Are there any exceptions in French where the stress is not on the last syllable? and got the best answer

Answer from VeroNika[guru]
The French language can be attributed to examples of single strict stress with a big caveat: if we consider a single word. The reason is the syntagmatic essence of French stress: with it, the object of intonation is not a syllable, but a chain of words. In fact, in French there is no word stress in the flow of speech.
In "theirs" explanatory Dictionnaire de notre temps, next to the word "emphasis" there is an example of a sentence:

What does en general mean? - "Usually". And what would that mean? So, are there any exceptions?
All French say goodbye from Italian Tchao! (or Ciao!). I have never heard something even in TV shows, so that at least someone uttered with an emphasis on the last syllable: chao! (everyone says chao!)
You can listen here: link
There are even written transcriptions that you need to pronounce with an emphasis on the FIRST syllable!
I think that in some borrowings there are also such examples, for sure there are modern Anglicisms, in Perpignan I met Spanish and Catalan words with a non-French accent, but as in the original language (all French know our "KalInka", although, perhaps, correctly pronounce kalinka among them, but I constantly hear this word with “our” accent.
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Or here's another example: when, for example, the child gets it with his “Pourquoi?”, The parent will yell with an accent not on the last syllable: “pArce que!” (I wanted to give a one-word answer, something doesn’t come to mind 🙂 (that is, when on the last one, then “en français, quand on parle SANS émotion, SANS affectation, SANS insistance expressive ou didactique, l'accent touche toujours la dernière syllabe du mot".
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In the Toulouse region, the spoken language is peculiar, including in pronunciation, for example, the final vowel "e", which in literary language not readable, they have duck please -
Parisians have no difference between "poil" and "poëlle": both words are pronounced the same, but in Toulouse - "poil" will be so, but "poëlle" - with a final vowel - the vowel becomes "pronounced" and the stress, it turns out, in such words not on the last, but on the penultimate syllable.
But this cannot be considered in relation to the language as a whole - the dialect!
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i-ma-ge - there are 3 syllables in this word, the stress in such words is not the last, but the penultimate one.
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Spanish chorizo ​​sausage for sale

Answer from Eleni[guru]
No, but theoretically they can pronounce a foreign surname that way.

Answer from 3 answers[guru]

Hello! Here is a selection of topics with answers to your question: Are there any exception words in French in which the stress is not on the last syllable?

stress in French
In French (unlike Spanish and Italian), the stress in a single word falls on the last pronounced syllable: couleeur color, illusoire illusory.

A feature of French stress is that in a phrase it does not fall on the last syllable of each individual word, but on the last syllable of a group of words, which is called a rhythmic group. If in Russian we have to pronounce each word in the phrase with its own stress: He goes to school, then in the French sentenceII va a l'écolethere can be only one stress on the last pronounced syllable.
The minimum rhythmic group is:
a) Significant word with related functional words, as well as pronouns: je ne veux pas I don't want [ʒənəvøpa].
b) Groups of words expressing one concept: chemin de fer Railway[ʃ(ə)mɛ̃dəfɛr].
c) A noun with an adjective before it or an adverb before an adjective: mauvais eleve bad student.
Defining polysyllabic words, standing after the defined, form a separate rhythmic group: femme mechante an evil woman, and monosyllabic ones - one group with a defined word: parler haut speak loudly.
Along with the usual stress in French, there is a so-called amplifying stress (accent d'insistance).
This stress falls on the first consonant of the word to be emphasized: C'est "formidable. That's great!

Intonation
In an isolated short rhythmic group, the voice rises, then falls on the last syllable in an affirmative sentence. in the rhythm group il arrive demain he arrives tomorrow the last syllable of main is pronounced on a lower note than the others. In an interrogative sentence that expects a yes or no answer, il arrive demain? the last syllable main is pronounced on a higher note than all the other syllables.
Longer sentences are divided into two melodic parts: the first is the rising part, the second is the falling part. So, in the phrase cited by P. Fouche: Ils sont venus tous les deux cet après-midi m'apporter de la musique et des livres. They both came this afternoon to bring me sheet music and books. First part: i ls sont venus tous les deux cet après-midi is pronounced with a constantly rising tone from one rhythmic group to another, and the second m'apporter de la musique et des livres pronounced in a falling tone. The pitch rises towards the center of the phrase and falls from the center to the end of the phrase. The top of the highest pitch coincides with the strongest accent.

The French phonetic system includes 36 phonemes: 16 vowels, 17 consonants and 3 semivowels. There are 42 phonemes in Russian. Despite the slight difference in quantitative ratio, however, the phonetic systems of these two languages ​​have great differences.

