French pronounciations

[Aussie Joe 0]

Hey guys, Im wondering if some of you who are quite cluey with your French can help me out. Im trying to get my head around certain common French endings of names, words and how they are pronounced and effected by the letters that come before.

For Eg: Cartier's pronounciation Vs Delavier's.

Its possible that isn't even a good example but admittedly the amount I know about the French language could fill a thimble!

Are there any simple websites that can help or even tute videos online?

Merci beaucoup!

[lee92 2]

Hey guys, Im wondering if some of you who are quite cluey with your French can help me out. Im trying to get my head around certain common French endings of names, words and how they are pronounced and effected by the letters that come before.

For Eg: Cartier's pronounciation Vs Delavier's.

Its possible that isn't even a good example but admittedly the amount I know about the French language could fill a thimble!

Are there any simple websites that can help or even tute videos online?

Merci beaucoup!

i'm decent in my french pronounciations, but not perfect. i'll give it a shot though. cartier, to me, is pronounced car-tee-eh, and delavier would be de-lav-ee-eh. they may not be perfect though, as i'm not completely bilingual.

[TBLfan 25]

And Lecavalier is pronounced. Le-cav-a-YAY!

:P

[Aussie Joe 0]

So if a word/name ends in "ier" its always pronounced "ee-eh" regardless of any different letters that come before?

Is there any onlines references to this sort of pronounciation?

[juiced 0]

yes. But if it is 'iere' then it's pronounced 'ee-air'. However you'd have to hear it to get the accent because you would sound rediculous if you said that.

cartier - 'car-tyay'

delavier - 'day-lavyay'

The 'yay' is more of a 'ee-ay' but it sounds more like one silable. So it's not 'car-tee-ay', it's more like 'car-tyay'. If that makes any sense.

[QandA 0]

So if a word/name ends in "ier" its always pronounced "ee-eh" regardless of any different letters that come before?

Is there any onlines references to this sort of pronounciation?

That's how the english pronounce it which is what I think your looking for, but the proper way, in french for a word ending with ier...is basically 'ih'...so Lecavalier would be -la-ca-va-li-yih

[RadioGaGa 162]

In the category of French words/phrases...I love that the French phrase for Shootout is:

"Tir De Barrage"

Sounds cool.

[ramensandwich 1]

yes. But if it is 'iere' then it's pronounced 'ee-air'. However you'd have to hear it to get the accent because you would sound rediculous if you said that.

cartier - 'car-tyay'

delavier - 'day-lavyay'

The 'yay' is more of a 'ee-ay' but it sounds more like one silable. So it's not 'car-tee-ay', it's more like 'car-tyay'. If that makes any sense.

actually you're wrong on delavier, there is no accent on the e. fluent french speaker here.

it is duh-lav-yay.

to properly pronounce a french e, it comes from your diaphragm, more of a "ugh". also, let the word flow, french do not put stress on any syllables... however the ending could come out several ways, depending on how the speaker blends it into the following word.

main staples of of french pronunciation... are in the vowels. aside from that, try really hard to put on your best to "sound french" and you'll be surprised how well you do.

a makes the "ahhh" sound always

ending "er" and é (e aigu) makes an "ay" sound...

è (e grave) makes the "eh" sound.

plain e makes the gut sound...

i makes the "eeee" sound always.

u makes the "ewww" sound always

final "s" of a word is not said unless needed to blend into the next word.

as the first letter of a word, H is usually silent.

regular c is always "kuh/kah" sound.

ç makes the "sss" sound.

EDIT: on a side note, Tir de Barrage literally translates very wierdly, to something along the lines of "shooting to be stopped"

[juiced 0]

yes. But if it is 'iere' then it's pronounced 'ee-air'. However you'd have to hear it to get the accent because you would sound rediculous if you said that.

cartier - 'car-tyay'

delavier - 'day-lavyay'

The 'yay' is more of a 'ee-ay' but it sounds more like one silable. So it's not 'car-tee-ay', it's more like 'car-tyay'. If that makes any sense.

actually you're wrong on delavier, there is no accent on the e. fluent french speaker here.

ya im pretty fluent aswell. i didnt realise about delavier though.

[Aussie Joe 0]

actually you're wrong on delavier, there is no accent on the e. fluent french speaker here.

it is duh-lav-yay.

to properly pronounce a french e, it comes from your diaphragm, more of a "ugh". also, let the word flow, french do not put stress on any syllables... however the ending could come out several ways, depending on how the speaker blends it into the following word.

main staples of of french pronunciation... are in the vowels. aside from that, try really hard to put on your best to "sound french" and you'll be surprised how well you do.

a makes the "ahhh" sound always

ending "er" and é (e aigu) makes an "ay" sound...

è (e grave) makes the "eh" sound.

plain e makes the gut sound...

i makes the "eeee" sound always.

u makes the "ewww" sound always

final "s" of a word is not said unless needed to blend into the next word.

as the first letter of a word, H is usually silent.

regular c is always "kuh/kah" sound.

ç makes the "sss" sound.

EDIT: on a side note, Tir de Barrage literally translates very wierdly, to something along the lines of "shooting to be stopped"

Thanks, this is all helping. Im just picturing Jean Reno saying these words and its all coming to me thick and fast.

[Hidious 0]

Tir de Barrage is a word used by the media mostly, people usually use the word fusillade which is the true translation for Shootout.

And about "cartier", it is pronounced car-tyay but if you want to eliminate part of the accent, car has to be prononced diferently than you would prononce it as an automobile. The letter "a" must sounds like the Ca in the word Canada. Sounds like Ca-rtyay.

[juiced 0]

Tir de Barrage is a word used by the media mostly, people usually use the word fusillade which is the true translation for Shootout.

And about "cartier", it is pronounced car-tyay but if you want to eliminate part of the accent, car has to be prononced diferently than you would prononce it as an automobile. The letter "a" must sounds like the Ca in the word Canada. Sounds like Ca-rtyay.

trying to explain pronounciation is hard :lol: when i was off the computer i thought of another way to describe how the 'tyay' was said all together. '-tier' is kind of like the english word 'view' only instead of 'ew' its 'ay'

[RadioGaGa 162]

Not French, but I heard one today that was driving me nuts. WGR Radio in Buffalo during the Sabres/Coyotes game. Jenarette (sp?) was off and I don't know who was calling the game...but he was saying:

"Breeze-GUHL-ov"

and Harry Neale was saying:

"Briz-Gal-OV"

If you aren't going to ask the player how to say his name...at least ask each other so you aren't saying different things.

[Deerok 3]

This brings up one of my pet peeves with announcers, when they pronounce Mario Lemieux's first name MARY-O. Shouldn't it be Mahh-Rio?

[Jarick 5]

When I took French, the first thing I learned is that you usually don't pronounce the last consonants of a word, unless there is a vowel (usually e) after it. So they say "boooo" for but (goal) and not "boot".

I've heard "U" described as make your lips like you're going to say "oooo", then say "eeee". Different than anything in English. Most everything else is similar to vowel pronunciation in Spanish (ah-ay-ee-oh for A-E-I-O).

That's all I've got.