Lesson 1 ( Le ç on 1)

1. Lesson 1 (Leçon 1) Introduction to the French Language (Introduction à la langue française)

2. The French Alphabet (L’alphabet français)

3. Numbers 1-20 (Les nombres de 1 à 20)

4. Accent Marks (Les accents) • There are 5 accent marks used in the French language • Acute accent (L’accentaigu) • Grave accent (L’accent grave) • Cedilla (lacédille) • Circumflex (la circonflexe) • Diaeresis (le tréma)

5. Acute accent (L’accent aigu) • “Left hand accent” or “Left hand salute” • é only • Makes an “ay” sound

6. Grave accent (L’accent grave) • “Right hand accent” or “Right hand salute” • à, è, ù • Does not change sound, but makes the word pronounceable

7. Cedilla (la cédille) • Turns a “c” from a “kuh” to “sss” • Ç

8. Circumflex (la circonflexe) • Does not change the sound, this is a vestige from Old French • It only affects writing • â, ê, î, ô, û

9. Diaeresis (le tréma) • Used when two vowels are next to each other and are meant to be pronounced separately • ë, ï

10. Silent Letters (Les lettres muettes) • In French, some letters are not pronounced, particularly at the end of words • Final –e: The final –e is not usually pronounced • Madame, Phillip e • Final –s: The final –s is not usually pronounced • Louis, Charles, très • Final consonants are not usually pronounced, the usual exceptions are: -c, -r, -f, -l, -k *Remember to be CaReFuL* which final consonants are pronounced  • Robert, Albert, Eric, Marc, Raoul • H is never pronounced* • L’hôtel, L’hôpital, L’homme * There is the h aspiré

11. Differences between English and French(Les différence entre l’anglais et le français) • Spoken French differs from English • *Valette, Jean-Paul, and Rebecca M. Valette. Contacts: Lange et culture françaises. New York: Houghton Mifflin Company, 2001.