Answers: Module 01 — Introduction: Sounds, Alphabet, and First Words¶
Answer Key¶
Easy Questions (1 pt each)¶
Q1. The cédille (ç) is placed under the letter c to indicate that it is pronounced /s/ (not /k/) when followed by the vowels a, o, or u. Without the cédille, ca, co, cu are pronounced /ka/, /ko/, /ky/. Example: garçon /ɡaʁsɔ̃/ (the ç makes the c soft before o); also ça /sa/, reçu /ʁəsy/.
Q2. The four French nasal vowels: - /ɑ̃/ — written an, am, en, em — example: dans (in), temps (time) - /ɛ̃/ — written in, im, ain, aim, ein — example: vin (wine), main (hand) - /ɔ̃/ — written on, om — example: bon (good), pont (bridge) - /œ̃/ — written un, um — example: un (one/a), parfum (perfume)
Q3. The conjunction et (and) never takes a liaison. Marie et Antoine — no liaison after et, even though Antoine begins with a vowel. This is a forbidden liaison.
Q4. Tu is the singular informal second-person pronoun, used with friends, family members, children, and people you know well. Vous is the formal or plural second-person pronoun, used with strangers, authority figures, or groups. Example: you use tu with your best friend (Tu viens ce soir ? — Are you coming tonight?) and vous with your employer meeting you for the first time (Comment vous appelez-vous ? — What is your name?).
Q5. "CaReFuL" is a mnemonic for the consonants that are more often pronounced at the end of French words: C (comme /k/), R (comme /ʁ/), F (comme /f/), L (comme /l/). All other word-final consonants (b, d, g, p, s, t, x, z) are almost always silent.
Medium Questions (2 pts each)¶
Q6. Elision and liaison are both phenomena of connected speech, but they differ in mechanism and representation: - Elision occurs when a function word (le, la, je, me, te, se, de, ne, que) has its final vowel dropped before a vowel-initial word. It is marked in writing with an apostrophe: le ami → l'ami. The dropped vowel disappears entirely. - Liaison occurs when a word's normally silent final consonant is pronounced before a vowel-initial word. It is not marked in writing: les amis — the s of les is silent in isolation, but pronounced /z/ in this phrase. Both require the second word to begin with a vowel or mute h; both make French speech sound "linked"; but elision affects a vowel of the first word, while liaison activates a silent consonant.
Q7. To produce French /y/: (1) position your tongue as for the English vowel "ee" /iː/ — tongue high and forward in the mouth; (2) while keeping your tongue in that position, round your lips into the position for "oo" /uː/. Maintain both simultaneously. This combination — front tongue, rounded lips — is not found in English. The common English error is to substitute /uː/ (as in "food"), so tu /ty/ becomes /tuː/. To a native speaker, this sounds like an American tourist saying tout (all/everything) instead of tu (you), which can cause confusion.
Q8. Les enfants ont mangé: - les + enfants /lez‿ɑ̃fɑ̃/ — obligatory liaison (article + noun). The s of les becomes /z/. - enfants + ont /ɑ̃fɑ̃z‿ɔ̃/ — obligatory liaison (plural noun subject + verb). The s of enfants becomes /z/. (Some prescriptive grammarians consider this optional; in careful speech it is made.) - ont + mangé — no liaison; ont ends in a nasal vowel + t, and while t can liaison, this specific combination before the past participle is often treated as optional. In standard careful speech: /ɔ̃t‿mɑ̃ʒe/. Full phrase: /lez‿ɑ̃fɑ̃ z‿ɔ̃ (t‿)mɑ̃ʒe/
Q9. Temps /tɑ̃/: - t — pronounced /t/, as expected - e — not pronounced separately; part of the nasal vowel combination with m - m — part of the em spelling indicating the nasal vowel /ɑ̃/ (the nasal vowel "em" before a consonant = /ɑ̃/) - p — silent (it was pronounced in Old French but was lost phonologically; the spelling preserves the Latin tempus) - s — silent final consonant (typical of French) So the entire spelling temps represents just two sounds: /t/ + /ɑ̃/ = /tɑ̃/.
Q10. Tutoiement (shifting from vous to tu) signals a move to a more intimate, familiar, or equal relationship. It is a social act, not merely a grammatical one. In France, the native speaker usually initiates the offer: "On peut se tutoyer" (We can use tu) or "Tu peux me tutoyer" (You can use tu with me). Using tu uninvited with a stranger, older person, or authority figure is perceived as rude, arrogant, or overly familiar — particularly in formal professional contexts. Conversely, persisting with vous after an invitation to use tu can seem cold or ironic. The rules vary by region and generation: young people in France are more likely to use tu quickly; formal institutions and older adults maintain vous longer.
Hard Questions (3 pts each)¶
Q11. Bon /bɔ̃/ has a nasal vowel: the on before a word boundary creates the nasal /ɔ̃/. When the feminine suffix -e is added to form bonne /bɔn/, the nasal vowel denasalizes and the consonant n is pronounced as a regular oral consonant. The rule: a nasal vowel occurs only when the nasal consonant (n or m) is followed by a consonant or occurs at the end of a word. When the nasal consonant is followed by a vowel, the vowel is oral (not nasal) and the n is pronounced as a separate consonant. This is why the pair bon /bɔ̃/ vs. bonne /bɔn/ are pronounced so differently despite differing by just one letter.
