In Spanish and Italian, you pronounce every written sound, and fully. Not so in French. This is the source of many confusions when one is attempting to learn French. Usually, in school, they'll teach you the secret if you stick around three or four years. Or you can read it here.
As we've already noted (see the earlier article on the French letter "e") the French mumble. Not only has this resulted in perfectly good vowels from Latin being replaced to "e" (pronounced like the "uh" in "duh"). It has also resulted in the perfectly good grunts represented by the letter "e" disappearing.
Here are the rules:
- In French, don't say more than two consonants at once.
- Do say unaccented "e" if skipping over it will require saying more than two consonants at once.
- Don't pronounce an unaccented "e" if skipping it won't require you to say more than two consonants at once.
- If, after dropping an "e," you have a voiced consonant followed by an unvoiced consonant, devoice the first consonant. (A table follows, explaining)
Here are a few examples. Pronounced "e"s are in bold.
Je vois (j-vwa)
Je t'écoute (sh-tay-koot)
Je ne sais pas (jen say pa) (you can't do j-n-say pa)
Note, incidentally, with dropped "ne":
Je sais pas = J'sais pas (shay pas - j's is pronounced "sh")
Tu me le donnes? (tum le donne) (you can't do tum-l-donne)
If this is a bit confusing, your rule of thumb is thus: say it in your mind without the "e". If a phonetic train wreck ensues, says the "e," otherwise leave it out.
Now, here are your voiced and unvoiced consonants. Remember, if you're pronouncing a voiced consonant before an unvoiced one (after deleting an "e"), change the voiced one to its unvoiced form.
voiced : unvoiced
b : p
d : t
g : k
j : sh ("ch" in Fr.)
v : f
