0

I was just reading my beginner French book and I have heard these words.

"Et une" will be pronunced as "en" where "e" is pronunced as "electricity" in English.

The other is "j'ai une" and it sounds like the name Jane in Spider Man.

But are these correct way to say it?

Improve this question
3
  • 2
    These are very poor examples. You need a full phrase or sentence. – Lambie Jan 30 '20 at 23:06
  • @Lambie You don't need that at all. What necessity do you make out? – LPH Jan 30 '20 at 23:23
  • Et une union de plus ne change rien. Et une triade de plus fait des gangster en plus. Par exemple. Ces petits mots (de fonction ou articles) sont toujours dit en contexte. J'ai une robe dans mon armoire. J'ai une oie dans mon jardin. Un contexte me semble raisonnable. – Lambie Jan 30 '20 at 23:26
1

I see no contradiction between this "en", or in French "énn" /en/ and Jane pronounced /ʒen/.

This pronunciation where the /y/ is partially or totally dropped (apheresys) is indeed common in spoken French :

J'ai une faim de loup : /ʒenfɛ̃dlu/ (j'ainn' faim d'loup) or /ʒɛnfɛ̃dlu/

Improve this answer
7
  • Mais pourquoi parler du "y"? Ce n'etait pas la question.... – Lambie Jan 30 '20 at 23:24
  • @Lambie Si, l'omission du [y] est au cœur de la question. – jlliagre Jan 30 '20 at 23:26
  • Ah bon? Je viens de relire la question, et je ne n'y vois le moindre soupçon....en définitive, je n'y vois aucun contexte discursif réel. – Lambie Jan 30 '20 at 23:31
  • 1
    Ah le [y]. D'accord. – Lambie Jan 30 '20 at 23:51
  • 1
    Depends on what you mean with "correct". A French language teacher would consider any of them at least lazy pronunciations and possibly incorrect ones, especially if the [y] (French U) is completely dropped. You might want to be aware of these pronunciations to understand them, but there is no urgency for a learner to try to reproduce them. – jlliagre Feb 1 '20 at 22:29
0

That makes no sense; in both cases the pronunciation is not that used in French.

  • "et une" is pronounced \e yn\; listen to the pronunciation of "une" here.
  • "j'ai une" is pronounced \ʒɛ yn\; \ʒɛ\ is pronounced as in "gène" (without "ne");listen to the pronunciation of "un gène" here.
Improve this answer
7
  • Moi, je demande comment on peut accepter une telle question. et une and J'ai une? Il faut une phrase. Et une chose est vraie. J'ai une soeur qui joue du piano. – Lambie Jan 30 '20 at 23:07
  • @Lambie C'est bien comme cela que j'ai compris cette combinaison, c'est un tronçon de phrase qui va dans une quasi infinité de phrases correctes. Ça suffit pour apposer une prononciation; de toute façon rien n'interdit de prononcer n'importe quoi ; par exemple « Qui pourront y dire ça ? », qui est affreux du point de vue syntaxe, a sa prononciation. – LPH Jan 30 '20 at 23:17
  • Ce qui compte très souvent est ce qui suit. – Lambie Jan 30 '20 at 23:34
  • @Lambie Vous pensez alors aux liaisons ? Même dans le cas où des liaisons sont faites dans la prononciation normale on peut prononcer une phrase sans ses liaisons dans le but de bien délimiter les mots. – LPH Jan 30 '20 at 23:38
  • 1
    @DanielMårtensson I believe to be correct the pronunciation I indicate in my answer; however, there are people that don't speak as well as others and choose to suppress u constantly ; it is not usual to remind them they are using a fringe pronunciation ; this is so because their speech is still easy to understand. There are also occasions when you might have to rush your speech and "u" might become quite blurred. Neither of those contexts is reason enough to forget that the proper way is the preservation of u. So, what user jlliagre explains is not wrong but it is marginal, not complete. – LPH Feb 1 '20 at 12:58

Your Answer

By clicking “Post Your Answer”, you agree to our terms of service, privacy policy and cookie policy

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