prennent

The 'category' is actually 'Pronunciation':

My ? is: How does one pronounce 'prennent' ? As pren-nah, or prennn.

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Permalink Reply by Neil Coffey on May 21, 2009 at 7:09pm

Well, as with many words ending in or containing -e, the answer is it depends a bit on emphasis and/or the pronunciation of the particular person. The simple answer is that if you just pronounce it prenn', you won't be accused of "getting the wrong pronunciation".

Delving in a bit deeper, then:
- in the everyday speech of most speakers in the north of France, the -ent is not pronounced at all;
- in very careful speech (for example, as you might get with a newscaster articulating their words rather "deliberately"), it is possible to pronounce the final -e;
- making a sweeping generalisation, speakers from the south of France have more of tendency to pronounce this -e (and other -e vowels) than speakers from the north;
- the final -e could also be pronounced in song or poetry-- either at the end of a line, or other cases where the rhythm "requires an extra syllable";
- again, in very careful speech or song, it is possible to pronounce the final -t before a following vowel, in the process often called "liaison" (e.g. ils prennent_alors); the -e may or not be pronounced in this case. Note that this is highly unusual in everyday speech, however.

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Permalink Reply by Pete Laubscher on May 21, 2009 at 10:33pm

Thank you for your very full reply. But may I ask a follow-up question?

When the 'final -e' is pronounced, does that mean the '-ent' ? A possibly nasalised 'ahh'?

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Permalink Reply by Neil Coffey on May 22, 2009 at 12:13am

Ah sorry, no-- it's not nasalised. Leaving aside the issue of the final -t in liaison, the -ent ending, if it's pronounced, is exactly the same as -e.

So, for example, mange and mangent sound identical; similarly, prenne and prennent sound identical (for what it's worth, prenne is a subjunctive form of prendre).