French pronuctionation

I also find it difficult to pronunctionate.

French spelling is even harder..

Only when you have to punctuate it..

Or to actionate the punctuatation..

Francis, would you say that French pronunciation (I'll stop being a wiseass)
is consistent, once you apply the rules?

I like «la cacographie» best when it is called "typos" by others. :wink:

Obviusly, George.

French pronunciation is pretty consistent in 98% of the cases.

There's some exceptions to the rules, as in every language...

Yes, Walter, typos are much nicer than simple mispellings.

Do you always drop the t and s when they are the last letter? example:

Ce ne sont pas= cu nu son pa


bleh

No, not always.

You drop the t and the s only if the first letter of the next word is a consonant:

Cent pas = Sampa


You pronounce it if it is a vowel:

Cent ans = Santan (or whatever)..


These are the rules. Now, you have some exceptions here and there...

"Un jambon", bzw, is a good example to pronounce all three nasal vowel sounds :wink:
(As well as I remember that my old Frech teacher always told us that you should be able to say "Paris" holding a candle in front of your mouth without blowing it out.)

Good one, Walter!

You shouldn't blow out the candles (in the mass) because,

Paris vaut bien une messe.

My only French pronunciation joke:
Why do they have only one egg for breakfast in Paris?
Because one egg is une oeuf.




Tiddy-boom.

Not bad, George.

Francis

When you encounter a new word in conversation, and want to write it down, how are you sure of the spelling if the s or the t had been dropped when speaking?

When writing something in Spanish, I feel confident I'm spelling words correctly, as it's so phonetic.

French does not seem so to me, or am I looking at it the wrong way? For instance, I wouldn't say English is very phonetic.

To me, if you are are able to spot a new word in a conversation, it means that you know the rules of pronunciation already.

So you pay attention if the next word begins with a consonant or a vowel and then you are able to infer how it ends.

As I said, it's not 100% sure, as there are exceptions.

But, knowing Spanish, I wouldn't say it's more phonetic than French.

As for English, I still have trouble between words with i and ee, which seems elementary to you..

(I can hardly spot the difference between the words in bold).

I think that's the same question with any language which isn't your mother tongue (and, quite funny, though I got worse marks In French than in English, those phonetical rules seemed to be easier to me in French than in English).