This lesson will focus on final consonants follow the links to the right for detailed explanations of the silent letters E and H. There are three categories of silent letters in French. Which letters are not pronounced at the end of French words? This occurs in almost every instance in which the ‘Z’ appears at the end of a word.Feb 2, 2019 That’s simple enough, but there’s one twist to the ‘Z’ in French as it can also be a silent letter. ![]() The letter ‘Z’ in French is pronounced like the ‘Z’ in English: listen. This occurs in almost every instance in which the ‘Z’ appears at the end of a word. How is the letter Z pronounced in French? ATTENTION: If a noun already ends in -s or -x or -z in the singular form, then it remains unchanged in the plural form. Note that you don’t pronounce the plural -s in French. Its Pronounced “Zed” not “Zee”: NZ.Oct 3, 2012 Silent letters and plural In Plural, most French words have an -s added to the end of the word but this last -s is not pronounced. The British and others pronounce “z”, “zed”, owing to the origin of the letter “z”, the Greek letter “Zeta”.ĭo you pronounce the S at the end of a word in French? The primary exception, of course, is in the United States where “z” is pronounced “zee”. The vast majority of the English speaking world does this. In the Philippines its X (ex), Y (why), Z (zey). Europeans and British folk pronounce the letter Z as in Zed so when they the ABC its X (ex), Y (why), Z (zed). The Z Sound You see, Americans pronounce the letter Z as in Zee. However, head to England, Ireland, or pretty much any other English-speaking country, and you’ll find that most natives refer to the same letter as zed. What’s the difference? In America, there’s only one way to pronounce the letter Z: zee, of course. Whereas the more established zed has an etymology that makes logical sense, the reason why Z is pronounced as zee in the U.S. The pronunciation stems from Latin and Greek, as both ancient languages have a similarly pronounced equivalent: zeta. The British and others pronounce “z”, “zed”, owing to the origin of the letter “z”, the Greek letter “Zeta”. It’s not just the British that pronounce “z” as “zed”. ![]() ![]() This gave rise to the Old French “zede”, which resulted in the English “zed” around the 15th century. ![]() It’s origins can be traced back to an Egyptian Hieroglyph which looked like the Proto-Sinaitic version, which meant sword or weapon.The primary exception, of course, is in the United States where “z” is pronounced “zee”. The letter Z has had a number of different forms in different alphabets: The name zee is comes from an English dialectal form of the 17th century, and rhymes with other letter names, like bee, cee, dee, etc.Īnother dialectal name for this letter from the 18th century is izzard, which possibly comes from the Occitan izèda or the French ézed. The name zed comes from the Greek name for the letter Ζ ζ zeta (ζήτα). The letter Z is known as zed in the UK, Canada, India, Ireland, New Zealand, and Australia, and as zee in American English.
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