How to Pronounce All of the Most Difficult Sounds in French (R, U, EU, L, LL, nasal sounds)
ฝัง
- เผยแพร่เมื่อ 6 มิ.ย. 2024
- This video is a compilation of all of the most difficult sounds to pronounce in French and the methods I used for learning them. The video covers mouth shape and the letters/sounds R, U, EU, L, LL, and nasal sounds.
Use the timestamps below to skip to any particular letters or sounds that interest you most. Hope this is helpful in your French language journey!
Chapters:
00:00 Intro
00:14 Why Learn Pronunciation from a Non-Native Speaker
01:22 Mouth Shape English vs French
03:37 Letter U
05:26 Nasal Sounds
06:37 EU Sound
07:47 Letter R
09:36 Letter L
10:56 LL Sound
11:34 EU + IL(L) Sound
12:22 Pronouncing Écureuil (Squirrel)
12:52 Outro
#french #learnfrench #frenchpronunciation #frenchlanguage #frenchtips #frenchforbeginner
I'm a french native speaker and I never realized the sound "eu" made your diaphragm move ! You have a very good pronunciation, also your explanations show you have given it a lot of thought and thus can explain it I think better than the natives can. I could never !
Thank you so much! I really appreciate this feedback 🫶
Same, agreed 100%!!!
Based on your stuck up attitude you are probably French Canadian.
Same in German, many languages and also French try to avoid the glottal stop in most cases, German does the opposite - the glottal stop is a natural part of the pronunciation. Many foreign speakers pronounce everything correctly except the glottal stop, which sounds very strange. However, I never saw this being taught in schools. Also true in the opposite direction - none of my English teachers ever mentioned that one important thing for not sounding German is to never do the glottal stop.
Also in pronunciation notation is the glottal stop often omitted.
@@royaventurera Are you Persian?
..as I sit here, native Italian speaker, repeating French pronunciation, doing my absolute best..
My son walks in
“Mom? Are you ok? Are you choking?”
🫣
lol I died
Damn, I'm French and watched a lot of your short videos, I've always thought you were a french native faking the American accent! Congrats
Wow what a compliment! Thank you so much 🫶🫶
You can tell she's native US and not french tho...
@@milantehrandubai did you even read the comment
Derpy @@milantehrandubai
@@elliotarundella7581 Did you even understand his reply though?
Not only do you have excellent French pronunciation, your English with the French accent is absolutely beautiful.
Thank you sm ☺️
Why is English with a French accent applauded, but French with an English accent is frowned upon?
@@MK-hh1voEnglish speakers are fine with accents while the French are known for being rude about it
I’m a native French-speaker from Switzerland and also a certified french language teacher (FLE).
You’re French is absolutely mind-blowing ! Your prononciation is close to perfect (99% native like). Can’t wait to show your video to my students, so inspirational !
Of course, if you are a French speaker from Switzerland, her prononciation must sound perfect to your 🇨🇭 ears (just kidding).
If you can say "l'association des serruriers de Rueil-Malmaison" three times in succession, you've truly arrived.
I just tried now. I haven’t arrived
kessé ça rueil-malmaison?
@@roe_kUn patelin d’Ile-de-France
I love the word serrurier, it’s one of those I can’t help rolling around in my mouth whenever I see it.
I've studied phonetics, and here is my tip for "u": try saying eeeeee and as you're saying it, round/ purse your lips. In phonetics, French u is considered the "rounded" version of "i," and eu is the rounded version of e.
Exactly. Looking at a vowel chart they are the rounded/unrounded equivalents.
this works! It became easier for me to pronounce this correctly when I learned Haitian Creole, which generally does not differentiate between the French "i" (eeeee) and the French "u"
J’ai aussi étudié la phonétique, la phonologie et l’orthoépie, et je suis de votre avis.
Le a de pâte et le un de brun sont en train de disparaître du français hexagonal.
Le R, en revanche, ne fait pas de différence qu’il soit apical ou uvulaire, et il tend à s’ amuïr en hexagonal.
I’ll probably get lambasted for admitting this but I’m on a 500+ day streak on Duolingo and am realizing now how limited it is, particularly with phonetics and phonemes. Thanks for being one of the “next” steps in my concerted effort to learn French!
Duo is very good as a supplement..you still need to do your own practice/research though
Firstly, congratulations on the streak. It means that for over 500 days, you have done some French study. And doing study everyday is key. The problem is you're not getting enough French.
You will get vastly more French watching a 15 minute French podcast, than 15 minutes Duolingo study. (15 minutes = 2000 words more or less).
