"Les gens" pronounciation

Question

"Il avait même fallu que les autorités démentent le canular car beaucoup de gens y avaient cru !"  In this sentence "les gens" was pronounced like "le jok". Is it correct?

Cécile Janty-Davies · Accepted Answer

Bonjour Marina,
I have listened to the passage, and I can't hear a -k at all.
The word should be pronounced as -
ZH 
The ZH of measure, treasure, vision 
+ the nasal sound  EN
You may know the word 'genre', so remove the final 'RE,' and you have it.
Hope this helps!

Anne Davies · Answer

Agree with Marina S, I’m also hearing an odd sound at the end of that "gens", rather like a glottal stop. It’s not evident on playing the whole extract, only in the individual sentence when doing the exercise.

Cécile Janty-Davies · Answer

Thank you for your comment, Anne. I have now listened to the segment on its own, and the 'gens' is a little bit stressed, but I can't hear any problems with its pronunciation.
Incidentally, you could liaise the -S of 'gens' with the following -Y, which might be a good idea.
Having spoken with the French team, we, three native speakers, think that the pronunciation of 'gens' is correct.
We always re-record when there is a definite problem, but this is not the case here.
Bonne Continuation !