French is dominated by vowels, while Russian is dominated by consonants. French sounds are characterized by greater clarity and stability of articulation.

Consonants missing stun and softening(the exception is two phonemes - [k], [g]); vowels - absent reduction, i.e. change in the quality of a vowel in an unstressed position (for example, the word dresser pronounced in Russian [kamot], in French this word would be pronounced as [chest]).

Pace french speech faster than Russian. french accent fixed, it is always falls on the last syllable single word, phrase, or entire phrase.

The French language has the following feature. Words in speech often lose their independence, their stress and phonetic boundaries. In other words, they seem to merge into a single whole, the so-called rhythm group, which has a common semantic meaning and a common stress that falls on the last vowel. At the same time, this happens often, but not always. There are certain rules by which this linking of words takes place.

When reading a rhythmic group, it is imperative to follow two important rules: chaining and binding. To learn to hear, distinguish and understand words in the flow of French speech, you need to know these two phenomena.

Clutch- this is a phenomenon in which a pronounced consonant at the end of one word forms one syllable with a vowel at the beginning of the next word (elle aime, j'habite, la salle est claire).

Binding- this is a phenomenon in which the final unpronounceable consonant is pronounced by linking with the vowel at the beginning of the next word. Examples: c'est elle or à neuf heures.

Now more about the rules for reading words in French. The main rules are:

1. the stress always falls on the last syllable of the word;
2. letters -s, -t, -d, -z, -x, -p, -g(and their combinations) are not readable in words if they are at the end (mais, agent, fond, nez, époux, banc);
3. letter -e at the end of words is not readable. If there is any diacritical mark above it, it is always read, no matter where it stands.
4. never read the ending -ent verbs in the present tense (3l singular h) (ils parl ent);
5. letter l always softens, reminiscent of Russian [l];
6. double consonants are read as one sound (pomme)
7. before consonants [r], [z], [Ʒ], [v], stressed vowels acquire longitude, which in transcription is indicated by a colon (base)
8. In French, the letter h never readable (except for the combination ch), but plays a role in pronunciation:

• acts as a separator if it is in the middle of a word between vowels, and indicates their separate reading (Sahara, cahier, trahir);
• with the dumb h, standing at the beginning of the word, a link is made, and a vowel is dropped out (l ‘hectare, ils habitent);
• before aspiration h linking is not done and the vowel is not dropped (la harpe, le hamac, les hamacs, les harpes).
• in dictionaries words with aspiration h denoted by an asterisk (*haut).

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In the introductory course, we will consider the sounds of the French language, giving, where possible, their approximate sound correspondences in Russian and showing for each sound what French letters or letter combinations it is transmitted.

Introductory phonetic The course consists of 12 lessons and not includes grammar

Sounds [a], [p], [b], [t], [d], [f], [v], [m], [n]

french sound	Russian sound similar to it	French letters and letter combinations	Notes
vowel [a]	[a] as in the words br a t, d aн, i.e. as [a] under stress before soft consonants	A, a À, à	The ` symbol is used to distinguish certain words in writing, for example: a- It has ( verb form); à - a preposition conveying the meaning of Russian dative case (to whom; to what?) and other values. Cursive letter À more commonly referred to as BUT.
consonant [p]	[n] as in the word P ar	P, p	Do not confuse uppercase and lowercase French letters P, p with Russians R, r!
consonant [b]	[b] as in the word b ar	B, b	Do not confuse the capital French letter B from Russian AT!
consonant [t]	[t] as in the word t az	T, t Th, th
consonant [d]	[d] as in the word d ar	D, d
consonant [f]	[f] as in the word f Act	F, f ph, ph
consonant [v]	[in] as in a word in al	V, v W, w	Letter W, w is rarely used and reads like [v] in separate borrowings from other languages, for example, in the word w warrant - guarantee.
consonant [m]	[m] as in the word m ak	M, m
consonant [n]	[n] as in the word n ash	N, n

Please update/change your browser if you experience problems with the audio player below.

Exercise number 1. Say clearly and forcefully:

[ra - ba - ta - da - fa - va - ma - na].

Exercise number 2. Write the transcription next to the letter or letter combination. Check yourself with the table above.

Sample:

T[ ]	f[ ]	t[ ]	F[ ]
d[ ]	p[ ]	à [ ]	a[ ]
A[ ]	b[ ]	b[ ]	ph[ ]
D[ ]	Ph[ ]	n[ ]	v[ ]
M[ ]	N[ ]	Th[ ]	P[ ]
m[ ]	v[ ]	th[ ]

Exercise number 3. Read the sounds by transcription, not forgetting their clear and full-sounding pronunciation. Check yourself with the table above.

