4

Livre, entre, autre, article, règle are examples of what I'm talking about.

I've never been sure whether I should pronounce those final two letters. When a native speaker pronounces such words, sometimes I can hear them and sometimes I can't.

3

2 Answers 2

8

Dropping liquids after consonants (e.g. in words that ends with -ble, -dre, -tre, -fle etc.) is an extremely common feature of everyday pronunciation in French (Grevisse 14th ed., §36c). Pronouncing many final schwas would be the primary reason for the recognition of these consonants and is generally considered either an affectation or a dialectal feature.

6

In French it's not the the re or le that is left unpronounced, but the final e.

Pronouncing livre is like pronouncing livr. Some people may actually force the last consonant and you get a sound like livreu.

1
  • 1
    Well in relaxed speech, you even drop the R in certain cases. Example : if you want to say quickly "un livre de peinture", you could say either "un livr-e'd'peinture" (which sound a little ch'ti-ish) or more probably "un liv'de peinture".
    – XouDo
    Jun 15, 2021 at 10:01

Your Answer

By clicking “Post Your Answer”, you agree to our terms of service and acknowledge that you have read and understand our privacy policy and code of conduct.

Not the answer you're looking for? Browse other questions tagged or ask your own question.