Leçon 8
Lesson 8
Sound [ʃ]
| French sound | Similar English sound | French letters and letter combinations |
согласный [ʃ] |
[ʃ] as in the word ship |
ch |
Exercise 1. Read and try to remember the words:
la chaise [laʃɛ:z] — chair
marcher [marʃe] — to walk, to march
chaque [ʃak] — every, each
cher [ʃɛ:r] — expensive, dear (masc.)
chère [ʃɛ:r] — expensive, dear (fem.)
cacher [kaʃe] — to hide
chercher [ʃɛrʃe] — to look for, to seek
Exercise 2. Read and see how the 3rd person form of the verbs is formed (also note that they all can be translated with the continuous form, e.g. he works and he is working, without context it is impossible to tell which one we need in French):
travailler [travaje] (to work) — il travaille [iltravaj] (he works)
arriver [arive] (to arrive) — elle arrive [ɛlari:v] (she arrives)
parler [parle] (to speak, to talk) — il parle [ilparl] (he speaks)
chercher [ʃɛrʃe] (to seek) — elle cherche [ɛlʃɛrʃ] (she seeks)
cacher [kaʃe] (to hide) — il cache [ilkaʃ] (he hides)
marcher [marʃe] (to march) — elle marche [ɛlmarʃ] (she marches)
Exercise 3. Read and translate (you may peep at the previous exercise):
1. Pierre marche vite.
2. Anne cherche ce livre.
3. Elle cache la clé.
4. Ma chère amie arrive chaque hiver.
5. Cette chaise est très chère.
6. Sa fille travaille chaque mercredi.
Exercise 4. Read quickly several times:
Elle cherche cher Charles [ʃa:rl], mais il cache cher Charles.
Звук [ʒ]
| French sound | Similar English sound | French letters and letter combinations | Notes |
consonant [ʒ] |
[ʒ] as in the word garage |
G, g |
The letter g is pronounced as [ʒ] before е, i, y. |
| J, j | The letter j is pronounced as [ʒ] in all positions. |
Pay attention! From now on, we are going to indicate the gender of the French words with the special marks (which is easy to remember):
m — masculine gender; f — feminine gender.
For example: livre m — book (the French noun of masculine gender); chaise f — chair (the French noun of feminine gender). These are generally accepted marks that are used in French dictionaries. Note that they are usually indicate the gender of nouns only, but we will also use it for adjectives too in educational purposes.
Exercise 5. Memorize new words:
| général [ʒeneral] m — general | jamais [ʒamɛ] — never |
| geste [ʒɛst] m — gesture | jeudi [ʒœdi] m — (on) Thursday |
| Gérard [ʒera:r] — Gerard (male name) | jeter [ʒəte] — to throw |
| gymnastique [ʒimnastik] f — gymnastics, keep-fit exercises | jeune [ʒœn] — young |
| je [ʒə] - I | déjeuner [deʒœne] — to have lunch |
is usually lengthened, for example: visage [viza:ʒ] m — face.
Exercise 6. Read the words with the sound [ʒ] at the end and try to memorize them. Fill in the missing translations, this is easy:
| fromage [frɔma:ʒ] m — cheese sage [sa:ʒ] — wise; well-behaved neige [nɛ:ʒ] f — snow plage [рlа:ʒ] f — beach collège [kɔlɛ:ʒ] m — college, (secondary) school |
étage [eta:ʒ] m — floor (stor(e)y) âge [ɑʒ] m — bagage [baga:ʒ] m — image [ima:ʒ] f — |
Exercise 7. Read the words and tick if the letter g is pronounced [g] or [ʒ]:
| [g] | [ʒ] | |||
| gymnastique | ||||
| glace | ||||
| génie | ||||
| gare | ||||
| guerre | ||||
| mage | ||||
| regarder | ||||
| gêne | ||||
| grammaire | ||||
| gai | ||||
| cage | ||||
| geste | ||||
| fatigué |
Sound [a:]
| French sound | Similar English sound | French letters and letter combinations | Notes |
vowel [a:] |
like “ah” in English but long |
Â, â |
The capital letter  is more often denoted as А. |
The French sound indicated by the letter â is pronounced like something between the vowel [a] from the 1st lesson and the short a sound in the word “hat.” It is pronounced with more rounded lips and is slightly elongated.
The sound loses its length being at the end of a word.
Exercise 8.
а) Read:
âge [аʒ] m — age
bâtir [ba:ti:r] — to build
grâce [gra:s] f — grace
pâle [pa:l] — pale
théâtre [tea:tr] m — theatre, theater
b) Read observing the long [a] and the short [a]:
patte [pat] f (paw) — pâte [pa:t] f (dough)
ma [ma] f (my) — mât [ma:] m (mast)
mal [mal] m (ache) — mâle [ma:l] m (male)
Exercise 9. Read and translate:
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
