[Originally posted on 03/15/14 on the Duolingo French for English speakers forum by PERCE_NEIGE]
Hi! I made a long reply to an forum, and as it took me time to make this reply, I paste it to the discussion forum because maybe it can help some of you. It’s not complete, but I will improve it when I’ll have time to do.
THE FINAL CONSONNANTS, TO PRONOUNCE THEM OR NOT?
• • Most of the time final “c”, as other final letter is MUTE especially if there’s a consonnant before the “c”. –Examples of mute “c”, le marc de café (the coffee marc), le porc (the pig)… —Some exceptions with pronounced “c”: donc (then), fisc (tax authorities)… • The “c” is only prononced (and not always) when it is preceed by a vowel, i.e, if you have a vowel + a “c” at a end of a word, it’s often pronounced. Pronounced “c”: —Examples of pronounced “c”, le pic (the pick/the peak), le sac (the bag)… —Some exceptions with mute “c”: le croc (the fang)
• • For “r”, it shouldn’t be in this rule, because final “r” is always preceeded with a wovel in French, and so, is never really mute, but is pronounced 2 ways (when you say it’s mute, in reality it combines with the “e” to create a new sound). With any wovel, the “r” is always pronounced the regular way, but with “e”, it can be pronounced 2 ways. • “er” makes the new sound “é”, like in the verbs, ex: aimer, (to like/love), jouer (to play), marcher (to walk) etc….
•• For “l” It can be either pronounced or mute. (but it’s scarce) Most of the time the “l” is pronounced, but by example in “fusil” (rifle), the “l” is mute.
•• For “f” Most of the time the “f” is pronounced. But in “cerf” (deer), it’s mute, for “clef” (key), it’s not really mute, because it makes the sound “è” in combinaison with the “e”.
Some links for the mute final consonants training:
–http://www.francaisfacile.com/exercices/exercice-francais-2/exercice-francais-81294.php
–http://monsu.desiderio.free.fr/curiosites/g-muet.html
–http://bv.alloprof.qc.ca/francais/la-langue/les-lettres-muettes.aspx (be careful, that they means here is the letters CAN be mute)
Duolinguists 