Last updated on December 13th, 2023 at 03:11 pm
There is something weird about the French language, 2 words spelled the same way are not necessarily pronounced the same way!
This is one of the reasons why French can be difficult to learn, you have to understand the meaning of the word and its grammar to pronounce it properly.
We call them homographes non homophones (words written the same way but pronounced differently).
Let’s have a look at some examples of such cases
Can you pronounce these sentences in French properly?
1. Les fils de Mme Durant sont très polis.
Les fils des marionnettes sont presque invisibles avec ce décor.
2. Les soeurs vivent dans un couvent.
Les poules couvent leurs oeufs.
3. A l’époque, nous portions l’uniforme à l’école.
La cantine a prévu de servir plus de 100 portions à midi.
How to read these words in French?
The words above in bold can be confusing.
In order to read the first example in French properly, it is important to understand the meaning of the sentences.
The context is also helpful to know how to say them correctly.
In the second example, the words (couvent) don’t have the same grammatical role.
In that case, it’s easier to figure out the difference in pronunciation.
We know that verbs in the present tense for “ils” ends with -ent but is pronounced like an e.
In the third example, the words portions don’t have the same grammatical role.
The verb porter for nous is pronunced with a t sound while the noun with the same spelling has -tion pronunced like -sion.
Some explanations with this video
Check out this video with more examples to ponder!
