Learn the top five French pronunciation mistakes to avoid
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| Hi everyone. |
| Welcome to The Ultimate French Pronunciation Guide. |
| In this lesson, you'll learn the top 5 French pronunciation mistakes to avoid. |
| These are common mistakes that French learners tend to make. |
| So pay close attention and make sure that you don't make these same mistakes too. |
| Are you ready? |
| Then let's get started! |
| "THE FRENCH R" Number 1. Mispronouncing the French R. |
| ʁ |
| The French R is the most difficult sound to pronounce properly for many students of French, particularly when there isn't a similar sound in the student's own language. |
| It's also a very common letter in French, so it will appear often in every day conversations. |
| Take for example... |
| Lorsque tu arrives à la gare, appelle-moi. (Once you are at the train station, call me.) |
| It's kind of deceptive to think of the French R in the same way as the English R just because they are written in the same way. |
| They clearly don't sound the same at all. |
| Not only this, but they also use different muscles in the mouth. |
| The French R is also called a 'guttural R' because it's pronounced closer to the throat. |
| Don't worry about the specifics now however, we'll break this sound down in detail in lesson 7. |
| "PRONOUNCING A SILENT LETTER" Number 2: Pronouncing a silent letter. |
| It's a common mistake for students of French to pronounce silent letters, because the tendency is to pronounce everything that one sees. |
| The French language however, is full of words that contain silent letters, particularly at the end of a word. |
| It is in fact *more* common for a French word to have a silent letter than none at all. |
| Take this sentence for example... |
| Je vais pêcher au port. (I’m going to the port to fish) |
| Did you catch the silent letters in this sentence? |
| Notice how Mailys did not pronounce the S and the T. |
| Listen to it again. |
| Je vais pêcher au port. |
| Most of the time, you don't need to pronounce the last letter of a word in French. |
| There are of course some exceptions to this rule. |
| Particularly if the following word starts with a vowel sound, or if the word ends with a C, F, or an L. |
| But as a general principle, it's quite common to drop the last letter, as it will most likely be a silent letter. |
| We'll cover silent letters in detail in lesson 8. |
| "ASPIRATED H's vs MUTED H's" Number 3: Aspirated H's versus muted H's. |
| haine (hatred) |
| Hôpital (hospital) |
| Aspirated H's will not allow contractions or liaisons to occur in front of it. |
| For example... |
| l'haine (the hatred) |
| la haine (the hatred) |
| Whereas muted H's *will*. |
| l'Hôpital (the hospital) |
| Most French H's are of this muted variety. |
| They're not interchangeable either, so their usage will depend on the word itself. |
| This unfortunately means that you'll just have to learn them individually. |
| Next, is Number 4: Contractions in French |
| Unlike English, contractions are *not* optional in French. |
| You must *always* contract words wherever possible. |
| For example... |
| Je appeler (i call) |
| j’appelle (i call) |
| Ce est (it is) |
| c'est (it is) |
| de le (from [singular]) |
| du (from [singular]) |
| de les (from [plural]) |
| des (from [plural]) |
| Don't worry about the rules and principles for contractions too much though, as we'll cover them in detail in lesson 8. |
| "THE FRENCH U" And finally, Number 5: The French U |
| [y] |
| The French U is typically a difficult vowel sound for many speakers to pronounce correctly, particularly for speakers of English because there isn't an equivalent sound in the English language. |
| Whatever you do though, *do not* substitute this sound for the English U-sound! |
| A simple way to produce the French U, is to first try and pronounce the double E sound in the word 'see'. |
| From this position, simply round your lips, as if you were about to whistle. |
| And that's all there is too it! |
| Try it! |
| (pause) |
| [y] |
| Let's listen to a few examples which utilises the French U in some words. |
| tu (you [informal]) |
| rue (street) |
| chute (fall) |
| We'll cover this vowel sound again in lesson 4. |
| Now you know the top 5 French pronunciation mistakes to avoid. |
| Try to be careful so that you don't commit these same mistakes. |
| In the next lesson, we'll start learning vowel sounds in French. |
| Which of these five mistakes is the hardest to avoid? Have you learned any tricks to deal with them? Let us know in the comments. |
| Stick with us and you'll overcome it quickly! |
| See you in the next Ultimate French Pronunciation Guide lesson! |
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