Why does ‘appeler’ in French get an extra L in some forms?


Some French students have asked whether the double <ll> in the verb appeler in some conjugated forms has to do with pronunciation.


Yes, it is due to pronunciation. More specifically, it’s because of the cutting of syllables in the word. In a French word containing more than one syllables, the last syllable can’t contain a [ə]¹. If the final written <e> is really the last letter in the word, it is silent and only the previous consonant will be pronounced. But if a written <e> is followed by a consonant, there are two options:


1. The syllable is followed by another syllable (i.e. with another vowel).


Then either the <e> is pronounced [ə] and counts as a vowel in an open syllable, before the next syllable:


appeler    ↣    3 syllables: [a] - [pə] - [le]


Or the <e> is silent and doesn’t count as a vowel:


appeler    ↣    2 syllables: [a] - [ple]


2. The syllable is not followed by another syllable and is technically the last syllable in the word.


Then the <e> can never be pronounced [ə] because as we said, the [ə] can’t be the last syllable in a word, otherwise the <e> would just be silent:


appelle    ↣    2 syllables: [a] - [pɛl]


In this context, the vowel is changed from [ə] to [ɛ], as you can see, because the word couldn’t be pronounced [apəl] (it would actually look like English apple - the fruit - which doesn’t sound natural for French speakers, because in French the last syllable in a word is the one that can be stressed, and [ə] cannot be stressed).


Now one point about spelling.


The written vowel <e> is usually pronounced [ə] (or sometimes silent) when not followed by a consonant or when followed by only one consonant:


venir          ↣ [və] - [niʁ]

petit ↣ [pə] - [ti]

jeter ↣ [ʒə] - [te]


But it can be pronounced [ɛ] when followed by two or more consonants:


viennent          ↣ [vjɛn]

pelle         ↣ [pɛl]

jette ↣ [ʒɛt]


Since we need a [ɛ] and not a [ə] in the specific position, we double the consonant in order to get a spelling that matches the pronunciation.


Here’s the pronunciation of appeler in present. Check the number of syllables compared with the [ə] / [ɛ] shift and the number of consonants:


[a] - [pɛl] ↣ appelle

[a] - [pɛl] ↣ appelles

[a] - [pɛl] ↣ appelle

[a] - [pə] - [lɔ̃] ↣ appelons

[a] - [pə] - [le] ↣ appelez

[a] - [pɛl] ↣ appellent


It works also if the [ə] is silent and if the number of syllables for nous and vous forms is reduced to 2. But note that the <l> still has to be followed by another vowel.


[a] - [pɛl] ↣ appelle

[a] - [pɛl] ↣ appelles

[a] - [pɛl] ↣ appelle

[a] - [plɔ̃] ↣ appelons

[a] - [ple] ↣ appelez

[a] - [pɛl] ↣ appellent


Also note that [ɛ] can be spelled differently. Sometimes it’s indeed, a double consonant:


nous jetons        ↢ [ʒə] - [tɔ̃]

je jette                ↢ [ʒɛt]


And sometimes the written <e> takes an accent and becomes <è>:


nous amenons    ↢ [a] - [mə] - [nɔ̃]

j’amène                 ↢ [a] - [mɛn]


I think it’s important to get a whole picture of the rule because this works for a lot of other contexts, but here, specifically for -er verbs that have two bases in present tense.


J.-S. Desnanot


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¹ If you are not used to the International Phonetic Alphabet, see an IPA chart here (https://www.internationalphoneticassociation.org/IPAcharts/inter_chart_2018/IPA_2018.html) with clickable audio.