Lessons for English speakers
Learn to read French
A short, active path into reading French: decode real words before revealing their sound, learn the silent endings and the joins between words, follow where the pieces of a sentence sit, and read a small story before opening your first book.
13 core sections · ≈ 34 min + 3 optional lookups · ≈ 51 min with everything
4
Silent letters: the endings, and the joins between words
≈ 3 min
What you'll learn
- A consonant at the end of a word is usually silent. Four normally do sound — c, r, f, l, “CaReFuL” — except that the verb ending -er is “ay”.
- A final e is silent but wakes the consonant in front of it.
- On a doing word the ending -ent is completely silent.
- Before a vowel, a short word throws its own vowel away — and a silent final letter wakes up to start the next word.
The silent -e that wakes the consonant
| Written | Said | Written | Said | Meaning |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| petit | “puh-tee” | petite | “puh-teet” | small |
| grand | “grah(n)” | grande | “grah(n)d” | big |
| ami | “ah-mee” | amie | “ah-mee” | friend — no difference at all |
The last row is not a mistake: after a vowel there is no consonant to wake, so the extra e changes nothing you can hear.
The silent verb ending -ent
il court“he runs”
“eel koor”
one runner
ils courent“they run”
“eel koor”
several — not one sound of difference. Only on doing words: the naming word ventvah(n)“wind” keeps its nasal vowel. Since the shape of a French verb usually cannot tell you who is acting, a little word has to sit in front of every verb — the next sections build on that.
The vowel that gets thrown away
le + arbre
l'arbrelar-bruh“the tree”
le arbre is never written
je + ai
j'aizhay“I have”
ce + est
c'estseh“this is”
the commonest phrase in the language
The silent letter that wakes up
les + amis
les amislay-za-mee“the friends”
the silent s comes back as a z and starts the next word
vous + êtes
vous êtesvoo-zet“you are”
un + ami
un amiu(n)-na-mee“a friend”
the vowel stays in the nose, and an n appears to start the next word. From here on, where two words glue together the respelling shows the glued result — “lay-za-mee”, not “lay ah-mee”.
Which letters survive?
- grande
The final e wakes the letter in front of it.
Show answer +Hide answer −
grandegrah(n)d“big — with a feminine word” - ils mangent
The whole doing-word ending is silent.
Show answer +Hide answer −
ils mangenteel mah(n)zh“they eat” - l'oiseau
Which word gave up its vowel?
Show answer +Hide answer −
l'oiseaulwah-zoh“the bird” — le + oiseau. - un ami
The vowel stays in the nose, and a consonant appears to start the second word.
Show answer +Hide answer −
un amiu(n)-na-mee“a friend”