French is in a different language family. One nice thing about French is that, even with all the silent letters, it tends to be more consistent than English. The same letters should make the same sound (or the same silence) in any context…at least more often than English.
So if you know how “llon” in papillon is pronounced, you’ll probably be able to pronounce bouillon.
Whereas if you know how “ough” sounds in “rough”… you’re fine with “tough”, but might have trouble with:
- through
- thought
- though
- cough
- thorough
- dough
- drought
- bought
Those have all stopped looking like words to me though. <== This one too
hendrik@palaver.p3x.de 1 week ago
Yes. Surely it has to be easier for me (who grew up learning a germanic language,) to learn another one of them. I occasionally like to watch these Youtube videos on why for example English has a handful of ways to pronounce "ough". I still think the French are crazy people for writing l'eau and pronouncing it "oh", when it's literally the one vowel missing in that word. Or coming up with insane concepts like a silent letter "x" in the plural words... But you're right. I remember there was almost always some rule to it.
otp@sh.itjust.works 1 week ago
loic.suberville on Instagram does a whole lot skits about how weird French is (and English, too). You might enjoy some of his content!
hendrik@palaver.p3x.de 1 week ago
Nice, thanks. Will do.