Checkpoint: Sounds and First Words

You can now read a word you have never seen

The alphabet is complete, from A to Z, and with it the three habits that turn French letters into French sounds. One: two vowels together are usually one sound – ou, oi, ai, ei, eu, œu, au, eau. Two: a vowel before n or m goes through the nose – an, en, on, in, ain, ein, un – and the n wakes up only when a vowel follows (bon / bonne). Three: the last consonant is usually silent (petit, grand, trop, nez, the plural s and x), unless it is one of c, r, f, l or a final e comes after it (petite). Add the consonant pairs ch, gn, ill, ph, and you can read almost any word on a French sign. The tables below are your reading kit: go through them aloud, then try the new words in the third table before you look at their meaning.

The two consonants that most often fall silent at the end: petit, grand, lit, pied. Write them, do not say them. A final e turns them back on: petite, grande.

Three letters, one sound: the closed o. The pair au already made that sound, and the e in front adds nothing you can hear. eau, beau, chapeau. Copy the three letters even though you hear one.

Two nasal vowels side by side: an is the open nasal “ah” of dans and grand; on is the round nasal “oh” of bon and montagne. In both, the n is only a sign: the sound is in the vowel and in the nose.

un chapeau et deux photosa hat and two photos

le vent dans la montagnethe wind in the mountains