Why are French words pronounced differently?

And there are lots of reasons why French words look so different from how they are pronounced. The main reason is history. The French language is often called a mix between Latin, from the Romans, and Gaulish, the ancient language of Gaul, or modern-day France and Belgium. Latin was used as the writing system.

Why are French words so hard to pronounce?

The French language tends to be difficult to pronounce at first because there are simply sounds that native English speakers aren’t used to making. To begin with, French is more evenly stressed. This means that while some parts of a word are stressed, it’s not as distinct as in English.

What are the rules of pronunciation?

If you have one consonant between two vowels, you usually pronounce the first vowel as a long vowel. If you put a vowel before a double consonant, two hard consonant sounds, or a consonant that sounds like two consonants (such as x), you’ll pronounce it as a short vowel.

How are French words pronounced?

Vowels

Vowel	Pronunciation Tips	French Example
â	like “ah” but longer	âne (donkey)
e	When placed in the middle of a syllable, sounds like ai in “fair”	mer (sea)
e	When placed at the end of a syllable, sounds like -e- in “her”	le (the)
e	silent at the end of a word	tasse (cup)

Why does French sound weird?

The biggest reason for unpronounced letters is that, at one time, the letters were pronounced. One such change is that the last syllable of French words were pronounced less and less historically, which is why today, you often don’t pronounce the last letters in French words.

Why the pronunciation of but and put are different?

The difference between the initial consonant is primarily one of aspiration. In put, there is a puff of air at the release of the consonant (it is aspirated); in but, there is no such puff of air (it is unaspirated). In addition, the consonant in but may be voiced – that is, pronounced with the vocal cords vibrating.

How do you say A to Z in French?

We will also talk about the accents in French that are used to change the sounds of letters or the meanings of words….How to Say the Letters.

Letter	Pronunciation	Examples
Z	/zehd/ – sounds like zed	un zèbre (uh zeh-bruh) means ‘a zebra’