French Language

Discuss and learn French: French vocabulary, French grammar, French culture etc.

French Vocab Games app for iPhone/iPad French-English dictionary French grammar French vocab/phrases

For the latest updates, follow @FrenchUpdates on Twitter!

Is there even the slightest pronunciation difference between the words lavez and l'avez ?  If so, can you describe it or perhaps record it?

On the same track, are lavez, laver, lavait, and lavais all pronounced identically?

Views: 1107

Reply to This

Replies to This Discussion

Hi Tony -- as far as I'm aware, you'd only get a difference in emphatic speech or where you're deliberately altering your pronunciation (e.g. in dictation) to emphasise the "l'". (It would be interesting if some data did show that speakers made a subtle difference, but I'm unaware of any.)

I would say there may be a little more stress or "emphasis" on the "l" in l'avez than lavez. You have to think of it like this. L'avez is technically 2 words. So, as a way native speakers may distinguish the l'avez and lavez is buy adding a little more "emphasis" to the "l" in l'avez.

However as a non-native speaker when talking to a French person, don't sweat the difference. They know what you're trying to say.

Actually, some models would say that l'avez it's "technically" one word -- that's really just a question of your model and how you define "word".

But either way, there's no a priori reason to expect more "emphasis" (whatever that really means phonetically in this case). There might be, and it would be interesting to see data that showed this. But in the absence of actual data, I see little reason to assume that there is.

RSS

Follow BitterCoffey on Twitter

© 2024   Created by Neil Coffey.   Powered by

Badges  |  Report an Issue  |  Terms of Service