18 8.11: Structure – Lettres muettes à la fin des mots

On étudie !

In French, many letters are not pronounced. In fact, many letters at the end of a word are silent (muettes). So instead of listening all the letters that are not pronounced, we will simply show letters that are usually silent.

When the consonants l, c, f, r, k, and b are placed at the end of a word, most of the time, they are pronounced. All other consonants are usually not pronounced.

un parc un club une chef un look avril le four

But there are exceptions to this rule. Here are a few exceptions.

minimum un index un autobus le sud le gaz huit

When it comes to vowels, it is easy, because all vowels are pronounced, except for the letter e.

cinéma cacao fini vu jockey

In the case of most words that are more than one syllable end in –er the e and the r combine and make the é sound. This is also the case with most verbs that end in –er.

manger travailler skier ouvrier damier cendrier