"Elle a sept fils."

Translation: She has seven sons.

[tbradley6]

Shouldn't fils be pronounced with the "s" sound?

[RoniG]

I listened to Google Translate and their robot said Fees not fil.

[Sitesurf]

The right pronounciation is : FISS (not fees, which has a Z sound at the end)

[RoniG]

Yes. thank you. Still learning.

[S0R0USH]

The sound is wrong. I recorded it and it sounds exactly like fille...

[Sitesurf]

No, it is worse than that: the voice says FIL (=thread)

Fille is pronounced FIY

[S0R0USH]

True. Sometimes I just listen for hints, like mon (implying masculine) fils since ma fils is wrong.

[DianaM]

I was strongly tempted to translate it as "She has seven threads", given RoboGirl's pronunciation, but I restrained myself.

[MadameP]

I've always heard (and taught) that fils is pronounced "fees" and that thread is fil, pronouced "feel". Is this perhaps a regional dialect issue?

[Sitesurf]

No, it has been a Duo issue for months. But I heard corrections are on their way...

[MadameP]

merci! :-)

[Gori16]

the robot clearly says filles, not fils

[AyushiVig]

what is the difference between the pronunciation of fils and filles? This is really confusing me!

[DianaM]

If you take the time to read through this thread, you'll see that this has been under discussion for some time.

The pronunciation on the audio is just wrong for "fils". When referring to a son or sons, "fils" should sound like "feess", "fille" or "filles" should sound like "fee(yuh)".

To hear them pronounced, go to http://www.acapela-group.com/ Choose "French (France)", and for this one, I'd pick "Alice" ("Manon"'s pronunucation is quite clipped). Type "fils; fille" into the box and click on "listen".

[ShishirDes]

Mrs von trapp?