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Here are March’s winners:

Facebook: Carlos Macias
Youtube: alice_lapinette
Twitter: gonzelius
FrenchPod101: gssq

See your name here? Email us at contactus@FrenchPod101.com to claim your prize. Check back next month for April`s winners!

In this month’s newsletter:

1. Knocking on 101 MILLION! FrenchPod101.com and our sister sites at Innovative Language Learning are fast approaching a big milestone - 101 MILLION lesson downloads! You could win a Premium LIFETIME Subscription! Best of all, you’re already entered to win! Click here to find out more…

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3. Best Lessons and Blog Entries for March! Find out what’s popular this month! The blog has great content for you to see.

Welcome to the FrenchPod101.com newsletter. Spring is coming and we are ready to welcome in the new season with fun and exciting lessons! These periodic newsletters will deliver exciting developments that are going on at FrenchPod101.com. With each issue, you will receive the latest announcements, promotional offers, blog news, and forum news, while getting a rare glimpse of the behind-the-scenes life at the FrenchPod101.com office!

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Quick recap from last week:

What would we do without French vowel sounds?  Well, the obvious answer is that we’d say a lot of consonants!  We’d end up sounding like a lot of other Eastern European languages rather than the mellifluous French language.This lesson takes a look at the nineteen vowel sounds in detail with some examples and practice exercises.  French vowel sounds are divided into three groups; Voyelles orales (”oral vowels”), Voyelles nasales (”nasal vowels”), Semi-voyelles (”half vowels”).  Part 2 of this lesson summary will focus on the last two groups of French vowels; Voyelles nasales (”nasal vowels”), Semi-voyelles (”half vowels”).

• Voyelles nasales (”nasal vowels”):These vowels are specific to French as the passage of the air goes mainly through the nose. For foreign ears, they may seem very strange at first, as the air vibrates mainly through the nose and produces a twangy sound.

• • Practice Exercise:Listen to the audio for the words pin, pan, and pont in the vocabulary section and repeat them several times.

• Semi-voyelles (”half vowels”):Semi-voyelles are also called semi-consonnes (”half consonants”). They are unique sounds between vowels and consonants that occur when two vowels follow each other in one syllable of a word, such as in balayer, meaning “to sweep” (example of the phonetic sound symbol [J]). Another example is the pronunciation of the letters -oi, which are pronounced in English [woa], as in the French word poisson (”fish”).

• • Practice Exercise: Repeat and practice all the half vowels in this sentence; Le soleil luit pour Louis en juin.(The sun shines for Louis in June.) Can you recognize the three half-vowel sounds in this sentence?

What would we do without French vowel sounds?  Well, the obvious answer is that we’d say a lot of consonants!  We’d end up sounding like a lot of other Eastern European languages rather than the mellifluous French language.  This lesson takes a look at the nineteen vowel sounds in detail with some examples and practice exercises. French vowel sounds are divided into three groups; Voyelles orales (”oral vowels”), Voyelles nasales (”nasal vowels”), Semi-voyelles (”half vowels”).  Part 1 of this lesson summary will focus on the first group mentioned, voelles orales, and its subgroups.

Voyelles orales (”oral vowels̶ are vowels we pronounce by air going through the mouth area and where the tongue, uvula, and lips will have a certain position. There are twelve oral vowels, which we classify in three categories according to their pronunciation.

• Voyelles antérieures (”front vowels”): Voyelles antérieures are characterized by the placement of the tongue toward the front of the mouth. For example, try to pronounce the letter -è as in prey, producing an anterior vowel, and the letter -o as in orange, producing a posterior vowel. Notice the placement of your tongue in your mouth.

• • Practice Exercise:  Pronounce these pairs and tell whether their sounds are identical or not; (met [may]/mais [meh]) (lait [lay]/ les [leh]) (trait [tray]/ très [tray])

• Voyelles centrales (”central vowels”):To pronounce properly the voyelles centrales, place your tongue in the middle area of your mouth. These sounds are very similar to the ear and may be difficult to distinguish, even for a native speaker of French. Their main difference while pronouncing them is the opening gap of the mouth, creating a more or less open sound.

• • Practice Exercise: Practice the pronunciation of the following vowels;(refaire [r-uh-fer] / zèbre [zaybr] / crier [kri-ay])（clair [kler] / petit [puh-ti] / écoute [eh-ku-t])　(peine [pe-n] / debout [duh-bu] / liez [li-eh])

• Voyelles postérieures (”back vowels”): To produce this type of sound, place your tongue in the back of your mouth. In other words, position the larger part of your tongue (the back part) toward the back of the mouth cavity.

Practice Exercise: Repeat these words several times: riz, pâte, rat.  What happens?

You have been studying French for quite some time now…and you are doing such a fabulous job! However, if you are seated at the fancy French restaurant you have always wanted to try, the waiter hands you a menu - completely in French - and quite confusing!

The French alphabet is pretty peculiar and a bit different from the English writing system. It includes some unfamiliar markings you may not recognize:

1) Diacritics, or accent marks that help denote the characteric French pronunciation and intonation of words. They include:

• The acute accent (l’accent aigu)         ‹´›
• The grave accent (l’accent grave)       ‹`›
• The cedilla (la cédille)                        ‹¸›
• The circumflex (l’accent circonflexe)     ‹ˆ›
• The diaeresis (le tréma)                     ‹¨›

2) Ligatures (æ and œ), which are obligatory contractions of ae and oe in certain French words (as in sœur, meaning “sister̶

Now, you may ask yourself why the need for these markings ?

It was actually  during the 16th century that accents began to appear. With the invention of the printing press, printers looked for ways to eliminate ambiguity and redundant letters. The solution to these problems was the use of accents and other markings. For example,before the cedilla was introduced, the soft “c” was printed as -ce-, -ss-, -ch- or just -c-.

So, the point of these is to clarify pronunciation and reading. Although at first it may seem confusing, the French writing system is like a map, so if you think about it this way and understand these ‘directions’, you will keep on your journey through French learning without missing a turn!

Every month, we are giving away great FrenchPod101.com prizes to 4 lucky listeners. Sign up to follow us on Facebook, Twitter, YouTube or FrenchPod101.com to be eligible to win. Increase your chances of winning by following us on all four sites!

Here are February’s winners:

Facebook: Loshini Gerard
Youtube: Anaiise
Twitter: simplyolivia
FrenchPod101: hywelwyn

See your name here? Email us at contactus@FrenchPod101.com to claim your prize. Check back next month for March`s winners!