[n], [b], [m], [d], [a], [f], [p], [v], [t].

Consonants at the end of words

The rule also applies to all those consonants that you will study further: at the end of words they do not undergo any changes and sound just as distinct as before a vowel.

Watch yourself: read Russian words aloud ra b, ra d, ro in. What do you hear at the end of words? You hear:[ra P], [ra t], [ro f]. Never allow such substitutions in your French speech!

Exercise number 4. Say, clearly contrasting the final sounds:

, [rar - pab], , , .

If the word ends in the sound [v], then any stressed vowel
in front of it, as a rule, lengthens, for example.
The colon in transcription indicates the length of the vowel.

Exercise number 5. Pronounce, distinguishing the final[f] and[v]:

, , .

Letter e at the end of words. French accent. French vowel clarity

Letter e at the end of words in most cases it is not readable, for example:
dam e- lady, arab e- Arabic, -th, -th.

The stress in French words falls on the last syllable, for example: papa - papa. Further, it will not be indicated in the transcription.

All French vowels sound equally distinct and bright as if under stress,
and in an unstressed position, for example: panama - panama.
All three [a] are pronounced equally vigorously, are not “swallowed” and do not change.

Exercise number 6. Read, not forgetting that the stress in French words always falls on the last syllable:

Sound [r]

It is believed that the sound [r] in the Parisian pronunciation is one of the most difficult french sounds For Russians. However, Paris, according to academician Shcherba, is not the whole of France, and since there is a pronunciation of this sound close to Russian in the province, insofar as the Russians can remain with their[R]. It is only necessary to comply general rule pronunciation of French consonants: at the end of words [r] sounds as distinct and tense as in other positions. Listen to yourself: say the words aloud R ab - ba R, R hell yes R, R Anna R. You will hear that [p] at the end of the words in each pair sounds much weaker than at the beginning of the words. So, make sure that the final [p] does not differ from the initial one, - and do so in your French speech!

For those who still want to get closer to the Parisian pronunciation, we advise you to do the following. Loudly, with pressure, as if you were angrily answering someone, say the Russian words but G a, du G oh and watch how you pronounce the sound [r]. Then calmly, as if thoughtfully, say the words a G a!, oh G about! - and you will notice that in place of the letters G a completely different sound is pronounced - such as if no obstacles are formed in its path in the oral cavity. Remember this sound well - it is still similar to the [g] that we hear in the Russian speech of people speaking with a Ukrainian accent. Pronounce the Ukrainian sound [r] in place of the French [r]- This is an option that is quite acceptable for beginners.

Finally, those who pronounce the Russian sound [r] burr - either by nature or in jest - can transfer this skill to their French speech. Burry Russian [r] instead of French [r] is also good.

So, we offer you three options for pronunciation of French [r] - the choice is yours!

Exercise number 8. Read:

If the word ends in the sound [r], then any stressed vowel
in front of it, as a rule, lengthens, for example:
bar - bar, amarre - anchor chain.

Exercise number 9. Read:

Exercise number 10. Practice writing by tracing the French letters with a pencil (not on the monitor!) The French often write block letters- learn this and you.

t	A	P	f	F	a
à	M	N	P	B	ph
T	m	v	b	Ph	V
d	Th	D	n	r	R

In order to be understood correctly, you need to pronounce one or another phrase accordingly. Each nationality rejoices, loves and is surprised in different ways, so we are not always accustomed to hearing someone else's speech. The rise and fall of intonation, pauses in sentences in colloquial and book speech are different, so studying this topic is very important!

Learning any language, including French, involves knowledge of various grammar rules and vocabulary, as well as the correct use of intonation. The intonation of the French language is noticeably different from Russian, so misunderstandings with its native speakers can often arise. It is necessary to clearly understand what intonation is in order to learn how to use it correctly.

Intonation represents a change in the main tone during the pronunciation of the sentence, as well as the intensity and its duration. We should separately consider the constituent elements of intonation, which we resort to, but do not even think about it. And, therefore, intonation is a multicomponent concept, and each of the components needs to be understood.

