French pronunciations...?

Question

When do you pronounce the last letters? If there is a vowel before the consonant, do you pronounce the last letter? For example, there is a person with a last name Dantes. Do you pronounce the "s"? If so, is it pronounced z or s?

Answer 1

I'll take a sample sentence, and go through a few of the words...

"Quand prononce-t-on toutes les lettres finales d'un mot? quelles sont les règles générales, et quelles sont les règles spécifiques aux noms personnels tels que Dantes? Dantès?"

This above is pronounced:

"kan prononc2ton tout le lettr2 final2 d'u2 mo? kel son le regl2 general2, e kel son le regl specific o no2 personnel tel ke dant? dantes?"

I wrote a 2 instead of the full letter when only a "hint" of it is pronounced, instead of the full one. As you can see, generally the last consonant is skipped (s, t, or nt), you cannot really tell plural or verb terminations from the oral form. Once your ear will be more sensitive, you'll hear a "hint" of the vowel "e" (the "oe" form") in some cases, but pronouncing it in full gives a provincial accent (south-france).
in case of Maison, the n is a hint, with a nasal tinge.

For personal names, the rules are more lax, as it should follow more closely the way the name bearer pronounce it. Dantès - if written with an accent, would then pronounce the full letters, and the s will be a sibilant - not a z, but like the C in civil.

Answer 2

There are many rules, many many rules. Just like English.

Lets see...
generally you don't pronounce the last letter unless there is an e at the end, you sort of let it hang at the back of your tongue.

Like maison. (that n is not pronounced)

I think you ignore the s altogether, pretend it is not there in Dantes because there is an 's' instead of a 'z' a the end. think of the name Jacques which is pronounced like a french Jack, no 's' pronounced there.

With names you must ask the person.

and to avoid confusion buy a book about it there are so many rules that you need to know them.

Answer 3

Final single consonants, in particular s, x, z, t, d, n and m, are normally silent. (The final letters 'c', 'r', 'f', and 'l' however are normally pronounced.) This is for standard ('neutre') pronunciation. When the following word begins with a vowel, though, a silent consonant may once again be pronounced - again there are rules for this, but 'les' before a vowel-initial word is always pronounced; also, when an adjective precedes a noun starting with a vowel, the otherwise silent adjective ending is usually pronounced, e.g. 'Beaux' [bo], but Beaux Arts [bozar] Like all things French, there will be lots of exceptions - like names. Hope this helps.

Answer 4

In French, it depends on the word. For instance the word "coup". You won't say the "p" but in scoop you will. Maybe because it is an English word.

But with the "t", "s" and "z" we usually don't pronounce it. I say usually because French has lots of rules but unfortunatly theses rules often have an exception.

so for Dantes just say Dante. No need to say the "z".

Answer 5

you don't pronounce the "s" in Dantes. You just pronounce "dant".
It's complicated to explain because the rules are really difficult, and there are a lot of exceptions.
Here are some websites with explanation in English :
http://www.languageguide.org/francais/grammar/pronunciation/liaison.html
http://french.about.com/library/pronunciation/bl-liaisons.htm
http://www.bbc.co.uk/dna/h2g2/A2184482

Answer 6

that is the high-quality i would do. i constant one of the most grammar. others can decide upon up from right here: Soyez bienvenus au café. Qu'est-ce que vous aimez? Voici votre café. Et voici votre thé. Vous comme vos additions. Et le the est one million,seventy five E. Le cafe est two,000 E.