The letters е, è, ê, é, ё

[Sarah]

Hello,

Could you tell me how  these vowels  е, è, ê, é, ё  are usually  pronounced?

And also the 'u' in ou and où?

Thanks

[Chantal Savignat]

Hello,

I am seeing you have no answer.

It's difficult to answer this.

For "u" in "ou" or "où", "u" hasn't a distinct pronunciation. You don't hear the "u" in "ou" and "où"

"ou" and "où" have the same pronunciation as "ou" in "you"

for the others : 

"E"  is very difficult to explain, because it depends on where is the "e" in a word.

but I found a nice video  for you, it's exactly what you need :   http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7NJk9D-PrY0

and all videos from the same user  http://www.youtube.com/user/estelleinlondon?feature=watch

and this one http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=92aQwVUBAYY

and for info "ê" is as " è"

and ë means that the "e" and the next letters are heard distinctly  like Noël => you hears NO then EL

[Yannick]

Hi Sarah,

Go to this website and you'll find your answer 

http://www.laits.utexas.edu/fi/html/pho/01.html

Hope this help

[Sarah]

Thank you very much for your replies, Chantal and  Yannick. The links you gave me are very helpful.  Ialso wanted to find rules for these letters an, am, en, em,un, um, on, om, in, im, ain, aim, ein, yn, ym but I haven't found anything so far. On certain sites it is showed how they are pronounced, but there are no rules given.

[Neil Coffey]

Hi Sarah -- You may be interested in this article of mine on Getting To Grips With French Nasal Vowels.

Note that for the purpose of nasalised vowels, "n" and "m" are effectively variations of the same thing: you don't need to remember separate rules for e.g. "in" vs "im".

If you'll forgive the blatant plug, if you have an appropriate device, I'd also really recommend you check out my Utter French! pronunciation app for iPhone/iPad-- it contains 1,200 "commentated" recordings of a native speaker pronouncing basic French words, and alongside the recordings explains how to pronounce the sounds making up the words, how the sounds correspond to letters, how they interact with sounds next to them etc. If by any chance you have one of these devices, it think will really help you get to grips with pronunciation in a way that not many other resources allow.

[Sarah]

Thank you very much, Neil. I was listening to the words on this site http://www.lepointdufle.net/apprendre_a_lire1/in1.htm  and noticed that 'in' is pronounced differntly in médecin and mini, synonyme and  symbole are also pronounced differently. Maybe I am wrong? 

[Neil Coffey]

Remember that there´s a difference between combinations of vowel + n/m when they occur at the end of a word or before a consonant and when they occur before another vowel.

In the first of these cases, the vowel+n/m combination is pronounced as a nasalised vowel; when the n/m occurs before another vowel (or when there's a double n/m), the vowel and n/m are pronounced 'normally'. So that's why there is a difference between the -in of "médecin" and the -in- of "mini".

[Sarah]

I  noticed that  on the site I mentioned when 'in' is followed by the vowels a e i o u it is pronouced  as in mini and not as in matin.  Is it the same for  'im' followed by the vowels?

[Neil Coffey]

Yes, exactly the same. So in e.g. "image", the "i" is pronounced 'normally' as an "i" and the "m" is pronounced 'normally' as a "m".

[Sarah]

It is not  as  hard as it seemed to me at  first. :) :) :)

[Sarah]

Thank you. I will check it out. :)