form 3 personne/singulier in the verbal unit following it is still preserved:
On+fait une promenade digestive. (We'll go for a walk after lunch).
On+va bien aujourd'hui? (So how are you feeling today?
On+reste dans son petit coin et l’on+observe. (So you sit in your corner and watch).
On+ne éprouve beaucoup de difficultés. ((Let's) not face much difficulty)
On+se croise quand? (When will we cross paths?)
In rare cases in French, you can come across examples where the element l' is placed before the indefinite-personal on, which in fact, at the present stage of language development, does not carry any semantic potential and its application (usually within the framework of official/exalted communication) depends only on the desire of the speaker, expressing the intention to make speech more colorful/euphonious.-
Lorsque l’on+a considere+les proprietes de… (When we considered the properties…)
Usually the structure is l’+on used in French in the following cases:
in postposition to short words of a service type ending in a vowel (ou-or/et-and/quoi-what/où-where/si-if, etc.):
C'est un endroit+où+l'on+éprouve un remords. (This is where you feel remorse).
In French, as in many European languages, there is a verb “to be, is”, which in the present tense, as a rule, is not translated into Russian.
If in Russian sentences like “The house is big”, “The woman is very beautiful”, “She is sick” do without a verb, then in French the so-called connective will definitely appear - the verb “etre”. It is this linking verb that we will talk about in this lesson.
The verb “etre” is conjugated in persons and numbers.
Personal pronouns
To correctly conjugate this verb, check out the table of personal pronouns in French. As in Russian, in French there are three persons (1st, 2nd and 3rd) and two numbers (singular and plural) of pronouns. There is no neuter gender in French - only masculine and feminine.
Please note that in French there is no single pronoun for masculine and feminine plurals.
Each plural gender has its own pronoun.
Conjugation of the verb "Etre" (listen)
So, now let’s conjugate the verb “etre”. This verb has six different forms - for each pronoun.
| Singular | Plural | ||
|---|---|---|---|
| je | suis[sui] | nous | sommes[som] |
| tu | es[e] | vous | etes[this] |
| il | est[e] | ils | sont[sɔ̃*] |
| elle | elles | ||
*nasal sounds are indicated by transcription signs given in lesson 4. The remaining transcription sounds are indicated by Russian sounds.
It is important to note that when pronouncing the phrase "vous etes" the so-called binding occurs: [vuzet]. Phrases "il est" And "elle est" are also pronounced together: [tyue] and [ile].
To form a negative in French, the phrase is used "ne...pas", while "ne" must come before the verb, and "pas"- after.
For example: tu n'es pas malade(You're not sick).
As you noticed, the letter “e” before another vowel is shortened and replaced by an apostrophe “’”.
To ask a question, you can use not one, but three ways!
- First, you need to swap the subject and predicate, in this case, the pronoun and the desired form of the verb “etre”. In this case, a dash will be written between these two words.
For example:
Es-tu malade?[this little guy] (Are you sick?)
Est-il malade?[ethyl malyad] (Is he sick?)
Notice that the letter "t" before the vowel becomes pronounced.
- The second method is the easiest. There is no need to change anything, just add the intonation of the question to the sentence. Of course, this method is popular for colloquial speech.
- And finally, to ask a question in French you can use the popular phrase "Est-ce-que"[esko]. It is not translated into Russian, but allows you to preserve the direct word order of the French sentence.
For example:
Est-ce qu'il est malade?[eskile malyad] - Is he sick?
Est-ce que vous êtes malades?[esko vuzet malyad] - Are you sick?
Notice that the vowel “e” before the pronoun “il” is dropped again.
But where did the ending “s” in the word “malade” come from, you ask. This is another feature of the French language - coordination
. In Russian we do the same thing, we say “I’m sick,” “he’s sick,” “we’re sick.” In French, the masculine gender does not receive any endings, the feminine gender is added with the ending “e”, and the plural with the ending “s”.
For example:
Il est intelligent [ile ɛ̃telizhɑ̃]. - He's smart.
Elle est intelligente [ele ɛ̃telizhɑ̃t]. - She's smart.Elles sont intelligentes [el sɔ̃ ɛ̃telizhɑ̃]. - They are smart. (about women)
Please note that the final unpronounceable consonant “t” in the feminine gender is pronounced due to the addition of the letter “e”.
Ready to consolidate what you've learned? Do some exercises!
Lesson assignments
Exercise 1. Use the correct form of the verb "etre".
1. Il... fatigué (tired).
2. Je... étudiante (student).
3. Ma chambre (my room) ... grande (large).
4. Ils... charmantes.
5. Est-ce que tu… médecin? (doctor).
6. Nous... sûrs (sure).
7. Elle... désolées (sad).
8. Il...marié (married).
9. …-nous en retard?
10. Elle... brune (brunette).
Exercise 2. Make up questions for the sentences using inversion or the phrase “Est-ce que”.
1. Tu es mariée (married).
2. Il est libre (free).
3. Vous etes prêts.
4. Elle est triste (sad).
5. Nous sommes malades.
Exercise 3. Complete the sentences by matching adjectives with pronouns.
1. Ills sont…. (content - satisfied).
2. Elle est... (fatigué).
3. Elles sont…. (fort).
4. Il est... (grand).
5. Ills sont... (médecin).
Answer 1.
1st
2.suis
3.est
4. sont
5.es
6. sommes
7. sont
8.est
9. sommes
10.est Answer 2.
1. Est-ce que tu es mariee? - Es-tu mariee?
2. Est-ce qu’il est libre? - Est-il libre?
3. Est-ce que vous etes prêts? — Êtes-vous prêts?
4. Est-ce que elle est triste? - Est-elle triste?
5. Est-ce que nous sommes malades? - Sommes-nous malades? Answer 3.
1. contents
2. fatiguee
3.fortes
4.grand
5. medecins