• The melodiousness of speech is a change in voice, that is, its rise and fall, which, for example, can distinguish an exclamatory sentence from an interrogative one.
• The rhythm of speech is the alternation in a sentence and words of stressed and unstressed vowels, long and short syllables, and an example of this can be the rhythm of a poem.
• The intensity of speech depends on breathing, it is the weakness or strength with which we read books to children or communicate on the phone, talking with friends in a cafe or in a noisy crowd.
• The rate of speech is the speed of pronouncing phrases, sentences and expressions between speech segments, which can be understood by reading poetry or tongue twisters aloud.
• The timbre of speech is responsible for the emotional equipment of the phrase, it is sound coloring, expression.
• Phrasal stress is noted in semantic groups - phrases or segments of sentences connected by a common specific meaning. Sometimes there is a selection of individual words.

It is not so easy to set a beautiful pronunciation and work out a beautiful intonation, the main thing is to understand which of its components causes difficulties, listen to French speech more often and, preferably, resort to audio lessons, repeat phrases after the announcer, and then you will speak French like real French on a subconscious level. How exactly to do this, let's try to figure it out with examples. So let's get started!

First of all, you should know that the stress in French falls on the last syllable, whether it is a single word or a rhythmic group. For example, in the word Le paquebot, the accent on "O" is le pakébo. And in the phrase Le paquebot magnifique in the first word, the stress will be less strong, almost imperceptible, and it will fall on the last syllable last word, that is, on "I". That is, le pakébo manifik. Unlike the Russian language, where we have to give our own stress in each word, the French language stresses the whole rhythmic group, and this is important to remember!

Rhythmic group and its components

The French word, when used in speech, often loses its independence, that is, stress, as well as phonetic boundaries. The words seem to merge into one single whole word, highlighted by intonation. This phenomenon is called the rhythmic group. There are a number of specific rules by which words are linked.

A rhythmic group can be composed in several ways:

• Significant word and related functional words and, if any, pronouns. For example: je ne vais pas.
• The rhythmic group may consist of words denoting general concept. For example: chemin de fer - railway.
• Phrases consisting of an adjective and a noun or an adverb, an adjective and a noun. For example: mauvais élève.
• If the defining word is polysyllabic, then it itself constitutes a rhythmic group. For example: femme méchante.
• If the defining word is monosyllabic, then it forms a rhythmic group with the words being defined. For example: parler haut.

It should also be noted that there is such an interesting phenomenon as the emphasis of amplification, it is not always noticeable, but it does take place. It's called accent d'insistance. It falls on the first syllable of the first word in the rhythmic group in order to highlight the expressed emotion more clearly. For example:

c'est'formidable.

Statement. In a separate short rhythmic group, a rise in voice is noted, and then a fall on the last syllable, if we are talking about an affirmative sentence. For example: il arrive demain - the last syllable is pronounced on a lower note.

If the sentence is long, consisting of two rhythmic groups, but the intonation is distributed as follows: the first part of the sentence rises, and the second falls. For example: Elles sont arrivées tous les trois l`après-midi pour m'apporter des livres. This sentence should be divided into two parts, the first: Elles sont arrivées tous les trois l`après-midi, which will be pronounced in a raised voice, the fall of the voice will go on the second part: pour m'apporter des livres. The pitch in the center of the phrase is the strongest stress in the entire sentence.

Question? In an interrogative sentence, implying an affirmative or negative answer, that is, "yes" or "no", the last syllable will be pronounced a note higher than the entire rhythmic group. For example:

arrive-t-il demain?

It is also necessary to remember that each language has its own characteristics that are different from other languages. Language is a historically established phenomenon that has been formed and improved for many years. Therefore, it is not surprising that the French language differs from Russian, and its characteristic difference is the clear pronunciation of all sounds, without assimilation to each other, their clear selection, and not swallowing, especially at the end of words!

Pay attention to the missing deafening and softening of sounds, with the exception of [k] and [g], and vowels are not characterized by reduction, that is, they do not change in unstressed syllables, as in Russian. For example: Russian word chest of drawers sounds "camote", and in French the same word commode sounds like "chest of drawers" without any changes.

For beginners, it may seem unusual, such a distribution of intonation. But in order to achieve understanding and show off your accent, or rather its absence, it is necessary to study the rules for setting intonation. The French intonation is not as rich as the Russian one, this can be seen from the example in the theater, when the actors will read some text, and the intonation will not differ in the performance of almost every actor, as well as the emotions embedded in the voice. Here you need to be a real pro to clearly cope with such a difficult task.

But everything is compensated by facial expressions. Each actor has an extensive facial expression, gesticulates a lot, expresses feelings with his eyes, with just one glance ... And you probably noticed that the elderly French and French women have a very prominent face, which has a lot of wrinkles, but it does not look ugly, but, on the contrary , very cute. It is not at all necessary to play a role in order to gesticulate and use your facial expressions to the maximum, it is enough to be French. Good luck in conquering French intonation, French language, French personality!