In today’s lesson we’ll focus on the pronunciation of américain and américaine, which are the masculine and feminine forms of “American” in French.
américain, américaine
American
Américain, Americaine – American in French
Example sentences
The pronunciation for américain, américaine is: [ameʀikɛ̃, ameʀikɛn]. The masculine form ends in a [ɛ̃} nasal sound and the N in not pronounced. Note also that as an adjective, américain, américaine is written in the lower case.
John est un homme américain. Jennifer est une femme américaine.
John is an American man. Jennifer is an American woman.
In this example sentence, the verb faire (to make, to do) is conjugated in the futur simple tense, which I explain in this lesson.
Le président américain fera un discours à la télévision ce soir.
The American president will give a speech on TV tonight.
When referring to the nationality as a noun, les Américains (the Americans – men and women or men only) is written in the upper case. In the feminine form, it would be les Américaines (the American women).
Les Américains voyagent de plus en plus en Europe.
Americans are traveling more and more to Europe.
Conclusion
Et voilà ! Now you know how to say American in French. Now check out our lesson explaining the difficult pronunciation of les États-Unis (United States). For the tricky nasal sounds, you might like this lesson from French Today!
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