How to improve my French pronunciations?

Bonjour! Comment allez-vous?

Let’s forget about the meaning or correct pronunciation, I am pretty sure you can read the above words, right?

French alphabets are the same as their English counterparts, so it’s not difficult to read for English speakers, but you need to keep in mind that the pronunciation is different, at least for some alphabets. While learning a language, most of the learners ignore that these two languages have different sounds while producing the same words.(repeating again for some alphabets)

While learning French the most difficult part of the language is with speaking. But why in speaking? What is the main culprit behind it?

The answer is not clear about the pronunciation of the alphabets and the sound it makes!

Before finding out the details to support the above argument, let me introduce a little bit about the French.

The French Language

It is the descendant of the Vulgar Latin-romance language of the Indo European family. French is spoken by more than 220 million people on five continents. It is spoken as a first language (in descending order of the number of speakers) in France;  Canada (provinces of Quebec, Ontario and New Brunswick as well as other Francophone regions); Belgium (Wallonia and the Brussels-Capital Region); western Switzerland (Romandy—all or part of the cantons of Bern, Fribourg, Geneva, Jura, Neuchâtel, Vaud, Valais); Monaco; parts of Luxembourg; parts of the United States (the states of Louisiana, Maine, New Hampshire and Vermont); north-western Italy (autonomous region of Aosta Valley); and various communities elsewhere. People or nations that spoke French are called Francophone. (both in English and in French)

When you have perfected the pronunciation of the French language it can be said that you are almost halfway through your language learning journey. It is the backbone of the two fundamental parameters,i.e, reading and speaking. While learning pronunciation you need to keep in mind that all the alphabets do not make the same sound as its English counterparts.

Here are some points to keep in mind to perfect the French pronunciation-

• Accents

In addition to the alphabets which are similar to English letters, French uses several accents: grave accents (à, è, and ù) and acute accents (é). A circumflex applies to all vowels, except Y (considered as a vowel): â, ê, î, ô, û. A tréma (French for dieresis) is also applied: ë, ï, ü, ÿ. Two combined letters (called orthographic ligatures) are used: æ and œ. Finally, a cedilla is used on the c to make it sound like English. 

• Where to and how to pronounce the accents and the alphabets.

The grave accent ( ` ) à è ù, has two different usages. On the letter “e” it marks the distinction of the vowel: è [ɛ] and e [ə]. ” a” and “u” is used only as a grammatical marker and has no effect on the pronunciation. 

The acute accent ( ´ ) é: used only on the letter e, where it changes the vowel sound – it distinguishes é [e] and e [ə]. 

The circumflex ( ˆ ) â ê î ô û:a circumflex over an e or o indicates the sound /ɛ/ or /o/, respectively.

The diaeresis or dieresis or tréma ( ¨ ) ä ë ï ö ü ÿ: the diaeresis is used to point out that the second of a pair of vowels is to be pronounced as a separate vowel not as silent or as part of a diphthong (naïve, Noël). one more use of diaeresis is to point out division of words in syllables in, for example, Gaëlle. Diaeresis on ÿ only occurs in some proper names like Louÿs or the name of a place and in new editions of old French texts. 

Know the unique ways to pronounce consonants and vowels. Such as” G and J”, soft “G”, “H” and” R”. And for the vowels “u”, in English, the sound of U can be produced in many different ways, but in French, it is the pronunciation as only one sound.

Remember “always silent letter: H”

Unlike its English counterpart, in french the letter H is always silent while pronouncing it.

If you know how to differentiate and know how to apply your pronunciation, it is almost 60% completed to perfection. Other than this point is to listen to native speakers and follow them, make sure to follow their way of facial expression and shape of the mouth. Of course, you can add your know-how here too! And remember French is not pronounced as it seems.

So in order to perfect the speaking, you need to follow the guide to these rules for pronunciation.

No need to worry too much. You can relax and solve all these problems by learning it. What you face while learning French can be solved by Multibhashi by simply enrolling in the classes provided by this edtech platform. You can check out more for every question that might be stopping you from enrolling by clicking this link. Learn while you can, time doesn’t wait for anyone. Who knows your curiosity may turn into a career!