Talk:French/Lessons/Alphabet

How to pronounce R in French?
The pronunciation is rather difficult for some language speakers. And I cannot find such sound in either English or my native language Chinese. Can anyone give more details on the pronunciation or give a picture of the position of the tongue?

I just noticed something after insterting the paragraph clarifying the difference in phonological terms on the the English and French 'p' and 'b'. I don't believe that the voiced labial stop 'b' is ever aspirated in English. In fact, the rule as the wikipedia aspiration page states it (and as I learned it as well), is "voiceless stops are aspirated when they begin a stressed syllable". 'B' is voiced and so it shouldn't fall into that category. But I'm not a native speaker and may not have absorbed the rules of English phonology that natives don't even have to think about. Tell me: is there the same difference between between 'pit' and 'spit' as 'bit' and ... well, it's hard to come up with an example. 'sbit'? But that's not a word. We need a word where the 'b' does not begin a stressed syllable. The 's trick' that works for 'pit' and 'spit' (and 'kill' and 'skill') does not work here since I cannot think of a word with this consonant cluster (I don't think 'disbarred' works because it's syllabized 'dis-barred' and so the 'b' still starts a stressed syllable). Possibly 'dweeb' might work here for comparison with 'bit' since the 'b' ends the syllable instead of beginning it. Suggestions anyone?

I am a native speaker, and when I say "spit" and "sbit" I get the exact same sound. Although sbit isn't a word, I think it demostrates the point quite clearly. So, until we can find a word with an unaspirated B, I think it could be used. 151.213.240.56 02:14, 5 June 2006 (UTC)

Does "ÿ" and "ö" exist in french?
As french native speaker, I don't know any word with those letter modified this way... Maybe I am mistaking but are you sure they exist in modern french? --Lyndametref 03:27, 5 April 2006 (UTC)


 * The lesson on accents says, "The letter ÿ is only used in very rare words, most old town names : L'Haÿ-Les-Roses (Paris surburb)." Don't know about ö. --Hagindaz 04:20, 5 April 2006 (UTC)

b and p - pit and spit example
I'm having trouble with the pit and spit example, as I'm noticing said "puff" on the second word when the text says it shouldn't. Because of this, I'm not sure if the text there is correct, or if it's a normal method on how I pronounce English words - and as such, I might never meet the requirement of that exercise even if I'm correctly pronouncing "papa". --206.248.132.105 (talk) 22:55, 14 January 2009 (UTC)

Punctuation spacing
I'm looking for an authoritative style guide on French spacing of punctuation symbols. I currently found one from Nova Scotia, but I think I need another style guide in order to confirm if this is correct under international French. --Sigma 7 (talk) 16:22, 26 January 2009 (UTC)

Usefulness of the h-section
Given the general irregularity of french pronounciation, i wonder if telling people about difficulties such as aspirated versus unaspirated h upfront is a good idea. Especially if the exercise is to lookup words in a dictionnary. Just say that as a rule, h is silent, and leave the aspirated bit for later. I'd drop this section, and reintroduce it whenever liaison is introduced, in a section like "liaison and words starting with a vowel". In the current state, it is as if you introduced a versus an to students on their first english lesson, just because they learn how to pronounce the letter u. Likewise, the section on french p versus english p seems a bit too frightening: you have to exercise with a piece of paper before you even see the first french sentence?

Conjugation of habiter Lesson 1.05
My version has tu habite. I believe it should be tu habites.