An Introduction to French Pronunciation

Mute e 83
as have actually been heard in conversation should be used
by foreigners, particularly those who tend to speak rather
slowly (in which case the dropping of /c/ is in any event less
frequent than in rapid speech).
11.6 Rule 3
Rule 3: within a group, mute e is not pronounced if it is
preceded by only one consonant.
11.6.1 As this rule is stated negatively (/c/ is not pronounced),
in this paragraph we shall begin with the exceptions to the
rule. In that way, the expanded version of all three of these
rules will begin with the cases when /c/ is pronounced and
end with those where it is not.
11.6.2 The main exceptions to the rule, i.e. the cases where
/c/ must be pronounced, are the following:
(i) when it is followed by /lj/, /nj/ or /rj/, e.g. vous appeliez
/vuz apclje/ (contrast vous appelez /vuz aple/), atelier /atclje/,
hôtelier /btclje/, il n’y a pas de lions /il nj a pa dc ljf/
(alternatively, /il nj a pa d lif/), Montpellier /mfpclje/,
Richelieu /riʃcljø/, nous venions /nu vcnjf/ (contrast nous
venons /nu vnf/), vous souteniez /vu sutcnje/ (contrast vous
soutenez /vu sutne/), nous ferions /nu fcrjf/ (contrast nous
ferons /nu frf/), vous seriez /vu scrje/ (contrast vous serez
/vu sre/), il n’a envie de rien /il na evi dc rjh/.
Fouché (1969: 100) also advocates the pronunciation /c/
before /ld/, /rd/ and /rw/, but in practice the mute e is often
dropped in such circumstances, e.g. essaie de lui écrire /ese d
ldi ekri:r/, pas de ruisseau /pa d rdiso/, il n’y a pas de roi /il nj
a pa d rwa/ (but /c/ is not dropped in celui, e.g. je prends
celui-ci /ʒc pre scldi si/; note however that in familiar pronunciation
celui often becomes /sdi/, e.g. celui-là /sdi la/).
No such restriction applies before /nd/, e.g. pas de nuage
/pa d nda:ʒ/, rien de nuisible /rjh d ndizibl /.