Quick recap from last week:

What would we do without French vowel sounds?  Well, the obvious answer is that we’d say a lot of consonants!  We’d end up sounding like a lot of other Eastern European languages rather than the mellifluous French language.This lesson takes a look at the nineteen vowel sounds in detail with some examples and practice exercises.  French vowel sounds are divided into three groups; Voyelles orales (“oral vowels”), Voyelles nasales (“nasal vowels”), Semi-voyelles (“half vowels”).  Part 2 of this lesson summary will focus on the last two groups of French vowels; Voyelles nasales (“nasal vowels”), Semi-voyelles (“half vowels”).

• Voyelles nasales (“nasal vowels”):These vowels are specific to French as the passage of the air goes mainly through the nose. For foreign ears, they may seem very strange at first, as the air vibrates mainly through the nose and produces a twangy sound.

• • Practice Exercise:Listen to the audio for the words pin, pan, and pont in the vocabulary section and repeat them several times.

• Semi-voyelles (“half vowels”):Semi-voyelles are also called semi-consonnes (“half consonants”). They are unique sounds between vowels and consonants that occur when two vowels follow each other in one syllable of a word, such as in balayer, meaning “to sweep” (example of the phonetic sound symbol [J]). Another example is the pronunciation of the letters –oi, which are pronounced in English [woa], as in the French word poisson (“fish”).

• • Practice Exercise: Repeat and practice all the half vowels in this sentence; Le soleil luit pour Louis en juin.(The sun shines for Louis in June.) Can you recognize the three half-vowel sounds in this sentence?