Verb of the day / A bit of pronounciation

Your verb for today is Manger: to eat

Manger is a verb of the ER type. Its conjugation is fairly simple and follows the ER verb pattern, but with a slight exception! Due to the fact that it contains the letter g before the ER, it sometimes requires an extra e (which is not pronounced) when it lands in front of hard vowels such as a, u and o. 

 

But why??

The letter G can be pronounced two ways in French. It can be hard (like in gust!) or soft (like in gin, but without the d sound.) The way it goes depends on the letter following it. 

Soft Vowels	e	gémir, gèle, mangeais, neige
	i	gite, giraffe , girouette, gigantesque
	y	gynécologue, gyroscope
Hard Vowels	a	gamme, gamin, gant, gallop
	o	gomme, Congo, bingo,
	u	guérir, longue. guide *

*The u in those words is ONLY used to make the g hard, and is not pronounced. I think there must be a few words where the u is pronounced after a g, but I couldn’t come up with any…

Anyway, here is the verb Manger, conjugated for you, with the extra e’s highlighted.

Présent	Imparfait	Future simple
Today, I eat	Yesterday, I was eating	Tomorrow, I will eat
je mange tu manges il mange nous mangeons vous mangez ils mangent	je mangeais tu mangeais il mangeait nous mangions vous mangiez ils mangeaient	je mangerai tu mangeras il mangera nous mangerons vous mangerez ils mangeront

Your challenge:

1.      Think of a word with a g in it where it’s pronounced softly and a word where it is pronounced hard. Bonus points for having both g’s in the same word!

2.      Make a sentence describing what you are eating for lunch.