Leçon 7
Lesson 7
Sound [œ]
| French sound | Similar English sound | French letters and letter combinations | Notes |
vowel [œ] |
[ɜː] as in the word hurt |
eu |
The letter combinations eu, œu are pronounced as [œ] before all pronounced consonants except for z. |
Now that you know how articulate the French [ɔ], it won’t be too hard for you to learn the [œ] sound. “Take a breath” on an imaginary pair of glasses and freeze with this position of the lips; then, not changing the positions of the lips, pronounce the already known French sound [ɛ] — you will get [œ]! Simply put, [œ] is the rounded version of [ɛ].
Exercise 1. Read first, then listen and repeat.
[tɛ — tœ], [sɛ — sœ], [mɛ — mœ], [kɛ — kœ], [ɛ:r — œ:r], [lɛ:r — lœ:r], [mɛ:r — mœ:r], [tɛ:r — tœ:r].
Exercise 2. Read and memorize:
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
il a peur [ilapœ:r] — he is afraid (literally: he has fear)
directeur [dirɛktœ:r] — director
il pleure [ilplœ:r] — he cries/is crying
il pleut [ilplœ] — it rains/is raining
a — has
Exercise 3. Read and translate:
Il a quatre filles.
La fleur est très belle.
Nana est malade. Elle a peur. Elle pleure.
Ma sœur travaille. Elle est directeur.
Sound [ə]
| French sound | Similar English sound | French letters and letter combinations | Notes |
vowel [ə] — is the same as [œ], but is never lengthened  |
— |
e |
One and the same sound is denoted by two symbols because it allows to distinguish the letter combinations eu, œu — [œ] and the letter e — [ə] in the transcription. The letter е is pronounced as [ə], if it is:
|
Exercise 4.
a) Read and memorize some monosyllabic function words where the letter е is pronounced [ə] at the end:
le [lə] — the, masculine definite article in singular form
ce [sə] — this (masculine, singular)
de [də] — of, from, for example: la malle de Pierre — Pierre’s trunk (literary: the trunk of Pierre)
b) Read and recall the meaning of the nouns. Memorize their gender:
| le ciel | le détail | |||
| ce rêve | ce travail | |||
| le livre | le café | |||
| le cœur | ce guide | |||
| ce verre | le frère de Pierre | |||
| le stade | le père de Nana |
Exercise 5. Read and translate:
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 !
Exercise 6. Read and translate. Do not forget that the letter e is pronounced as [ə] at the end of words after two consonant sounds before another word starting in one consonant sound.
le livre de Pierre [ləlivrədəpjɛ:r]
il a quatre filles [ilakatrəfij]
les vestes sales [levɛstəsal]
Exercise 7. Read and try to memorize new words. Do not forget that the letter e is pronounced as [ə] at the end of an unstressed syllable in a polysyllabic word.
première: pre-mière [prəmjɛ:r] — first (feminine)
petite: pe-tite [pətit] — small, little (fem.)
regarder: re-gar-der [rəgarde] — to watch, to look (at)
mercredi: mer-cre-di [mɛrkrədi] — Wednesday
Exercise 8. Fill in the gaps with the words on the right to get the complete sentences:
1. Répétez leur adresse !
2. La robe de votre est très belle.
3. La est petite: le père, la mère et leur fils.
4. Regardez ! La rivière là.
est
vite
sœur
Unstable [ə]
In fast colloquial speech, the sound [ə] at the end of an unstressed syllable is often dropped out, as if swallowed. That is why such a sound is called unstable [ə] (French: e instable) But since you only begin to speak French, we recommend you to pronounce it.
Do not pronounce [ə] only if this sound appears between two consonants while these consonants are surrounded by vowels. Let’s look at the example where we mark consonants like this: 
, and vowels like this: 
.
| samedi m — (on) Saturday: |  |
You see that [ə] is between the consonants [m], [d], and these consonants, in turn, are surrounded by vowels. The sound [ə] is dropped out, and, therefore, the word samedi sounds like:
[samdi]
Exercise 9. Read:
le bracelet [ləbraslɛ] — the bracelet; la fenêtre [lafnɛ:tr] — the window; ma petite [maptit] — my little.
Exercise 10. Translate:
Le bracelet de ma petite sœur est ici.
Arrivez samedi et restez à Paris !
Il a peur de fermer sa fenêtre.
