An Introduction to French Pronunciation

102 The Consonants in Detail: (I) Stops
consonants, however, are not aspirated and native-speakers
of English should make a conscious effort to avoid using
aspirated stops when speaking French.
Unaspirated stops do occur in English, particularly after /s/
– if you hold the back of your hand in front of your mouth
(as for pin above) and say spin, you will not feel a puff of air.
(An alternative method of demonstrating the existence or
otherwise of aspiration is to hold a lighted match an inch
or so in front of the mouth and say pin – this should blow
the match out, whereas if you say spin, you will probably
not blow it out.) There is also little or no aspiration when
an intervocalic consonant follows the stressed vowel, as in
supper.
14.3.2 In final position, i.e. before a pause, as in wake up!,
good night, too bad, very big, English stops may (but not
necessarily) lack the last of the three stages referred to in
14.2.1, i.e. they are not ‘released’, the tongue remains for a
while at the point of articulation. This is not the case in French
and, in utterances such as en Europe /en ørbp/, j’aime ta
robe /ʒεm ta rbb/, vite /vit/, c’est vide /sε vid/, j’ai le trac /ʒe l
trak/, c’est trop vague /sε tro vag/, care must be taken to
ensure that the consonant is released.
14.3.3 Whereas the initial stops of English words such as
boy, day, gone, and the final stops of words such as rob, fad,
fig, are only partially voiced, in French the initial stops of
words such as boue, dos, goût, and the final stops of words
such as robe, fade, figue, are fully voiced throughout (see 6.4.4).
Indeed if anything the voicing in words such as robe, etc.,
may continue after the release has taken place, with the result
that one sometimes hears a fleeting [c]-sound after the consonant,
e.g. [rbb c ].