Hard Words in French #7-Order Water,Wine: De L'eau,Du Vin-Mastering French Pronunciation w/Geri Metz
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- เผยแพร่เมื่อ 18 มี.ค. 2016
- To order water or wine! You need the partitive. "De" plus definite article (le, la, de l') tells the waiter what you want: de l'eau, du vin
Bonjour! I'm Geri Metz and this is my latest series of mini video lessons "Hard Words in French"
In this series I'll be taking up those particularly hard to pronounce words as chosen by expats living in France.
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Blog blurb for Hard Words #7--l'eau
This Hard Word in French is not hard at all, but since it was included on the list of words I have been featuring that expats found difficult, I wanted to include it in this series. The woman who submitted this word to the online magazine in France complained that waiters couldn't understand her when she asked for water. Her problem was not pronunciation this time, but grammar. So in this video we take a quick look at the “partitive”. And just for fun I throw in a word that is often mispronounced, the French word for “shampoo” which is actually an English word with a twist. While you are on the website, please click on “Courses” to learn more about the unique video course I have created that unlocks the mystery of what the French do to sound French. With special audio exercises to repeat, you will be on your way to sounding more like a local.
I am a childminder taking care of French kids and your short lectures are really helpful.
Merci beaucoup madame et c'est une grande aide pour les non-francophones comme moi.
Thank you for your kind words. I am so glad my work is of help to you.
First of all thank you very much for your nice and helpful channel. Can you please repeat the the pronunciation 3 or four times in consequence?
and that's the problem with french people! going to a restaurant as an English person making an attempt to speak french by asking for water... eau. the waiter cant make a little assumption and bring a glass of water! most certainly the customer isnt looking for all the water in the world, unless its a dolphin or something asking.
😂
"o" in itself, without any context is just a sound, not a word. As Geri explains, this word "eau" never comes alone in a sentence in French, so of course a French person can not understand. It makes sense in "un verre d'eau", "de l'eau", so you have two sounds expected, never /o/ but /lo/ or /do/ : de l'eau = /de/ and /lo/ or verre d'eau = /vèr/ and /do/ Even if it's hard for you to understand, It's like asking "ee" instead of coffee. I don't think an english waiter would understand that "ee" stands for coffee, right?
When we want to imitate how a prehistoric or uncivilized man would speak in a movie, we usually make him speak without partitive (and without conjugation), something like "moi vouloir eau" (ie "me to want water"), instead of "je voudrais de l'eau". But at least we understand because there is a pronoun and a verb, and eau is pronounced /o/ so a context that makes sense ^^
Indeed, most of the time, the sound itself /o/ is not pronounced by a foreigner a way a French person would pronounce it, so it's even more difficult to understand. Even "t", "d", are different in French : it's a dental sound, unlike the english t and d. We manage to understand when the context is correct, and if other sounds, the intonation, the rythm are correct. So even if it's impossible for you to pronounce the French "R", it's not a problem as long as the rest is correct : there is a context and we just have to fill a minor gap in our understanding. But if the intonation, the rythm, the lengh of the vowels and/or the nasal are wrong, there is nothing left to understand.
Such a nice lady
In my experience (getting a haircut in France), the term "shampooing" is often shortened to simply "shamp".
No, I'm French and I've never heard anyone shorten this word
@@hugor9660 I live in Paris; I have a French barber in a non-tourist area; I speak to him only in French (he doesn't speak English); and he always says "shamp." Before I found him, I had other barbers who said the same. Perhaps it is generational; he appears to be about 45. He inherited the shop from his father.
@@squeeky2 it is strange indeed. We rarely shorten words this way, especially when they end with a nasal sound, because it makes it difficult to pronounce a word ending with a "p" sound (for example, "application" is not shorten in "app" in oral french. ) Maybe you don't hear the /ɛ̃/ at the end, while in english the "oo" of shampoo is a long vowel. When I think about it, the sound /ɛ̃/ is quite short in shampoing compared to the /oo/ of "shampoo", it could explain why you don't hear it. If your barbers really pronouce it like this, they are exceptions, don't try it in other contexts, I don't think anybody would understand it. You should ask more to your barber about this and let us know here, I'm curious! :)
Why does the I in vin sound so different than the I in Paris, or papillon, or coquille, or il? Why does it sound instead more like the french a like the a in la, pas, salut, and vas sound?
Is it just a case of "that's just how they say it"?
Thanks for this great question. The "i" in he word"vin" is not a stand-alone vowel; it combines with the following"n" to form what we call a nasal vowel in French. The nasal vowel in a word like"vin" or "impossible" sounds, as you said, a lot like the"a" in "salut," but the sound is projected into the nose to make a nasal vowel.There are 3 nasal vowels in modern French: "an "or "en" gives the sound as in "France," or "enfant." and "on" gives the sound as in "bon". In all these cases, the n or m is not pronounced--it has made the vowel nasal.
@@PronouncingFrench Oh ok. Thank you.
Waiter was pretending not to understand so the lady would spend more......
Very possible
How accurate