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Les lettres silencieuses — When Letters Hide
🤫 Les lettres silencieuses — When Letters Hide
In English we pronounce almost every letter we write. In French, final consonants love to hide. Say «grand» and the d disappears. Say «petit» and the t vanishes. But say «ils parlent» and the -ent ending completely vanishes — even though it looks like it should rhyme with «tent». This is the single biggest Read-Aloud trap on Paper 2 Speaking. Get the silent-final rule into your muscle memory and you'll sound authentically French from the very first sentence of your exam.
The Silent-Final Rule — and When It Breaks
In French, when a word ends in a consonant, that consonant is almost always silent in natural speech. This applies to d, t, s, x, z, p, g at the end of a word.
Earn the mark scheme marks
💡 Read-Aloud Tips & Common Errors
- Before your Read-Aloud, scan the text for any ils/elles + verb combinations — the -ent ending is silent every single time, no exceptions.
- Look for liaison opportunities: les / des / mes / tes / ses + vowel will always require linking the [z] sound.
- The word et (and) does NOT trigger liaison — «et une amie» is [e yn ami], not [e tyn ami].
- The h aspiré in words like «le hibou», «la honte» blocks liaison: «les hiboux» = [le ibu], not [le zibu].
- Practise reading aloud with a pencil: mark every final consonant as S (silent) or P (pronounced) before you speak.
❌ Common error: Reading «ils parlent» as "eel par-LENT" (pronouncing the -ent).
✓ Correct: [il paʁl] — the -ent adds no sound at all. It sounds identical to «il parle».
Why it costs marks: The AQA examiner's mark scheme for Paper 2 Read-Aloud specifically penalises mispronounced verb endings. Pronouncing the -ent is one of the most frequently flagged errors — it immediately signals that the student has not internalised French phonology, and it will reduce your pronunciation mark even if every other word is correct.