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    French Super Review
    French Super Review
    French Super Review
    Ebook346 pages2 hours

    French Super Review

    By The Editors of REA

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    About this ebook

    Get all you need to know with Super Reviews! Each Super Review is packed with in-depth, student-friendly topic reviews that fully explain everything about the subject. The French Super Review includes the sounds of French, cognates, numbers, nouns and articles, adjectives, pronouns, verbs, adverbs, prepositions and conjunctions, basic idiomatic expressions, and useful vocabulary words. Take the Super Review quizzes to see how much you've learned - and where you need more study. Makes an excellent study aid and textbook companion. Great for self-study! DETAILS - From cover to cover, each in-depth topic review is easy-to-follow and easy-to-grasp - Perfect when preparing for homework, quizzes, and exams! - Review questions after each topic that highlight and reinforce key areas and concepts - Student-friendly language for easy reading and comprehension - Includes quizzes that test your understanding of the subject
    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherResearch & Education Association
    Release dateJan 1, 2013
    ISBN9780738665191
    French Super Review

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      French Super Review - The Editors of REA

      Glossary

      CHAPTER 1

      The Sounds of French

      1.1 Pronunciation Hints

      French is one of the Romance languages (the others are Spanish, Italian, Portuguese, Romanian, Catalan, and Provençal) and is vocalic in its sound, i.e., based on vowels. This structure gives the language its soft and flowing character. English speakers can attain good pronunciation if the following simple rules are kept in mind:

      There are no diphthongs in French, as there are in English: boy = baw, ee, yuh. French vowels are clean and pure; e.g., imiter = ee-mee-tay (to imitate) and should be formed without any secondary movement of the jaw.

      Every syllable is of equal importance in volume and stress; e.g., English: de/VEL/op/ment and French: dé/ve/lop/pe/ment. There is a slight emphasis on the last syllable in words of two or more syllables and in a group of words: dé/li/CIEUX; Je parle franÇAIS; but it is not a strong stress.

      Consonants are softened: don’t explode your d’s, t’s, b’s, p’s, g’s, and k’s and your accent will improve.

      There are two sounds that are generally difficult for English speakers: the r, which can be achieved by gargling, and the u (as in tu), which is made by puckering your lips as if to whistle, while you say ee.

      1.1.1 Further Pronunciation Details

      French has the same alphabet as English; some letters are written but are not pronounced (e.g., most final consonants: sans, chez, tard, livres). Exceptions to this rule are the final c, as in bouc (billy goat), f, as in chef (head, chief), 1, as in formel (formal), and r, as in air.

      Also silent are h, as in homme, héros, théâtre, and some combinations of letters, as in parlent, monsieur, voudraient.

      In cognates (words that we recognize from English), spelling is often different from English, with letters added, deleted or changed, giving the word a French look: classe, indépendance, appartement, université. The International Phonetic Alphabet (IPA), utilized in most good dictionaries, will help you understand the sounds of French vowels, which remain unchanged, even in different spelling groups.

      1.2 The International Phonetic Alphabet (IPA)

      There are 17 consonants, 16 vowels (12 oral vowels pronounced in the mouth and 4 oral vowels articulated in the nasal passage), and 3 semi-vowels/semi-consonants halfway between vowels and consonants. These sounds are expressed by phonetic symbols which are always written between [ ].

      1.2.1 Oral Vowels

      1.2.2 Nasal Vowels

      Remember this little phrase, which includes all the nasal vowels: Un bon vin blanc [ ]. (A good white wine.)

      Denasalization, or oral pronunciation, of the nasal vowel occurs under two conditions:

      When a nasal vowel is followed by another n or m: e.g., intime ]; innocent ]; important ]; immédiat [imedja]; enfant ]; ennemi [ɛnmi]; bon ]; bonne [bɔn].

      When a nasal vowel is followed by another vowel: e.g., pain ]; peine [pɛn]; incident ]; inutile [inytil]; profond ]; chronique [kronik].

      1.2.3 Semi-Vowels/Semi-Consonants: Halfway between Vowels and Consonants

      1.2.4 Consonants

      Pronounce them softly!

      Bi-labials: [p], [b], [m]. Both lips are used. Papa, bébé, maman.

      Labio-dentals: [f], [v]. Teeth against lower lip. Frére, vie.

      Dentals: [t], [d], [n], [1]. Put your tongue against the back of your upper teeth to soften the sound. Don’t explode it! Ton, de, non, la.

      Alveolars: [ʃ], [ʒ]. Air is forced between upper and lower teeth. [ʃ] chanson, riche, acheter; [ʒ] Jean, Giverny, voyage. In English: she, pleasure.

      Palatal: [ɲ] N + yuh. Champagne, Allemagne. In English: He’ll train yuh.

      Velars: [k], [g]. Produced in the throat; make them soft. [k] avec, qui, klaxon; [g] grand, fatigué.

      Uvular: [r]. Gargle it! rue, Robert, travail.

