French Pronunciation Tips for Beginners

[marcianito88]

are you french native?? you sound with American accent!

[ShuparOTAKU66]

Thank you thank you thank youuuuuuuu!!!! Merciiii beaucoup!!!!!

[Annalamky19902011]

Wow, this is really good!

[violin958]

this is a great video i little faste i think but still good, just one thing you don`t show the most implortant word in french and the most dificult the "R" because many people has trouble with this word.

[melhias]

they are idiots...they have letters which are not pronounced

[Hoaluyen]

Thanks very much.. It is help me a lots

[ritikadecember]

I'm very confused - is 'fais' pronounced as fé or is it an 'e' as in get?



[TrueLitame]

@ritikadecember, it is pronunced as an 'e' in get

[ritikadecember]

@TrueLitame thank you :)

[TheOther42086]

For those who are native French speakers, do you think it's possible to learn French to such a level that you can speak it without any hint of a foreign accent - or will it just always be there?

[orlando098]

I thought this was pretty good (speaking as a Brit who lives in France and speaks good French), but you should take care over the difference between on and en - check out a dictionary with the phonetic pronunciation marked. On is not the same. On is a nasalised "o" and "en" and "an" are a nasalised "a". I find it one of the harder sounds. In onze, for example, you need to round your mouth more.

[orlando098]

premier is pronounced ié at the end not yèr (that's the feminine - première)

[samusd62]

Great video, incredibly helpful. Thank you!

[krips22]

You're explanation about "s" is misleading. One "S" in a middle of a word is pronounced "ss" _unless_ it's between _vowels_ - THEN it's pronounced "z" ("caste" is pronounced "caSSt" but "casier" is pronounced roughly "caZié".

Also, "on" doesn't sound like "en" et "an", it's a specific sound. And "eu" is not always prononced exactly the same (in "fleur" and "eux", both are not exactly pronounced the same way. It's a more "open" sound in "fleur" than in "eux").

[krips22]

Besides, -er, -ez and -et are not the same sounds: -er and -ez sound like a "é", while -et sound like a "è".

[moonk321]

Excellent!!!

[FrKarol]

If you decide to teach, you should pay much attention to what you teach.

The 'e' sound in the words 'buffet' and 'parler' is not pronounced in the same way.

[FrKarol]

What's more, the nasal sounds such as 'on', 'en' and 'an' are not pronounced in the same way. I am sorry but while teaching, we are supposed to be well informed.

[orlando098]

@FrKarol

how are the nasal sounds "en" and "an" different? I agree there is a difference between them and "on", which should be more rounded

[FrKarol]

@orlando098:

The general rule is that the sounds ‘an’ and ‘en’ are pronounced in the same way /ɑ̃/, ex. enfant [ɑ̃fɑ̃].

In some cases, the ‘en’ is pronounced like /ɛ̃/, ex. examen [ɛgzamɛ̃].

[orlando098]

@FrKarol

Yes, that's true. It's a bit of an exception though, I would say

[orlando098]

@FrKarol

True, going by the dictionary, but - like supposedly lait is said like "leh" (like the sound in get) not lé" , but many French speakers don't really make this kind of distinction either, in many words, in my experience (I'm pretty sure most people say something that sounds closer to lé than leh). It could be there are regional differences.

[FrKarol]

@orlando098:

Yes, I agree with you that lots of French people do not pay attention whether they pronounce the [e] (like in the word thé) or the [ɛ] (like in the word lait).

But in my opinion, as a non-native speaker, we should know the differences and use them for a better understanding. There are plenty of words which differ only in these two sounds.

ses [se] - je sais [sɛ]

je parlai [paʀle] - je parlais [paʀlɛ]

etc.

[orlando098]

@FrKarol

I take your point, and I do personally definitely pronounce my imperfect conjugations more ɛ than e. However I think there is a kind of intermediate sound that the black and white of the dictionary symbols doesn't acknowledge, and that is acceptable too instead of a full-on ɛ

[orlando098]

@FrKarol

Having said that, I would think actual confusion of meaning would rarely arise due to a wrong choice - in ses/sais context would make it obvious, and as for parlai/ais, the past historic is so rarely used in speech anyway, though I suppose it could crop up in a play or something.

[Caprican28]

i wish this was slower :/

[MrMj1997]

french is v difficult:(

[spore637]

I have a question. Will the "L" be pronounced in "noël"?

[krips22]

@spore637 : Definitely.

[spore637]

@krips22 But the video said the consonants at last will not be pronounced. Maybe it's an exception??

[krips22]

@spore637 : There are some exceptions but final L are pronounced anyway: In French, "final" is pronounced like it's written, for instance.

[spore637]

@krips22 Thanks!!

[orlando098]

@spore637

yes. there are plenty of words where the consonant at the end is sounded

[spore637]

how can someone dislike it??

[cutecupkait]

Great. Thanks for posting!

[petrolbears]

Thanks a lot. You have a pleasant, easy to listen voice.

[signupsigma]

this is good.

[anyparktos3]

Thanks for reminding me all of this...I really appreciate it!

[econoni]

thanks

[MrEthereality]

Awesome!! Great for a noob like me!

[Oregu7]

Thank you so much for posting this. It's really helpful!

[NarutoRules0198]

Thank you, I found this very helpful. I appriciate that you demonsrated all of the sounds.

[GiantPetRat]

Ditto to the rest- this is a wonderful primer! I'm learning Spanish at an intermediate level, and French is next on my list of languages to try, but for some reason it's more intimidating than Spanish is. This of course is helpful.

[vchowley]

Can you tell us what this is from - are there any more videos to go with this?  I think its excellent & would like to continue.

[buenoa12345]

Had so many Ah-Hah moments in this videos thanks!

[jentan1010]

This was so helpful! Thanks so much for posting it.

[smilzZzcld]

you are a lifesaver ! Thank you, merci!!!!!!

[MsCrayonz]

that helped SOOO MUCH. THANKS.

[ItsAbbyDuhh]

Merci!!

très utile :)

[AudiAMGBMW]

very helpful. you just spoke fast

[lightoftheworld19]

This video is quite helpful, merci!

I personally tried to pronounce everything you explained and then gave examples of, so if you could give a few seconds for the viewer to repeat everything and then you pronounce it correctly for us to compare, that would be AWESOME!

[ScienceTutorials]

Thanks!!

[violetinjaspen]

This helped a lot. Thank you.