"Est-il laid ?"
Translation:Is he ugly?
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When a consonant sound that would normally not be pronounced---" est" comes before a vowel, the final consonant IS pronounced.
The final s or t is pronounced when in front of a vowel or silent h. Although the s seems to be exaggerated here (incorrectly). In French they like things to sound good, so sometimes they will throw in a t if there isn't one just to make it sound nice, as in : comment va-t-il ?
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yes, well i thought only T should have been pronounced here, like in "Quelle heure est-il?"
You are correct. The "s" is always silent when the meaning of "est" is "is." Both the "s" and the "t" are pronounced, when "est" means "east."
Yes I am so sorry I meant s or t. Not both. I regret my error. I have corrected it. I hope no confusion. I read your question completely wrong. Je suis tres, tres desolee.
as an aside, especially in French Canada, sometimes /t/ that comes close to a front vowel like /i/ takes on a sort of a [ts] sound, so for example "petit" can sound more like "petsee". I don't think this is as strong in European French but I think it does still happen very subtly (I'm open to correction on that). So you might be hearing a bit of that in the "t" that is pronounced because of the following "il". (sounding just a tiny bit like "eh - tsil"
It's called a liaison and it happens when a consonant is pronounced at the end of the word when followed by a vowel. For example: c'est affreux is pronounced set-afruh (sort of - sorry for that horrible phonetic translation!)
Even after 4 years it has not been corrected. That is very disheartening. Is anyone out there listening? This isn't the only grossly wrong pronunciation. (Did you note forte pronounced as for-tay?)
What's the difference in pronunciation of ugly (laid) and milk(lait)? Or is it contextual?
the pronunciation is exactly the same for "laid" and "lait".
but since "lait" is a noun and "laid" an adjective, the sentence would tell which is which:
- it is milk = c'est du lait
- he is ugly = il est laid
If the answer is anywhere between "yes" and "somewhat", the next question is "est-il riche ?"
I know duolingo pronunciation isn't perfect, but it sounds like the recording for this one says, "Eh-til loo lay?" Google translate doesn't have the "loo" sound, which is in line with how I thought it would be pronounced. Like, "Eh-til lay?"
Could anyone weigh in on this? Thanks!
The man says "Et-il" and the woman "Est-il". Which is right? The man sounds better to me
I think a better example could be found. I don't think I would want my kids to learn how to speak in this manner.