is the n in bon pronounced?

@candle The n only serves to make the vowel nasal.

The French nasal vowels are: "on", "an", "un"/"in" (the last two are supposed to be different from each other, but the nuance is increasingly lost in most regions)

@Louvelune and in bonne is the pronounciation different?

@candle Yes, that's why the n is doubled: to mark this is a separate sound, not the nasal vowel ensemble. #grammarlogic #grammarmagic ^^

@Louvelune @candle i can rec you a bit of pronounciation if you want

it works the same way for words with -om too (or is it just exceptions??? ugh can't tell)

@sempervirenx @candle It's just a graphic thing: the n becomes m when followed by b or p (like in 'jambe'/leg, or 'lampe') - that's because these 3 letters are made by pressing the lips together, n isn't.

So technically yes, it works the same: "ombre" is the nasal "on", but "homme" has its 'm' properly pronounced.

But it's a by-product of that graphic convention, it's the presence of the m that's a weird grammatical add-on... xD

@candle @sempervirenx Sorry, I shouldn't encourage thinking of those things as *weirdness* though, it always has a reason. It's just that sometimes it goes back too far to still make sense...

This "n into m" thing, for example, comes from latin: they didn't have nasals, so pronouncing 'n' immediately followed by p/b was hard, and the switch to lip-pressing m made perfect sense.

We just kept that even after the nasal vowels emerged, because we don't ret-con common words' spellings when the reason fades away... ^^°