The vowel sound /e/ Listen to the vowels in the word préfère. How are they different? The first one is pronounced /e/ and the second one /E/. To make the sound /e/, hold your mouth in a closed smiling position. Keep your lips and tongue steady to avoid the glide as in the English word day. Try these words: –Été, désolé, occupé, répondre, apportez, trouver
the vowel sound /E/ Now take a smiling position once again, but this time open your mouth wider. This will produce the vowel sound /E/. Try these words: Règlealgèbreachètefrère
The é represents the sound /e/, while è represents the sound /E/. Youve probably noticed that unaccented e and other letter combinations can represent these sounds as well. Apportertrouvez
You see that the spellings –ez and –er normally represent the sound /e/. This is true of all infinitives ending in –er.
The sound /E/ Now repeat these words: Faitfrançaisneigebête Ellecasetteexamencherche Some spellings of this sound are ait, ais ei, and ê. An unaccented e is pronounced as /E/ when it is followed by a double consonant such as ll or tt, when followed by x, and in most cases when followed by r, or by any pronounced consonant.
The vowel sound /e/ & /E/ Practice the sounds by repeating these words délicieux méchant théâtre vélo après-midi père mère très février chanter chez prenez cettefrançaise treize pêches
The vowel sound /e/ & /E/ Practice reading the following sentences aloud. Ne quittez pas! Je vais chercher mon frère. Marcel a visité Arles en mai. Il est allé au musée, à la cathédrale et aux arènes. Elle naime pas trop lalgèbre et la géométrie, mais elle naime pas lespagnol. Tu ne peux pas aller au cinéma. Tu nas pas fait la vaisselle