The problem is that you will probably not understand someone talking in French for 15 minutes unless it's at your level (this can be extremely discouraging).
I would recommend - Continue Duolingo (as it will help with motivation). Then 15 to 30 minutes of French comprehensible input (google and youtube search this term) every day.
Slowly, you will begin to hear the patterns in the language and understand more and more.
It is estimated by 1000 hours (1500 hours) you will be fairly fluent. (not native). Bear in mind, this will take 3 years at 1 hour per day. However, as your French improves, you will become more comfortable with more difficult input (eg Netflix series etc) and can easily replace your English tv watching with French.
Lastly, if I am going to watch a show in English anyway (not part of my French study), I often watch it in French and put on English subtitles. I don't include this in my study time, but I am still getting input.
I learned Spanish traditionally in high school and college but stopped maintaining proficiency so I joined Babbel as a way to recall from memory. Because somewhere back there in my brain I do remember some things in Spanish. However, I can definitely tell you these language apps will never be able to replace traditional learning. Once I have time to take it more seriously, I plan to purchase a Spanish Textbook and workbook to augment my self study. Some day I'll pay for a tutor as well or take a community college course. Luckily I live really near a community college campus. But yeah... These language apps won't magically make us fluent. They fail to teach real grammar and syntax and so many other elements of language learning
I just started and on a 10 day streak but I intuitively knew I would need more materials. It's a damn good app that makes things into a game and keeps you motivated though. I've already learned 500 words and a lot of useful grammar and rules. I also got +babbel and a list of some movies to watch after. These apps so far only gets you to b2 level, Upper intermediate, highest level is c2 advanced. No one app can get you to c2 and that's understandable. Even tho I just started I've been practicing speaking in the car at friends house etc and translating the thoughts in my head when possible to try to think in french. I'm at like 20k exp in ten days been real committed. I'll even say basic sentences to my friends and family that don't speak French or just walking around the house. Practice practice practice
After I speak to them in french. I'll translate it for them. I'm going to canada soon and I want to be able to use what I've learned and make the neural networks stronger. Speaking without the app around really reinforces things because you don't have anything but what you thought you learned and you'll quickly know what needs work
Honestly the best explanation of french phonetic.
Thank you! That means a lot 🫶
I’m a native french speaker from Canada and I get ask all the time how to pronounce this and that by anglophones and most of the time my answer is “it’s just something you know because you know”. You’re right, when you grow up speaking a language it is sometimes harder to really explain it to others.
Please put some more of these educational videos. Much appreciate your courses...😊
Thanks for the feedback! I’m definitely working on making more of them. Please let me know if you have any specific requests 😊
This is one of the best french pronunciation lesson I've watched in youtube. I've watched a lot of french lessons from native french speakers in youtube and i must say your french pronunciation is as good as a native french speaker. Iam a south Indian trying to learn french, and i felt learning it from an American is a really strange but a beautiful experience at the same time. I really appreciate the effort you've put in making this video. Thanks a lot Roya for being a part in my french learning journey❤
Wow! I’ve worked for two French firms and spent a good deal of time in France. Girl you can do a French accent that is amazingly real! Great job teaching pronunciation which is critical to having French folks understand you.
I agree - learning pronunciation from a non native speaker makes a lot of sense. Your tip about the shape of the mouth is great. I had not thought of it before, but you are so correct. Even trying to speak English with a closed mouth makes the sounds so different.
These are difficult letters for English speakers. I am a native Dutch speaker and we have all the exact same sounds you taught in French in Dutch as well (except the nasal ones). What is most difficult for Dutch speakers in French is s/ss/ch sounds. For example, trying not to pronouce national like nachonal.
Same, I am a native Dutch speaker but have lived for many years in the UK. It's the pursing of the lips that is the most helpful to not sound Dutch or English.
After a day of French speaking the mouth muscles even hurt 😊
After a day of French speaking the mouth muscles even hurt 😊
Hopefully it will help everyone who needs help. For those who try to learn and speak French do not forget that you don't have to sound perfect or to speak perfect French. Accents are not a bad thing. Mistakes are not a big deal. I am French and I do not care AT ALL if foreigners have an accent or make mistakes or misuse a word or don't know everything about my language. It is absolutely fine. Most French will actually be suprised by your level. We do not expect you to speak like a native speaker. So just breathe and feel free to be you. Most French speakers do not even master their own language.
Yes! This is absolutely a great reminder too and applies to all languages 🫶
Yes, please, please make more of these videos! I'm a 40 year old adult trying to learn, and your video helped so much! This might sound weird, but I'm also from Western Washington, and it's encouraging and comforting coming from someone fluent in our neck of the woods...our accent, culture, humor, etc.
