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<plus> and Other Semi-silent French Words | ||
Tags: Pronunciation | French | ||
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 Language Learning Forum : Specific Languages |  | |
| tarvos Super Polyglot Winner TAC 2012 Senior Member China likeapolyglot.wordpr Joined 4501 days ago 5310 posts - 9399 votes  Speaks: Dutch*, English, Swedish, French, Russian, German, Italian, Norwegian, Mandarin, Romanian, Afrikaans Studies: Greek, Modern Hebrew, Spanish, Portuguese, Czech, Korean, Esperanto, Finnish | Message 17 of 22 30 December 2013 at 4:56pm | IP Logged | ||
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Not to mention that in Quebec the pronunciation is generally very different. You could
argue that Quebec would need a different phonetic writing system. The Belgian and French systems are very close, but even there you will find subtle distinctions that could cause problems because for a Belgian it does not sound the same. So to have a good spelling reform, you would need to get all of that aligned - pretty tough. That's not to mention the various African variants of French. 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| Spiderkat Diglot Senior Member United States Joined 5606 days ago 175 posts - 248 votes Speaks: French*, English Studies: Russian | Message 18 of 22 31 December 2013 at 5:11am | IP Logged | ||
That one the f is not silent. Actually it has both pronunciation but I was taught in school when I was kid to pronounce as it is written and I still do. But in plurial the f becomes silent. 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| tastyonions Triglot Senior Member United States goo.gl/UIdChYRegistered users can see my Skype Name Joined 4459 days ago 1044 posts - 1823 votes Speaks: English*, French, Spanish Studies: Italian | Message 19 of 22 31 December 2013 at 5:31am | IP Logged | ||
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Yeah, I believe I have actually heard it both ways. Substitute "sert" or "sers", then. ;-)
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| Spiderkat Diglot Senior Member United States Joined 5606 days ago 175 posts - 248 votes Speaks: French*, English Studies: Russian | Message 20 of 22 31 December 2013 at 5:05pm | IP Logged | ||
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Talking about homonyms. Here's a well known and amusing little story using four of them.
Un sot avait pour mission de faire parvenir le sceau d'un seigneur à son roi. Il le mit dans un seau et partit à cheval. Le cheval fit un saut et les trois ( le sot + le sceau + le seau) tombèrent ! 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| Ibryam000 Diglot Newbie France Joined 4459 days ago 37 posts - 50 votes Speaks: French*, English Studies: Bulgarian, Spanish | Message 21 of 22 22 February 2014 at 12:08pm | IP Logged | ||
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The link given by tastyonions on first page
(http://french.about.com/library/weekly/aa101300v.htm) provides a pretty good explanation but actually contains a mistake since the third example they give ("J'ai plus de 1 000 livres.") is an exception to the rule. We French people pronunce, in this very context, "J'ai plus de 1000 livres" as [ʒe ply də mil li:vʀ]. I'm talking here about standard French from France. The rule they give is however applicable most of the time. I have got more than 1000 books : J'ai plus [ply] de 1000 livres. I have got more books than him : J'ai plus [plys] de livres que lui. Another mistake is at the end of the page : In "je cours plus vite qu'elle", plus is indeed pronunced [ply], but in "j'ai plus d'amis qu'elle", it should be pronunced [plys]. I guess this is not only a matter of the comparative/superlative plus preceding a vowel but also a matter of what you are talking about being countable or not. Moreover, in some contexts, you will hear the [ply] pronunciation from "sophisticated"/old fashioned people where it is pronunced [plys] by most people. For example: "J'en reprendrai un peu plus [ply]". Also note that the opposite word "moins" (less) is pronunced in some areas of southern France with the "s" sound at the end of the word. Edited by Ibryam000 on 22 February 2014 at 12:48pm 3 persons have voted this message useful | |||
| jpmtl Diglot Groupie Canada Joined 3796 days ago 44 posts - 115 votes Speaks: French*, English Studies: Spanish, Russian | Message 22 of 22 24 February 2014 at 5:37pm | IP Logged | ||
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All your observations are also true for Quebec.
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