FIA Grammar Chapter 4 Flashcards
What is an oral vowel?
A vowel made by letting air out of your mouth.
What is a nasal vowel?
A vowel sound made by letting some air go through your nose.
What are the four nasal vowel sounds?
- an/roman*
- hein/americain*
- on/allons*
- un/aucun*
What letters are nasal vowel sounds associated with in writing?
N and M (but they are not pronounced)
Which two nasal vowel sounds is it important to clearly distinguish between?
an and on
How do you pronounce an and on?
When you say an the mouth is open and the lips are neither rounded nor spread.
There is more tension in on: the lips are rounded, the mouth is less open, and the tongue is pulled back toward the back of the mouth.
How do you pronounce the nasal vowels in un and hein?
The tongue is placed further forward in the mouth then it is for an and on.
For un, the mouth is less open than for hein.
The distinction between these is not as critical as it is with an and on.
If you need to figure out the gender of an unknown noun you hear and there is no article, what should you listen for?
The gender of a noun will probably be reflected in the adjectives that accompany it.
What is elision?
Before a word starting with a vowel sound the definite articles le and la are shortened to the consonant sound /l/, spelled l’.
When does an elision occur?
It occurs with a number of words ending in -e (le, de, je, me, te, se, ce, ne, que), one word ending in -a (la), and the conjunction si before il and ils.
What is a liaison?
A liaison occurs when a word is followed by another words that begins with a vowel sound. The last letter of the preceeding word is then pronounced.
les Américains (les/z/Américains)
What is one word that is never linked with a following vowel?
et
Be careful to distinguish et from est, which is generally linked to following vowels.
How do you make the following masculine endings feminine?
- ais (anglais)
- ois (suédois)
- ain (mexicain)
- ien (brésilien)
- aise (anglaise)
- oise (suédoise)
- aine (mexicaine)
- inne (brésilienne)
How can you tell by sound whether people being talked about are male of female?
If you hear the consonant sound /n/ or /z/ at the end of a word, you know it is in the feminine form.
If you hear no /n/ but a nasal sound, you know it is masculine.
What parts of speech must agree in gender with the nouns they accompany?
articles and adjectives
