Sons et lettres: A Pronunciation Method for Intermediate-level French

95 The French r occurs slightly further back in your mouth than ka and ga . Try it by first anchoring the tip of your tongue against your lower front teeth; keep it there, then say “ AGA , ARA .” The g blocks the air completely, but for the French r , the tongue allows some air to pass through the narrow opening created by the back of the tongue, as if you were gargling: “ ahh- rrrah .” You can practice by making a gargling sound (perhaps in a place where you are alone and can feel comfortable making odd sounds!). When you can consistently produce the r by itself, try saying the French word garage : first press and keep the tip of your tongue against your lower front teeth, then say “ gaa-raage ” slowly, syllable by syllable, prolonging the r in the middle. (Anchoring the tongue tip against the teeth is important: it keeps your tongue tip stationary and restricts the movement to the rear of your mouth where the sound is articulated.) When you can control the r with some consistency, practice with different vowels using the following sequences: 1. ARA, ORO, IRI, EUREU, ÉRÉ. 2. j’arrive, j’arrête, je ris. 3. l’amour, la mort, la mer. Pronounce each sequence slowly, patiently, until you can produce the r in each word reliably. (Source for no. 1: Carduner and Hagiwara, D’accord: la prononciation du français international, acquisition et perfectionnement . John Wiley & Sons, 1982.) Other Consonants The letter h . Remember that there is no h sound in French, as there is in English. An h at the beginning of a word is not pronounced. So, for example, the words homme , heureux , and habiter are all pronounced with an initial vowel sound, as in the English word honor . The consonant clusters ps and pn. In the combinations ps - and pn- , the p is pronounced together with the following consonant, unlike in English where the p is silent. Compare ( p ) s ychology and ps ychologie , ( p ) n eumonia and pn eumonie .