An Introduction to French Pronunciation

Gemination 119
with either a simple /k/, /ʃ/, /n/ respectively or with a geminate.
This must not be imitated in French: except in the special
case dealt with in 17.2.5 below, geminates are geminates and
must be pronounced as such.
17.2 French Geminates
17.2.1 The majority of French geminates are accounted
for by contexts in which a mute e is dropped (see 17.1.2). The
following are examples of minimal pairs similar to those
quoted from English in 17.1.4:
Simple Geminate
cette aire /sεt ε:r/ cette terre /sεt tε:r/
tu trompes /ty trf:p/ tu te trompes /ty t trf:p/
la dent /la de/ là-dedans /la dde/
(il) vient dire /il vjh di:r/ il vient de dire /il vjh d di:r/
neuf rangs /nœf re/ neuf francs /nœf fre/
tu manques /ty me:k/ tu me manques /ty m me:k/
une oie /yn wa/ une noix /yn nwa/
elle a vu /εl a vy/ elle l’a vu /εl la vy/
pour animer /pur anime/ pour ranimer /pur ranime/
17.2.2 The distinction between a simple and a geminate
consonant is particularly significant in the case of verbs whose
stem ends in -r- and in which forms with a simple consonant
represent the imperfect indicative tense while forms with a
geminate represent the conditional. There are two classes of
such verbs, viz.:
(i) -er verbs in which a mute e is dropped in the conditional,
e.g.:
Imperfect Conditional
j’adorais /ʒadbrε/ j’adorerais /ʒadbrrε/
(tu) espérais /εsperε/ (tu) espérerais /εsperrε/
(il) demeurait /dcmœrε/ (il) demeurerait /dcmœrrε/
(ils) viraient /virε/ (ils) vireraient /virrε/