I am a beginner in French. Would someone please suggest some English words that I can associate with è, é, ê, and et respectively? By themselves (to test my level) they sounded the same to me. Merci beaucoup.

Hopefully, others will chime in, but I'm supplementing Rocket French with Living Language, and their pronunciation guide for 'e' are as follows: é, er, ez (end of word), et = approximate sound: 'ay' in 'lay', phonetic symbol [ay], ex: été [ay-tay], aller [ah-lay], ballet [bah-lay] è, ê, ei, ai, aî = approximate sound: 'e' in 'bed', phonetic symbol [eh], ex: père [pehr], forêt [foh-reh], faire [fehr] This pronunciation guide is similar to the one given in about.com too: http://french.about.com/od/pronunciation/a/e.htm

Thanks, that was very helpful. I had always thought that they were pronounced as you illustrated but I wanted some reassurance and confirmations from other seasoned speakers. During the test I almost always got them wrong for 2 reasons (1) the voice (Marie- Claire's?) didn't sound the way you and I thought they should be and (2) the recording "waves" didn't look the same, ever. In this particular lesson or exercise I could swear that the word gros sounded more like 'go'. This forum has been very helpful. I'm learning a language on my own without anyone who could communicate or correct me when I am wrong.

Ah, okay, I see where you are. That's Julie on the survival kits. :) Yes, the French 'r' is more from the back of the throat and not pronounced as hard as an English 'r', so it would sound more like 'gh(r)o' (more 'h' than 'r' sounding, almost like gargling). I agree with you about the forum, it's great to be able to go over these little sticking points from a different perspective.

Most dictionaries pronounce lait as leh as in met. But some audios sound like lay. Which is it?

I would have to agree with toru25 who posted on 04/29/13 about my query and I confirmed after checking a few different sources while looking for something else. Phonetically leh would be more like lay than me[r]t where there is a very soft "r". Depending on your sources there are regional differences too. My French speaking relative was born and raised in Paris while my 7th grade teachers, from Quebec, Canada. He always criticized them for leading me down the wrong path, the French language of course. Marie-Claire: Please settle this for us, pronunciation wise. I would say lait is somewhere between lay and met but closer to lay than met in the phonetic scale.

Bonjour à tous! The proper pronunciation for 'lait' is lɛ. As M L wrote above it is close to the pronunciation of 'lay' however you should remember that it is much shorter. Whereas we tend to hold on to the 'y' at the end of 'lay', when you pronounce 'lait' you should do it in the same way as 'lay' but do not hold onto the 'y'. You only need a hint of it, if that makes sense. I hope this helps! - Marie-Claire