22.—b, d, f, k, m, n, o, p, q, r, t, v, z, sound in French as in English.

23.-a. a sounds always like the a in mamma, Paris; never like that in baby or in all.

24.-e. e without an accent at the end of a syllable, and in the terminations es, ent of verbs, as well as in the plural of nouns, qualificative adjectives, and participles ending in es, is hardly sounded and consequently called e mute; as je; de; me; homme; che val; che velure; il de man de ra; ils jou elront; je joue; tu joues; ils jouent; pommes; fortes; aimées; chéries; rendues.

25. When e is marked with an accent, or when it does not end a syllable, it must be sounded like the first letter a in reading the English alphabet, as été, arrêter, près, très, décès, des, les.

26.-em. e has the French sound of a-1. before mb, mp, as

embarquer, temple; 2. in emm at the beginning of words, as emmancher; 3. in the adverbs ending with emment, as prudemment; 4. in femme, femmelette, indemnité, indemniser.

27.-en. e in en has three sounds:

(a) It sounds like the French a in en followed by a consonant, as argent, argenter, vent, content, vendre; and Caen, Ecouen, en, Rouen, enivrement, enivrer.

(b) It sounds like the French ¿—

1. When en ends a word, as ancien, bien, chien, maintien; the s of the plural does not alter this pronunciation:-anciens, biens.

2. In ien of the verbs tenir and venir and their compounds, when ien is not followed by n, as je tiendrai.

3. In agenda, Amiens, appendice, Camoëns, pensum, Rubens.

(c) It sounds like è when en is followed by ne mute, as tienne, tiennes, tiennent, anciennement, prenne.

(d) In a compound word en preserves the sound of the simple word, as bientôt, chiendent.

28.-i, i has the sound of i in ship, or that of the two ee's in sheep, never that of Sir nor of fire; as-île, vigne, fïls. 29.—y. y is sounded sometimes like one French i and sometimes like two.

(a) It is sounded like one i when it begins or ends a word, as yeux, Yonne, dey, Coligny; and between two consonants, as style.

(b) It is sounded like two i's between two vowels, as voyage; and after a vowel, as paysan; voi|i|age, pai|i|san.

30.-u. u has a sound peculiar to the French language, which cannot be represented by any English sound.

31.-œ. œ before a consonant has the sound of e with an

acute accent; Edème, Eta, pronounce édème, éta.

a before a vowel is equivalent to an e mute; bœuf, sœur, pronounce beuf, seur.

32. c. c is pronounced like k before a, o, u, and before

-

any consonant but h: café, cocotier, Cupidon, clé,

cravate, cri.

33.-C is pronounced like s in Sir before e, i, y:—ceci, cyprès. 34.-C is pronounced like g in second, secondaire, secondairement, seconde, seconder, secondement; and like g or d in Czar, Czarienne, Czarine, Czarowitz. Pronounce Gzar or Dzar, etc.

35.-ch. ch is pronounced like sh in ship or ch in chaise, never like ch in chair.

36.-Exceptions :

Ch is pronounced like ch in Christ:

(a) Before a consonant, as chronomètre ;

(b) Before or, as anachorète ;

(c) Before the termination us of proper names, as

Bacchus.

37.—g. g, before a, o, u, l, r, is pronounced as in game, gold, gun, gravity, glory: galon, golfe, contigu, gland, glu, gros.

38.-G before e, i, y, is pronounced like 8 in treasure, but never like g in the English name George: collége, giron, gymnase.

39.-gn. gn is pronounced generally like g in the English words ring, rang: or n in onion: règne, régna, régnons, régnions.

40.—But in the following words, g and n are pronounced separately (g as in fig, and n as in nib):

41.-Regnaud, Regnard, signet, are pronounced Renaud,

Renard, sinet.

42.—h. h in the body or at the end of a word is not pronounced at all: bonheur, Jéhovah are pronounced boneur, Jéova. It is there called mute.

43.-At the beginning of words it is also mute, except in the following, in which it is called aspirate, and prevents the vowel it precedes being affected by the previous word. Thus h is aspirate in homard, therefore we must say le homard, les homards: - lejo/mard, les o mards; h being mute in homme, we must pronounce l'homme, les hommes as if there were no h at all:—lom | me, lé | zom|mes.

44.—j. j is always pronounced like s of treasure, never as in jam, John: jardin, déjà, je, jeton, joli, juge.

45.-1.7 has two sounds: one alike both in French and in English, as long, male, capital. This is the most general.

46.-The other, peculiar to the French language, is called I mouillée. It is impossible to represent its exact pronunciation. Those who have not the help of a French teacher may render it, as nearly as possible, by pronouncing the word as if there were no l at all, but y instead.