pronunciation of letters E Unclear in French. There are four ways to pronounce it: /E/ (as in “e” in “hey”, called “closed e”), /ɛ/ (as in “e” in “bet”, called “open e”), /ə/ (as in the “a” in the name “tina”, pronounced “schwa”), or it may remain silent; However, it may also form part of a larger group of letters where pronunciation may vary.
In this post, we will learn some basic rules that you need to know if you want to understand and speak the French language naturally.
Pronunciation of e, e, e, and e
Diacritical marks (accents) exist only to distinguish cases where the pronunciation differs from the pronunciation established by the standard rules for the letter “e” (you can find these in the next section). Here they are:
Ë with diuresis This is the easiest case to deal with. Diaeresis (two dots) indicating that the underlying “e” is pronounced as /ɛ/ (as in “e” in “bet”, i.e. open E), no matter what comes around it, and is used in groups of vowels that would otherwise be pronounced differently.
For example noel (Christmas) is pronounced /isnɔɛl/ (naw-el), while “noel” (a non-existing word) would be pronounced /noel/(/oh/ sounds almost like the “ir” in “bird” in British English, with the lips rounded or like the German “o”). This diacritic mark can also appear over other vowels. For example, inexperienced is pronounced /gullible/ (na-ew), while inexperienced (a non-existing word) will be pronounced /nɛv/ (nav).
È with a serious tone reflects the pronunciation /ɛ/ (as in “e” in “bet”, i.e. open E). This is used to clarify that “e” is not silent and is not restricted to /ə/ (uh). For example, in the word Pere (father), “pe” is an open syllable (it ends with a vowel), so if the word is written “pere”, the expected pronunciation would be /pəʁ/ (Puhar). To show correct pronunciation /pɛʁ/ (per), we have to use “è”.
The letter “e” also commonly appears in verb conjugations. For example, buy (to buy) is pronounced / isaʃəte/ (ah-shuh-teh) or /Ate/ (ash-teh); The middle “e” is shortened because it is the last letter of the syllable (syllabic). a-che-ter). However, when the verb is conjugated in the singular, it is pronounced /aʃɛt/ (ah-shet). The grave accent is to be used here to mark correct pronunciation; so we have j’achete, you are good, ill unconsciousNot “J’Acheté, tu Achetés, il Acheté”.
This happens with many other verbs, e.g. face to face (“Take”), lever – i take (“Raise”), Peller – I am Pele (“peel”).
E with strong accent reflects the pronunciation /E/ (as in “e” in “hey”; somewhere between the “e” in “bet” and the “e” in “see”). It is used wherever pronunciation requires this sound, but if no pronunciation is used the general rules would dictate otherwise. Remember not to write “é” when the pronunciation is already established by the rules, the most important ending being “-ez” (for example) you aveasy) and “-er” in infinitives (e.g. Objectiveer).
Ê with circumflex accent Marks an “e” originally followed by another letter (usually an s), but this letter no longer exists in its modern spelling. For example, Even more (to be) was originally written astrewhich is a link to its Latin origin, Summarywhich you can still see in English words like “Summaryntial”.
Anyway, since “ê” is basically a form of writing “es”, which closes the syllable (see next section), “ê” is usually pronounced /.ɛ/ (as in “e” in “bet”). We can often figure out the meaning of unknown words by imagining “es” in place of “ê”; For example, forest = forest, Fete = “festival” = fest(ival); Difference = Ruchi and many others. For example, the circumflex pronunciation is used in the same sense for other vowels. Il = island, hote = “hoste” = host, Hatred = Haste.
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