prononciation de j'arrivai et j'arrivais - transcription phonvtique

Question

J'arrivai [ʒaʁive] et J'arrivais [ʒaʁivɛ] Ci-dessus: "The tricky part here is that the je form (j'arrivai) has the same pronunciation as the L'imparfait indicatif form J'arrivais. Mais on nous a appris à l'école que c'était:

Accepted Answer

Bonjour P.J.
You raise an interesting point that has been discussed before on this Forum but I cannot locate it at the moment.
The consensus was that the issue of pronunciation in this situation (passé/future v imparfait) was a regional preference and some contributors did not agree that there was any difference at all.
I recall offering my experience that endings "ai" (passé/future) can be pronounced like the English word BEAR and the imparfait endings "ais" like the English word BED. This was pointed out to me by an English family member who lives and works in the Midi (Saint Gaudens area).
Bonne journée
Jim

Answer

Bonjour P.J.,
Jim is indeed correct! It's all down to regional preferences.
I'm from Brittany and we will pronounce "j'arrivai" (Passé Simple) the same as "j'arrivais" (L'Imparfait) (maybe because we're a bit more rough around the edges ;-) ). Howeverm the context will help you distinguish which one is which though.
There are many other examples such as this one.:
Lait vs Les (milk vs the pl.) -> [e] or [ɛ] / poulet (chicken) [e] or [ɛ] / mes-ses-tes [e] or [ɛ]
take a look here too : Prononciation : « é » ou « è »
I hope this is helpful.
Bonne journée !