The speaker sounds like he is pronouncing the 't' in 'ecart', which should be silent. It almost sounds as if he is saying: "Ils ont cinq ans d'equatre".
When I listened to the word "ecart" in the Collins online dictionary it had the correct pronunciation with the 't' being silent.
Otherwise, I enjoyed this exercise and learned a new word: "ecart". And, now, I don't think I will easily forget it either!
Bonjour N. Hilary,
Thank you for your feedback and comment! It is nice to know that you enjoyed this exercise.
I listened to the recording and as a native speaker I don't hear the -t from "écart" at all.
I hope this is helpful.
Bonne journée !
Bonne journée !
As a non-native speaker (with quite a lot of exposure to spoken French), I don't hear any hint of 't' either. He is speaking slowly, and pronuciation is a bit exaggerated at this level - that is a nice "heavy French back-of-the-throat rolling 'r' " at the end of 'd'écart'. It may have been a technical issue - sometimes internet connection problems lead to misheard words/sounds
Merci a vous deux !
I listened again and this time I heard it without the 't' but with the heavy 'r' Maarten refers to. What is a bit odd is that I had listened to it very carefully several times before writing my comment to be sure that I was actually hearing the 't'. I think Maarten is probably right that internet connection problems may have been the problem.
I do really appreciate your help!
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