Exceptions of french pronunciation
I'm "fascinated" by all the exceptions of french pronunciations, e.g.
- verb ending "ent" of third person plural is silent
- femme is pronounced "f-a-m"
- faisons is "f-e-zon"
- monsieur is "m-e-sieur"
- patience is "p-si-ence"
...

Needless to say, these can easily trip self-learners of french if you don't pay attention, so could you list down some other such exceptions to be watched for, especially when learning outside of a classroom?

Thanks!

Question

Exceptions of french pronunciation
I'm "fascinated" by all the exceptions of french pronunciations, e.g.
- verb ending "ent" of third person plural is silent
- femme is pronounced "f-a-m" 
- faisons is "f-e-zon"
- monsieur is "m-e-sieur"
- patience is "p-si-ence"
...

Needless to say, these can easily trip self-learners of french if you don't pay attention, so could you list down some other such exceptions to be watched for, especially when learning outside of a classroom?

Thanks!

Answer

others are:
p is spoken: at the beginning of a word: place, papa
                  in the middle of a word: lampe, septembre
p is not spoken: before a consonant: se(p)t, ba(p)tiser
                       after nasals            : camp, champ

i could list a lot of others!! there are books to check these exceptions if you look for a book about french phonetics you will find them! hope it helps you a bit!!

Answer

salut owen!
there is for example an exception concerning the "e":
"e" often disappears between two consonants:
samedi= samdi, demain=dmain,la petite fille= la ptite fille, etc.

but it stays if there are more than two consonants:
par sEmaine, une pEtite fille

Não perca a oportunidade de aprender uma língua no conforto da sua casa. Navegue pela nossa seleção de professores de línguas experientes e inscreva-se na sua primeira aula agora mesmo!