French things

Foreign Language Skills-I (French) BHM-501T


UNIT: 01
INTRODUCTION TO BASICS OF
FRENCH LANGUAGE
Structure:
1.1 Objectives
1.2 The Alphabet and Their Pronunciation
1.3 Les Accents (The Accents)
1.4 Pronoms Sujets (Subject Pronouns)
1.5 Change of Gender
1.6 Les Verbes (The Verbs)
1.7 Les Nombres (The Numbers): Cardinal – Ordinal
1.8 How to Tell Time in French?
1.9 Formules De Politesse (Basic Greetings)
1.10 Poids Et Mesures (Weights and Measures)
1.11 Glossary
1.12 Reference / Bibliography/Suggested Readings
1.13 Terminal Questions


1.1 Objective

After reading this unit you should be able to:
1. To learn the pronunciation and the accents in French.
2. To understand the Subject Pronouns and French verbs and their
conjugations.
3. To know about French numbers and time
4. To know common greetings and able to express weight and measures in
French.


1.2 The Alphabet and Their Pronunciation

The French Alphabet L'alphabet français
(Pronunciation)
A a A
B b Bé
C c Cé
D d Dé
E e E

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F f Ef
G g Jé
H h Ash
I i I
J j Ji
K k Ka
L l El
M m Emm
N n Enn
O o O
P p Pé
Q q Ky
R r Err
S s Es
T t Té
U u Eu
V v Vé
W w Double vé
X x Iks
Y y I-grek
Z z Zéd


VOWELS:( Les voyelles) - There are six Vowels in French Language –

a, e, i, o, u, y.
„h‟ is the vowel mute. ‗H‘ n not pronounced n French and normally slent. It s
usually followed by another vowel.
Example :hôtel (hotel) [ O-T-E]


CONSONANTS- There are nineteen consonants in French Language-
B, C ,D, F ,G ,J ,K, L, M, N, P,
Q ,R, S, T, V ,W ,X, Z.


 If French alphabet ‗C‘s followed by a,o,u ; t s pronounced as (KA,KU) .
 If French alphabet ‗C‘s followed by e,,y, ; t s pronounced as (SI) .
Example: Commencer ( C -O-M-A-N-S-E)
 If French alphabet ‗G‘s followed by a,o,u ; it is pronounced as (GA, GU)
 If French alphabet ‗G‘s followed by e,,y ; t s pronounced as (JE,JI) .
Example: Garçon ( G-A-R-S-O)( Here ‗C‘ s pronounced as ‗S‘ due to assent
La cédlle ‗ç‘on ‗c‘.


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Silent letters: In French certain letters are not pronounced depending on their
position in the words:
 If a French word is ending with consonant and that consonant is preceded
by a vowel, then that consonant is not pronounced.
Example: Tabac (T-A-B-A) ; Assez( A-S-E)
 When masculine nouns and adjectives are converted to feminine by
adding an -e the preceding consonant will be sounded/pronounced.
Example: étudiant [E-T-U-D-I-A],---étudiante [E-T-U-D-I-A-T]
( Student)
Petit ( P-E-T-I), Petite ( P-E-T-I-T), (small)
 In French the word ‗lle‘ combnedly pronounced as ‗EE‘
Example:Mille (M-E-E)
 All the nouns in French language are either masculine or feminine. There
s no neutral gender. Normally a French noun endng wth ‗e‘ s femnne.
This is not universally applicable. Some exceptions do exist. Two French
feminine nouns are given below:
Example: Actrice (actress); Maison (House)


ÉLISION(Elision): Usually when a word ends with a vowel and the next word begins
with vowel, then last vowel of first word is dropped (elided) and it is replaced by an
apostrophe.
Example: Le homme (the man) : e s dropped or elded = L‘homme
La heure (the hour ) : a s elded = L‘heure
S l (f he) : I s elded = S‘l


LES SIGNES DE PUNCTUATION (PUNCTUATION MARKS)
Punctuation marks in the French language are used in a similar way of English
language, but the dash or ‗tret‘ commonly serves to denote a change n the speaker n
a wrtten dalogue…….
For example: -C‘est vous (It is you)
-rien (nothing).




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The following punctuation marks are used in dictation practice:
( . ) - le point (the full-stop)
(,) – la virgule (the comma)
(;) – le point et virgule (the semi-colon)
(:) – les deux points (the colon)
(?) – le point d‘nterrogaton (the queston mark)
(-) – le trat d‘unon (the hyphen)
( )– le tiret (the dash)
( ) – la parenthese (the brackets)


1.3 LES ACCENTS(THE ACCENTS) ou (or) LES SIGNES
ORTHOGRAPHIQUES (ORTHOGRAPHIC SIGNS)

L‟accentaigu: The aigu(acute) accent (é )points to the right and upward. It generally
put above the letter e and t changes the letter‘s pronuncaton to ay
—for example,:Médecin ( doctor),(M-E-D-S-O); Marché ( market).
L‟accent grave: The grave accent (è)points to the left and upward. It can appear over
vowel- ‗a‘ ‗e‘ and ‗u‘, but t only alters pronuncaton when over the letter e. ‗ è‘ wth
grave accents is always pronounced ‗EHH‘, like the ‗e‘ in the English word set.
Examples:
 Très ( very); Deuxième ( in second place).
When grave accent s put on ‗a‘ and ‗u‘, thepronuncaton does not change, but ts
meaning is changed.
For example: ou n French means (or) and où means (where), Smlarly ‗à‘ means (at
or to).
La cédille: In French, the cedilla is a little tail under the letter c: ‗ç‘. It is used to give
the ‗c‘ an ‗s‘ sound nstead of a hard ‗ k‘ sound (when ‗C‘ s followed by ‗a‘ or ‗o‘ n
a word —for example:
 Garçon ( boy); Français ( the French language)
Le tréma: The tréma looks lke two dots above a letter. It‘s usually placed above the
second of two consecutive vowels when both vowels are to be pronounced separately.
 Jamaïque ( Jamai- ca) ; Nöel ( Nö-EL)
Le circonflexe: The circonflexe looks lke a lttle ponted hat over vowels. It doesn‘t
change pronunciation, but it must be included in written French.

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