Verb drill
French silent endings drill: group words by the sound you say
Sort French word endings into spoken vowels, nasal vowels and consonants, then write simple sound cues in everyday phrases. Includes 18 practice items.
- A2
- 18 answers
- Checked all at once
- Accents count
- Learn this in the A2 notebook →
In short
Classify the last sound you say, rather than the last letter you see. In petit, the final t is silent; in petite, you hear it. This drill uses three groups: V for an oral vowel, N for a nasal vowel and C for a consonant.
Yellow the idea to rememberBlue French to learn
| Code | What you hear | Example |
|---|---|---|
| V | An oral vowel; air leaves through the mouth. | joli → final i |
| N | A nasal vowel; no separate final n sound. | bon → nasal on |
| C | An audible final consonant. | grande → final d |
Read the target word in the phrase shown. The targets are at a pause or before a consonant, so you can focus on their own ending. The sound cues are learning labels, not English respellings: é means /e/, i means /i/, and on means /ɔ̃/. For the second part, write only the cue requested.
Le couloir est long. La pièce est grande.
The corridor is long. The room is large.
A nasal vowel ends the first adjective; an audible d ends the second.
Four things with different written endings
Find:
1 · Write V, N or C for the target word
- Le lit est joli. → joli : (Classify the last spoken sound.)
- Ce canapé est bas. → bas : (The s is silent.)
- Le salon est grand. → grand : (Keep the vowel nasal.)
- Le café est bon. → bon : (Do not add an n sound.)
- La chambre est petite. → petite : (Listen for the t.)
- La porte est verte. → verte : (The e is silent; the t is audible.)
- Le sac est lourd. → sac : (The final c is audible.)
- Les enfants jouent dehors. → jouent : (The verb ending -ent is silent.)
- Le placard est blanc. → blanc : (The final c is silent here.)
- Il est content. → content : (Final -ent here contains a nasal vowel, unlike the verb ending.)
2 · Write the last sound as a simple cue
- Le lit est ici. → lit : (Write i, not it.)
- Le café est chaud. → café : (Write é for /e/.)
- Il faut parler doucement. → parler : (The infinitive ends in /e/.)
- Vous restez là. → restez : (Write the vowel cue.)
- La salle est grande. → grande : (Write the final consonant.)
- La tasse est vide. → tasse : (Two written s letters give one /s/ sound.)
- Le salon est calme. → salon : (Write on for the nasal vowel /ɔ̃/.)
- Elle est contente. → contente : (Write the final consonant.)