Verbs and Stress

In English, as in many languages, we put stress on certain syllables and this stress then affects the pronunciation of syllables and thus words. Consider, for example, the word "biology". As there is stress on the first 'o', it is pronounced like the 'o' in "hot". However, when we modify this word to become the adjective "biological", suddenly the stress is no longer on the first 'o' but rather on the second 'o'. The first 'o' now sounds a little like the 'e' in "crowded". When a letter is pronounced like the 'e' just mentioned, we call the sound that is made a schwa.

In French, we encounter similar stress patterns. There is a rule that says the last vowel sound in a verb in the present tense must be stressed. In other words, the final vowel sound cannot be a schwa. Consider, for the example, the word mener. We cannot say "je mene", that is with the "e" between 'm' and 'n' being pronounced as a schwa. It has to sound like 'e' in "egg". If we write "je mene", in terms of the rules of French spelling it would mean we are saying that the 'e' should be pronounced like a schwa or even like the 'e' in "le". This would definitely be incorrect. We need to somehow indicate that the 'e' is pronounced like 'e' in "egg". To do this, we use an accent grave. Thus, we write "je mène".

Below is the conjugation of the verb mener in the present tense:

Je mène
Tu mènes
Il mène
Elle mène
Nous menons
Vous venez
Ils mènent
Elles mènent

Notice that the 'e' for nous and vous is unstressed. This is because the stress goes on the last vowel sound, in this case 'ons' and 'ez' respectively.

A verb that behaves in the same way as mener is appeler. However, for some reason I do not know, instead of writing "j'appèle", we write "j'appelle". (Actually, I think I might know but I do not wish to muddy the waters). In other words, we use a French spelling rule that says  that if we double a consonant, the 'e' in front of it is pronounced like 'e' in "egg". Most verbs that have the same issue of stress as "mener" use 'è', so do not worry about there being 100 verbs like appeler. Below is the conjugation of appeler in the present tense:

J'appelle
Tu appelles
Il appelle
Elle appelle
Nous appelons
Vous appelez
Ils appellent
Elles appellent

Please note that appeler is by no means an irregular verb. Instead it is perfectly regular when spoken. It is the spelling that might be somewhat irregular. Remember that when we learn to speak languages as children, we have no conception of spelling. Language is natural and almost always follows specific rules. Spelling, however, is a human invention and is contrived and sometimes contains exceptions, more exceptions than the language it tries to capture on paper.

As an aside, I wrote a book called "J'apprenne j'apprends" about verb conjugations. After publishing this book, I wished I had included a note on the stress patterns of verbs. If you do buy the book, perhaps you could take this post and paste a hard copy of it somewhere in the book for yourself.