In many ways French and English are different. French tends to accentuate the beginning of words and minimize their endings. Look at this sentence:

Les petits garçons manquaient de respect envers leurs parents.

Notice that the final consonants (e.g. d, t, s ) are not pronounced as loudly, if at all. In French, different clues before the words help identify if the word is singular, plural, past or present. Stress is usually at the ends of words and tends to be almost inaudible.

English is quite different. It is the endings of words that indicate if they are singular, plural, past or present (e.g. -s, -ed ). Since English is not a phonetic language, there are many silent letters, but these are very rarely at the ends of words. They are usually at the beginning or in the middle.

Confusion can be created by not pronouncing the ends of words in English. Stress is counted from the end of a word backwards, so it is not the first, second or third syllable, but the last, second-last or third-last syllable which is emphasized.