Pronunciation question about 'carte bleue' within the text.

Question

- Je vais payer en carte bleue,In the text the 'e' at the end of 'carte' seems to be pronounced. If so could you please explain why this is, as the next word 'bleue' starts with a consonant and not a vowel (which then normally requires the liaison). Thank you.

Accepted Answer

Bonjour Stewart,
You are correct that it is slightly more obvious here. As a native speaker, I never realised this but... it seems that (having said "carte + [something else: colour, etc]  and the word "carte" on its own out loud to myself - ;-) ) when "carte" is followed by an adjective/etc, the "-te" is slightly more pronounced. Slight light bulb moment !
I hope this is helpful.
Bonne journée !

Answer

This happens quite often in French, where the final -e seems to be pronounced. But, really, you can look at it simply as the end of the hard letter -te in carte. It's kind of a mixture of an annunciated "e" and an aspirated "t".