How to Learn French - What is ze problème?
Often neglected by French learners, the letter Z is nonetheless quite an agreeable little element in the whole pronunciation puzzle.
Firstly, as a letter of the alphabet, it is pronounced just as it is in (Australian) English: zed. I can picture our students sighing with relief as they’ve battled their way through the French alphabet, puzzling over ‘e’ first (remember, it’s like earth), then side-stepping the landmines of ‘g’ and ‘j’ before tensing in the face of the dreaded ‘i grec’ (the letter ‘y’) and then finally arriving in the green zone of ‘z’. Ouf* !
Similarly, as a sound it is a very faithful friend. I can’t think of a word where it is not pronounced as it is in English: a slight buzzing created by the exhalation of air through front teeth with your tongue behind your bottom teeth. Think of ‘zoo’, ‘craze’ or ‘zenith’.
In French, the first word that comes to mind is zéro, the French word for…you guessed it…zero.
WORDS CONTAINING THE SOUND ‘Z’
onze
douze
treize (etc…)
zèbre
gaz
The words above are very common in French, but how about a few more exotic ones? I think these ones are really fun and very useful for practising your ‘z’ sound.
zozoter (to lisp - just plain unfair to say if you do have one!)
zigzaguer (to zigzag)
zapper (to channel surf)
zonzonner (to buzz/to hum)
zinzin (nutty/crazy)
zizi (willy/childish name for penis)
Mignon, non* ?
Oh! And just one more. I couldn’t leave it out as it’s so poetic.
zéphyr (a gentle breeze).
Hopefully you’re feeling really comfortable with the sound ‘z’ as seen above. So, having lulled you into a false sense of security (désolée*) I’d love to ask you to remember this:
When a single ‘s’ appears between two vowels in French it is almost always pronounced as a ‘z’ sound. Next blog post we’ll have a look at what can potentially happen if you accidentally pronounce it as an ‘s’ sound as in the English word ‘snake’ (or serpent* for that matter…). But for now, please take a look at the list below and zonzonnez* your way to authentic French pronunciation! No hissing please, just buzzing.
maison - (house)
raison - (reason)
saison - (season)
chose - (thing)
rose - (rose)
cuisine - (kitchen)
musée - (museum)
visage - (face)
désert - (desert)
bise - (kiss on the cheek)
À très bientôt* !
*Phew! | *Cute, don’t you think? | *sorry | *snake | *buzz | *See you very soon