LEARN FRENCH BY PODCAST

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1 LEARN FRENCH BY PODCAST AUDIO PODCASTS FOR LEARNERS OF FRENCH AS A FOREIGN LANGUAGE Lesson 5 The French alphabet Plus Publications Bramley Douglas Road Cork Ireland (t) 353-(0) (f) 353-(0) (e) editor@learnfrenchbypodcast.com (i)

2 Hello once again, and welcome to Learn French by Podcast. My name is Hugh Nagle and here with me is Amélie Verdier. Welcome back, Amélie! Bonjour! Today s lesson is another beginner lesson. But, in fact, it s an important lesson for all learners of French from beginner to advanced. We re going to take a look at the French alphabet and talk about pronunciation, too. So, let s get started. First, Amélie, let s hear the alphabet once through. I ll repeat each letter after you. On y va! Bien sûr! A B C D E F G H I J K L M N O P Q R S T U V W X Y Z. Ok. Now, let s hear all that once again but, this time, Amélie, I ll be stopping you at certain points to highlight some points of pronunciation. A B C D Let s stop here for a moment. Let s make a point about the French D. Amélie, let s spell the French name, David. D A V I D. And, the surname Durand D U R A N D. If we listen closely, we ll notice that the French D is not like the English D. It s a softer sound. In French, the tip of the tongue touches the lower teeth when we re making the D sound. In English, that doesn t happen: there s no contact with the lower teeth. Let s hear it once again D. Now, on a brief tangent, this is the same sound, in fact, as the indefinite plural article des, which is used when referring to some items, that is, a number of things which cannot be clearly quantified, for example: des maisons des stylos des joueurs Ok. Let s move on E. Let s stop here, too. This is a key sound in French. We find it, for example, in the words le, me, te, se, que. Remember that sound. Now, we ll also encounter accented forms of the letter e frequently. Let s spell the French word for a sword une épée : E (accent aigu) P E (accent aigu) E. By the way... des, the indefinite plural article The what? This is the plural form of the English a (or an ). In fact, the French word des has no exact English equivalent. Sometimes it is translated loosely into the English word some. Consider the following sentences: There are pencils on the table. One sees houses on the horizon. Il y a des crayons sur la table. On voit des maisons à l horizon. Notice that we re talking about an inexact number of pencils and houses: we know there are some of each, but we re not quite sure exactly how many. In this kind of situation, French requires the indefinite plural article des.

3 Note that, when spelling words, you need to say the letter, followed by the type of accent it takes, if any. Let s try another name, Lefèvre : L E F E (accent grave) V R E. Ok, let s continue. F G Let s pause here. G is potentially confusing for an English speaker trying to learn French, as it is pronounced G. Let s spell some words containing the letter G. As we re now in the middle of La Coupe du monde the World Cup let s try a couple of French footballer s names. How about William Gallas : G A L L A S. And one more Willy Sagnol : S A G N O L. So, let s remember this sound carefully: G. Once again, remember that it s pronounced G. Let s continue H I Let s stop here. Note the pronunciation of the English letter I. In French, it becomes I. Remember: that s ee not ih! Let s hear some French words which contain this ee sound. The word he, for example: il. A gold mine : Une mine d or. A vine : Une vigne. Remember! The ih sound that we hear in the English words shin, pig, bit, doesn t exist in French. In French, the letter i is pronounced ee in words like: il (he), vide (empty) and la pile (battery). It is pronounced ah in words like: le vin (wine) and malin (clever). Empty : vide. A battery : Une pile. Please! S il vous plaît.

4 S il vous plaît. Let s make the point that the ih vowel sound we hear in the English words pit, thin, quick, dim doesn t exist in French. Let s continue. J Stop! Here s another potentially confusing one, especially for native English speakers. Amélie, what is the acronym used in relation to les Jeux olympiques the Olympic Games? Les J. O. Once again? Les J. O. Now, how do we spell the boy s name, Jacques? J A C Q U E S. How about the girl s name, Jeanne? J E A N N E. Let s remember the pronunication of this letter, once again, in French J. Now, let s keep going. K L M N O P Q Let s pause here for a moment. Spell for us, Amélie, the word que Q U E. How about qui? Q U I. And, la musique : M U S I Q U E. And, the French word for tail la queue, c est-à-dire: Q U E U E. That s a mouthful! Let s remember that narrow u sound in the letter Q. That s a difficult sound for learners of French and requires some practice.

5 Good. We re nearly there: what s next? R We must stop here, for sure. R, again, is a difficult sound, created at the back of the throat. Let s mention that railway system, once again, which hooks up with the métro in Paris: C est le R E R. Let s spell another few words containing R. How about fox? le renard: R E N A R D. And, the adjective rare, spelled the same in English but pronounced differently: c est rare. R A R E. Good. Let s continue. S T Let s stop here, again, to make another point about pronunciation. The letter T is a softer sound than the corresponding letter in English. Like the letter D, there s contact between the tongue and the lower teeth. Let s hear it once again: T. Remember! Regarding d and t in French They are softer sounds than the English equivalents. In French, there s a gentle contact between the tongue and the lower teeth. Let s spell some words: how about the French word for all : C est tout, c est-à-dire, T O U T. How about la lettre : L E T T R E. So, remember that the T sound is a softer sound than we might expect. What s next, Amélie? U Again, a difficult sound for learners. Remember, it s a narrow sound, almost as if we were shaping our lips and about to start whistling. Let s hear it again: U. Let s spell a few words: how about the past participle of the verb voir, which means seen. C est vu, c est-à-dire, V U. What about the past participle of the verb vouloir, which means wished C est voulu, c est-à-dire, V O U L U.

6 Ok. Let s continue. V W Let s just point out, about the letter W, that it s a relatively unusual letter in French. We find it sometimes in words borrowed from English like, the weekend c est le week-end, c est-à-dire, W E E K (tiret) E N D. Let s point out, too, about this particular word, that there s a hyphen un tiret in the French version. Let s hear that once more W E E K (tiret) E N D. Ok. Let s continue. X Again, an unusual letter. Amélie, what are x-rays, en français? On les appelle des rayons X : c est-à-dire, R A Y O N S X. And finally, we have the letter Z. It s a letter we ll meet in the verb we use for switching TV channels, right? C est exact. C est le verbe zapper. Un verbe régulier en er. Z A P P E R. Amélie, we ve looked closely at l alphabet français today and we ve also included some words to spell in the exercise at the end of our PDF Guide. To our listeners, don t forget to download this file from If you have any questions, you can put them to use via at questions@learnfrenchbypodcast.com or, alternatively, via our website. Verb zapper, a regular er verb. je zappe tu zappes il / elle / zappe nous zappons vous zappez ils / elles zappent So, Amélie, until next time! A la prochaine!

7 If you understood our lesson, then you should be ready to Vocab extra! Now it s your turn 1. Spell your own surname, out loud, in French. 2. Spell your friend s first name, out loud. 3. Spell the word Voltaire in this street address: 7 rue Voltaire. 4. Spell, aloud, each of the names you see at our answers page. (There are 5, in total). [Click the link below to go to our website s answers page.] See the answers at c est-à-dire... that is crayon (m)... pencil jeu (m)... game joueur (m)... player on y va!... Let s begin! que... that, which rayon (m)... ray sûr, bien ~... certainly tiret (m)... hyphen voir... to see vouloir... to wish Any questions? Submit them to us at Any comments? Submit them to us at