Lesson - French Sounds (Pronunciation) - #11

[garçoncanadien]

thank you for a great lesson

can you explain this to me?

In the sentence “I’m not telling you,” several e’s are not pronounced. You say:
Je ne te le dis pas.
(zhun-tuhl-dee-pah… not 6 syllables)

Note these groups:
cette potre........... tu parles............. ils parlent

An unstable e must be pronounced in order to avoid saying three separate consonants at once.
Elle me plait
(el m pleh… impossible in French)
Say: el muh pleh

I have no clue what are you talking about.

[CFHollister]

Originally Posted by garçoncanadien

thank you for a great lesson
can you explain this to me?
I have no clue what are you talking about.

Oh boy, and of the two of us I'm the one that doesn't speak French.

Since I don't know how to do strikethrough with this boards software I use red to indicate letters that have been crossed out in the original text I am reproducing these lessons from. In that section, the e's that are not pronounced (unstable e's) are indicated in red.

In the sentence "Je ne te le dis pas," the French student might be tempted to say: "zhuh nuh tuh luh dee pah" (six syllables). But the correct pronunciation includes the indicated silent, unstable e's: "zhuhn tuhl dee pah" (4 syllables).

The "notice these groups" just points ot some more silent, unstable e's.

The final part you quoted there illustrates an exception where unstable e's are pronounced... in the case where not pronouncing them as usual would force the speaker to pronounce 3 consonants without an intervening vowel, which is apparently not permitted in the pronunciation rules of French (though this kind of construction appears fine in English, German and a number of other languages). The example illustrates where the usually silent, unstable e in "me" as in fact pronounced to avoid the coarticulation of l-m-p without an intervening vowel.

Hope that helps