> Marco.Cimarosti@icl.com wrote:
> Precisely not to lose the final consonant. The French, in their
> infinite wisdom, have decreed that the last letter shall always
> be silent (with annoying exceptions like "avec"); this makes
> their language easy to pronounce and impossible to spell.
> Of course, this is emphatically a case of the pot calling the
> kettle black....
Also, sometimes, the first letter is (nearly) silent.
For me, the difficulty with French is more in the hearing
of it because of all those (nearly) silent letters that
make many words and syllables sound the same to my ears.
I had a heck of a time understanding my friend Hervé, even
when he spoke English. One English word that repeatedly
tripped me up was "array", which he pronounced ARR-ray,
emphasizing and lengthening the 1st syllable, while
shortening the 2nd.
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