Q12. Analysis of liaison opportunities: - Les / étudiants → O (obligatory — article + noun) → /lez‿etydja/ - étudiants / arrivent → opt (optional — plural noun before verb) → /etydja(z‿)aʁiv/ - Ils / ont → O (obligatory — subject pronoun + verb) → /ilz‿ɔ̃/ - ont / étudié → O (obligatory — auxiliary ont before vowel) → /ɔ̃t‿etydje/ - Marie / et → N (not applicable — et doesn't liaison; and here Marie is before et) - et / Antoine → F (forbidden — never after et) → /e ɑ̃twan/ - Antoine / attendent → F (forbidden — after singular proper noun) → /ɑ̃twan atɑ̃d/ - Un / ancien → O (obligatory — article + adjective) → /œ̃n‿ɑ̃sjɛ̃/ - ancien / ami → O (obligatory — preceding adjective + noun) → /ɑ̃sjɛ̃n‿ami/ - ami / est → F (forbidden — after singular noun) → /ami ɛ/ - Mes / enfants → O (obligatory — possessive determiner + noun) → /mez‿ɑ̃fɑ̃/ - enfants / ont → opt (optional) → /ɑ̃fɑ̃(z‿)ɔ̃/ - ont / onze → O → /ɔ̃t‿ɔ̃z/ - onze / ans → F (forbidden — onze blocks liaison) → /ɔ̃z ɑ̃/
Q13. French h is always phonetically silent — it is never pronounced as the English /h/. However, it behaves differently for liaison and elision: 1. Mute h (h muet): Acts as if no consonant exists. Both elision and liaison apply. Example: l'homme (the man) — elision of le; les hommes /lez‿ɔm/ — liaison. 2. Aspirate h (h aspiré): Despite being silent phonetically, it blocks both elision and liaison. Example: le haricot (the green bean) — NOT l'haricot; les haricots /le aʁiko/ — NO liaison. 3. Both types are phonetically identical — the distinction is lexical and must be learned per word. Dictionaries mark aspirate h with an asterisk () or dagger (†). Common words with aspirate h include: *haricot, honte, hibou, haut, héros, huit (contested). Common words with mute h include: homme, heure, hôtel, histoire, habitude.
Q14. Formal equivalent:
Formal:
A: Bonjour ! Avez-vous le temps ?
B: Oui, ça va bien. Et vous ?
A: Bien, merci. À bientôt !
B: Au revoir !
Expert Questions (5 pts each)¶
Q15. In a stress-timed language like English, syllables containing stressed vowels are allocated more time, while unstressed syllables are compressed — their vowels often reduce to schwa /ə/ or disappear entirely. The sentence rhythm is driven by the stressed syllables, which recur at roughly equal time intervals. This is why English has extensive vowel reduction: "about" is /əˈbaʊt/, "the" is /ðə/, "can" becomes /kən/ in natural speech.
In a syllable-timed language like French, each syllable takes roughly equal time regardless of stress. French does have a very slight stress accent (on the last syllable of a phonological group), but it is much weaker than English stress, and vowels do not reduce as dramatically. The schwa /ə/ (mute e) is the main exception — it can be elided in casual speech — but other French vowels maintain their quality.
Consequences for English learners of French: 1. English speakers tend to reduce French unstressed vowels: they say pARIS (stressing the second syllable as in English) rather than paris /paʁi/ (equal syllables with slight final stress). A native Parisian hears /pəˈʁiː/ — wrong on both counts. 2. English speakers tend to compress multi-syllable French words, blurring intermediate vowels. Intéressant (4 syllables: in-té-res-sant) gets compressed to 3 syllables. Each syllable requires its time. 3. The French mute e /ə/ in words like le, de, que, je is optional in fast speech but not reduced the way English "the" /ðə/ is always reduced. In slow, clear French, je is /ʒə/, not the silence an English speaker might expect.
Q16. (a) The historical distinction between /œ̃/ and /ɛ̃/ is visible in spelling: words like un (one), brun (brown), parfum (perfume), lundi (Monday), humble use the spelling un/um, while words like vin (wine), main (hand), pain (bread), plein (full) use in/ain/ein. The distinct spellings preserve the historical phonemic distinction even where speech has merged them.
(b) A learner targeting Standard Parisian French need not invest heavily in maintaining the /œ̃/ vs. /ɛ̃/ distinction — for most contemporary Parisian speakers, these have merged, and producing them identically will not cause misunderstanding or sound non-native. However, a learner should at minimum recognize the spelling patterns (so they don't mistakenly nasalize "animal" or miss the nasal in "brun"), and be aware that passive comprehension of regional accents requires knowing both.
© Regional variation is significant. In Quebec French, the /œ̃/ vs. /ɛ̃/ distinction is preserved by many speakers, as is a broader range of phonemic distinctions that have been leveled in Parisian French. In Belgium, some speakers maintain it. A learner who intends to operate primarily in Quebec should invest in learning the distinction. For a learner targeting Standard French or Sub-Saharan African francophone contexts, the merged /ɛ̃/ is the safer target.