When “em” and “en” are used as prefixes (meaning at the start of a word) in French, they are always nasal vowels.
| Prefix | Example | Phonetics | Audio |
| em- | emmener | ɑ̃mne | emmener |
| em- | empirer | ɑ̃piʀe | empirer |
| en- | enamourer | ɑ̃namuʀe | enamourer |
| en- | ennuyer | ɑ̃nɥije | ennuyer |
“én” (with an acute accent) is not the same as “en” (without an accent). As a prefix with an acute accent, it is oral, not nasal.
Some French words, like contact, have a clearly pronounced -ct, while others, like aspect, have a silent -ct. This difference is due to phonetic evolution, word stress, and borrowing history. 1. The Role of Stress and Borrowing History 2. When is -CT Pronounced in French? The -ct is pronounced when: 3. When is -CT Silent?…
One of the essential differences between the English and French languages is the concept of “le flux sonore,” or “sound flow” in French. A French sentence should sound like a more or less continuous flow of sound, interrupted only by small pauses for commas and longer pauses for full stops. In order to achieve this,…
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How do you pronounce the letters “im” or “in” when they occur at the start of a word in French? Are they nasal or not? As you can see in the two tables below, the rules are simple. “im” or “in” plus a consonant are nasal. But “imm,” “inn,” “im + vowel,” or “in +…
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French words like “démocratie,” “acrobatie,” “aristocratie,” or “patienter” all contain the letter combination “tie.” How are words like these pronounced in French? What about words like “amnistie” or “dynastie”? The “tie” letter combination in French can either be pronounced as “SEE” or as “TEE.” How do you know which pronunciation to use? The easiest way…