      1.2.5 Spelling Groups

      Phonetic symbols and examples of some common spelling combinations:

      [e] é = école; ée = fiancée; ef = clef or clé; er = chanter; es = ces; et = cadet; ez = nez; ai = j’ai; e + il or ille = pareil, merveille; ay = ayons.

      [ɛ] ai + consonant = aide, aile, j’aime, palais, caisse, chaise, paix, faites; è = père; chèque, mène, achète, Thèbes, mèche, il lève; e = tête, même, guêpe, gêne, chaîne; e + tte = dette; e + l or lle = sel, elle; e + ige = neige; e + ine = peine.

      [i] ami, il y a.

      [o] tôt, sauce, beau, ôter

      [ote] haut.

      [ɔ] porte, observer (most words with initial o are pronounced [ɔ]).

      [œ] cœur, peur, jeune, beurre, seul, deuil [dœj], bœuf.

      [u] trou, toute, vous.

      [y] vue, rhume [rym], utile [ytil].

      [a] je, demain, menace [mənas], fenêtre [fənɛtrə].

      1.3 The French Alphabet

      Here is the phonetic pronunciation of the French alphabet:

      1.4 Accents

      Accents are used in French to indicate pronunciation of vowels or to differentiate between homonyms (two words that sound alike but have different meanings, e.g., où/ou; la/là).

      é = accent aigu (acute) is used only on closed e [e] and sounds approximately like a in the English word say: éléphant, médecin ], j’ai chanté, je suis désolé.

      è = accent grave is used to give the sound of open e [e] to a mute e [ə] that stands before a consonant and is followed by another mute e: The open e of the accent grave sounds approximately like the e in the English word elf: père, sèche, Hélène, j’achète, deuxième.

      à, ù = accent grave is used to make a distinction between two words that are spelled alike but have different meanings. There is no difference in the pronunciation of these two words: a Paris/ Pierre a une voiture; la femme/là-bas (over there); Où est Jean?/ Marie ou Simone (or).

      ç = cédille is used only on a c so it is pronounced [s] before a, o, and u and sounds approximately like s in the English word sun: ça, garçon, je suis déçu.

      ä, ë, ï, ö, ü = le tréma is used on the second vowel when two vowels occur together, to indicate that they are to be pronounced separately: haïr [air]; aïeux [ajø]; Noël.

      Problem Solving Examples:

      Select the correct word form in parentheses:

      Pourriez-vous me dire (où, ou) je peux trouver une bonne boulangerie (où, ou) un bon supermarché?

      J’aimerais bien rester (la, là) pendant que vous allez à la pâtisserie. Je ne veux pas quitter (la, là) maison.

      Pourriez-vous me dire où je peux trouver une bonne boulangerie ou un bon supermarché?

      J’aimerais bien rester là pendant que vous allez à la pâtisserie. Je ne veux pas quitter la maison.

      In sentence 1, "où" is selected the first time because with an accent grave it means where. "Ou" is selected the second time because without an accent grave it means or. In sentence 2, "là" is selected the first time because with an accent grave it means here. "La" is selected the second time because without an accent grave it is a feminine definite article meaning the, and "maison" (house) is feminine.

      Correct the following sentences by inserting the proper accents:

      Le pere et la mere de Patrick partent en vacances sans lui—il est tres decu, mais, il va rester avec son frere a la campagne.

      Je ne vais pas a l’ecole pendant les vacances de Noel.

      Ma mere est tres fatiguee; elle a passé une nuit blanche.

      Le père et la mère de Patrick partent en vacances sans lui—il est très déçu, mais, il va rester avec son frère à la campagne.

      Je ne vais pas a l’école pendant les vacances de Noël.

      Ma mère est très fatiguée; elle a passé une nuit blanche.

      1.5 Liaison

      Liaison, or linking, occurs in speaking when a final consonant precedes an initial vowel or an h: cet homme; vous êtes; nos amies; un anniversaire; un bel arbre; le bouc émissaire; un grand orchestre; un patron ambitieux.

      1.5.1 Some Liaisons Are to Be Avoided

      Never link "et" to a following vowel: Un chapeau et/un livre.

      Never link a final s to an aspirate h: les/hors-d’œuvre [le ɔrdœvrə].

      But do link the h in: un hôpital, l’homme, des huîtres, etc.

      In inversions, don’t link the final s of the plural to a following vowel: Avez-vous/une sœur? vont-ils/en Europe? Sont-elles/ ici? In fact, the tendency among many young French speakers today is to avoid liaison, except where it is necessary for comprehension.

      1.6 Elision

      When final and initial vowels come together, the final vowel is replaced by an apostrophe: l’amie, c’est; l’examen; il n’est pas; l’heure; Est-ce qu’il faut parler?

      Si is elided before i but not before the other vowels: s’il vous plaît; si elle accepte; si on arrive, etc.

      1.7 Syllabification

      A French syllable is determined by the vowel within it: é-té; a-mi; dé-ter-mi-ner; ré-pé-ti-tion; in-di-vi-du, etc. When you wish to separate a word, either do so at the vowel itself, or if there is a double consonant, make the separation between the two letters: fi-nis-sez; litté-ra-ture;

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