au-dessus and au -dessous (don’t mix these ones up they have exact opposite meanings!).And voilà! You have the French “u” sound!Įxercise: Try pronouncing the following pairs of words, to really hear the difference between “u” and “ou”: Basically your lips are saying “oo” while your tongue is still saying “ee”. Now, without moving your tongue, shape your lips into an “ooh” sound. Say a normal English “ee” sound (like at the end of the word “free”). French has both the English “oo” and a distinct “u” sound (denoted by y in the International Phonetic Alphabet), so you’ll want to learn to pronounce them differently in order to avoid any, ahem, misunderstandings.įor example, there aren’t many scenarios where you can mix up the words “thanks a lot!” and “thanks, nice ass!” in French conversation and still be understood! So don’t get your “merci beau coup” and “merci beau cul” mixed up! To correctly pronounce the “u” sound, try this. It’s not the same as an English “oo” sound. There’s no sound like the French “u” in English. It takes completely different approach to any other French course, and it just works. I've found no better course for guiding me through this than Mimic Method French. Where possible, I tried to use words that would work in the majority of English dialects and accents, but if in doubt, imagine them being pronounced in a standard British or standard American dialect.īefore I get into this guide, I should say that the best way to improve your French pronunication is through focused speaking drills. Note that when describing how to pronounce these French words, I make reference to English words that sound similar. In this pronunciation guide, I’ll walk you through the most troublesome sounds to pronounce, as well as a few subtle, easy ways you can change your pronunciation to make huge headway toward sounding like a native French speaker. Just like English, French pronunciation only needs a bit of practice to get right. Think of all the English words that are difficult even for anglophones to pronounce, much less everyone else! “Rural juror”, “isthmus”, “Benedict Cumberbatch”… This is especially the case as it has a lot of sounds that aren’t found in English.įrench is different to English. When you start learning French, the pronunciation can seem really tricky. Full disclosure: This post contains affiliate links.
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |