Learn all about the eighteen main French consonant sounds you'll need to know to sound like an eloquent and polished speaker of the French language
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| INTRODUCTION |
| Virginie: Bonjour! |
| Eric: Eric here. French Consonants. Hey, thanks for being with us here today Virginie. What are we going to be looking at in this lesson? |
Lesson focus |
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| Virginie: Today you will work on your French consonants pronunciation. |
| Eric: And the consonant of the sound that is not obstructed by either your lips, your tongue or your teeth. |
| Virginie: Uh that’s a very scientific definition Eric. |
| Eric: I just pulled that out of my dictionary. |
| Virginie: French language has a total of 18 consonant sounds. |
| Eric: And some of those are French specific right? |
| Virginie: Well we share most of them with other languages but of course English speakers for example have a really hard time pronouncing some of them. |
| Eric: Like the "r". |
| Virginie:Yes "ra", “re”, “ri”, “ro”, “ru”. |
| Eric: Beautiful. Was that some kind of poem? |
| Virginie: Yes it is. |
| Eric: But that is a pretty challenging sound though right? |
| Virginie: Yes. |
| Eric: Except for the Germans. |
| Virginie: Oh Germans use it way more than the French do. |
| Eric: So do you have a pronunciation tip for us? |
| Virginie:Yes the "r" sound comes from your throat and so does the sound "g". |
| Eric: Well pretty much all of us know how to make a “g”. |
| Virginie:Yes. So we are going to make that "r" happen by linking it with "g". |
| Eric: Okay for example "gros" which is spelled g-r-o-s and means “big”. |
| Virginie:Yes "gros". Now you know the feeling you have in the back of your mouth when you say "g"? |
| Eric: We will try to force it a little and your "r" should come out. |
| Virginie:Don’t hesitate to exaggerate at first. |
| Eric: And don’t mind the people around you on the bus. |
| Virginie:At the worst, they will think that you have a frog in your throat. |
| Eric: Another good word to practice your "r" is "gras" which means fat, gras. Go ahead and repeat after Virginie. |
| Virginie: "gros", “gras”, "gros", “gras”. |
| Eric: Right. Now there is another similar sound right? |
| Virginie:Yes it’s the "rr" sound and it’s called the "Georges Brassens rr". |
| Eric: And George Brassens was a French singer from the 50s. This is a little bit of a more old French sound. |
| Virginie:Yeah it’s not a very common sound nowadays. It’s almost completely disappeared. |
| Eric: But you can hear it in some of Edith Piaf’s songs for example. |
| Virginie:Yeah it sounds like this: "emportée par la foule"... |
| Eric: Wow! What a singer! Very nice Virginie. Do you have any other sounds for us? |
| Virginie:Yes it has to do with dessert. |
| Eric: Great. I am all ears! I am assuming that this would be not ordering a dessert when you want to get a dessert. |
| Virginie:Exactly and this is a common mistake because the words dessert and desert sound very much alike in French. |
| Eric: And they do in English too, actually. |
| Virginie:That’s true. Well in French though, the difference is between the two sounds "s" and "z". |
| Eric: Okay. So let’s say I’m at a nice restaurant in Lyon. |
| Virginie: Lyon, good idea. I am tired of only hearing about Paris. |
| Eric: And Lyon has a great culinary tradition. So I am done with my delicious "steak tartare" and I’d like something sweet. What should I ask the waiter for? |
| Virginie:You will ask for like "la carte des desserts" which is the dessert menu. |
| Eric: So dessert is "dessert" d-e-s-s-e-r-t. |
| Virginie:Absolutely, two “s”. |
| Eric: And what if I mix "s" and "z" and actually ask for a "désert". |
| Virginie:Well the waiter then might bring you a cup of sand. |
| Eric: Ah okay because I am asking for a desert. Okay so to sum it up, "dessert" is d-e-s-s-e-r-t and it means dessert. |
| Virginie:Yes and "désert" which is desert just one s is desert. |
| Eric: If you are reading a text, obviously the spelling is going to help you enough. It’s "s" or "z". |
| Virginie:Yeah it usually does. For example, at the beginning of a word, the letter S is pronounced "s". At the end of a word, it can be either silent or pronounced "s". |
| Eric: And when squeezed in between two vowels, it’s generally going to be pronounced "z". |
| Virginie:Yes and ss is always pronounced "s" just like in dessert "dessert". |
| Eric: Okay I think it’s time for a little more practice. Why don’t we talk about the difference between "v" and "b". |
| Virginie:Yeah that might be helpful for Spanish speakers out there. There maybe a few Spanish students listening to our show. |
| Eric: So what’s the difference between "v" and "b". |
| Virginie:Well, when you say "v" you use your lower lip and your upper teeth. They sort of vibrate against each other. |
| Eric: I see and "b" is sort of like a percussive effect between your two lips. |
| Virginie:Yes. |
| Eric: Interesting. So when a sound is not part of your language, obviously it’s going to be a little harder to pronounce. |
| Virginie: Absolutely. Well let’s try a little phonetic exercise. I am going to say two different sentences and you out there try to hear the difference. |
| Eric: Let’s go ahead. |
| Virginie: First sentence "Je vois la mer." and second sentence "Je bois la mer." |
| Eric: I heard the difference but I think that’s because those two sounds actually exist in English. Let’s hear one more time with the translation. |
| Virginie:"Je vois la mer." |
| Eric: I see the sea. |
| Virginie:And "Je bois la mer." |
| Eric: I drink the sea. |
| Virginie:Then, once you can hear the difference between "v" and "b" you can start practicing. |
| Eric: Okay great and what’s next? |
| Virginie: A little practice tip. You can practice by saying some words over and over like "vague" which is wave and "bague" which is ring. |
| Eric: "vague" v-a-g-u-e, wave, and "bague" b-a-g-u-e, ring. |
| Virginie:Yeah include those into sentences that you repeat until you feel the difference. |
| Eric: Great. Okay I think we are done with the consonants practice but I have one last question for you. Who has the easiest time pronouncing French? |
| Virginie:Well I know it’s quite easy for German people and it’s easy for Italians too. |
| Eric: And what about English speakers? |
| Virginie: Well they do a pretty good job. |
Outro |
| Virginie: Okay well thank you guys for listening to us yelling crazy sounds. |
| Eric: And thank you for yelling with us. That just about does it for today |
| Virginie: Okay, thank you all, au revoir! |
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