Ayo! Ditto, or pretty damn close. 44ish/french/oregon
Good luck!
Enchanté
So glad to hear it’s helpful! PNW French speakers united 🤝
37. East side WA/ northcentral ID.
This is quite amusing the watch as a native French-speaking Quebecois. Although all of your explanations and exercises are spot-on, they result in a rather European accent (similar to trying to learn the Queen's English). It's a perfectly functional and beautiful sounding pronunciation of the French language, but uncommon for the metropolitan Quebecois speaker.
I think that it would be fun to see you make a Montreal dialect edition to this very useful video.
My best trick to pass on to you would be that while Euro-French is pronounced with a pouty, pursed lip shape and throaty, guttural vocalisations; Quebecois is more of a smirking, sneering, dominance smile where we tend to speak like we have food stash in one of our cheeks. Here, the nasal sounds are almost cartoonishly exaggerated (the "enfin!" sounding similar to like a crow or seagull cry). Our dialect is also more affected by our close proximity to Anglophones, meaning that the pursed lips are far less pronounced
My favorite part about learning French in college were these sounds. My prof would point to them on the wall with a stick and the whole class would be making these noises in unison and it was amazing! As an American with a passion for the French language I feel like I have just found a friend! I am a little rusty but I'm still good enough I am back to practicing and I subscribed to you! I used to teach these sounds to kids too!
Your English/American descriptions of how to move your mouth for French is so incredibly helpful! (And btw you still smile a lot even with the French shape of your mouth! You’re so cute!)
This is very helpful. I've been mostly using Duo Lingo along with a few podcasts but hearing some of the explanations and seeing the visuals was beneficial. I had figured out the r sound but looking forward to using the tips on the L sound. I feel like vowels and vowel combinations are difficult to get right so I'd definitely welcome more vowel tips.
I'd love to see e, è, é differences.
OMG, I've needed this video for so long! I'm a native English speaker from the Seattle area and have been studying French on and off for almost twenty years now (since 9th grade) and I KNOW my pronunciation is terrible (your short video on speaking French in France for the first time... this is me, lol), but I just never had any of these lessons on how to actually make the sounds. Please make more of these! Also, I love all your videos! I just stumbled on your channel today and binge watched everything!
Thank you sooo much! I’m glad to hear how helpful this is and that you like my channel. Sounds like we have a lot in common too😊
I never even realized I was changing my mouth shape when I change languages. Cool.
Hi Roya! I watched all of your amazingly hilarious shorts. You are not only theatrical, great and funny , you speak all 4 languages beautifully.
I hope you post more shorts on TH-cam. Thanks for making me laugh! ❤
You are so angelic, Roua! Angelic face, voice and good will. This was excellent! Such talent! You do have THE best pronunciation, as close as I have ever heard to native in an American. Yes please, do an entire series! Save French ears! 😅
Thank you for sharing your gifts!
Wow super accent !! Et merci beaucoup pour vos vidéos. En tant que francophone, on parle si naturellement qu'on ne se rend pas compte de toutes les spécificités de notre articulation. Je découvre pleins de choses grâce à vous, encore bravo !! 👏🏽👏🏽👏🏽
I didn't have any specific interest in learning French but I love your videos! I watched the whole thing! So fascinating!! ❤
Also another suggestion: a video on how to improve intonation when speaking french? Even a quick 60 second short would be amazing, tysm ❤
Great idea!
FYI, her intonation is sometimes slightly off, though much better than most non natives. (Her vowels are perfect).
A good idea in any language is to listen to nursery rhymes, which do give babies a sense of rhythm, and to listen to a lot of native speakers and potentially shadow speak.
The rhythm in French is much more regular, one syllable = one beat most of the time, you could almost try speaking with a metronome
The last syllable gets stressed unless you want to stress the word
You're 100% right about native speakers and there's also the ability to deliver a message, pass it down to learners, which is not something native speakers necessarily have (actually they rarely do unless they're teachers). Of course that applies to native speakers from all english-speaking countries as well. I've heard so many inaccuracies before but have always decided to politely stay silent in order to... not offend the native speaker.
This was so helpful! Not just in speaking but understanding French. I am going to Paris in Sept and have been struggling to learn basics
I found a French teacher at a gathering place for immigrants trying to learn English. My Parisian teacher was formally educated as a physician before deciding to teach French. She was so stern that I dreaded going to weekly lessons. I was going to Paris only for a two week vacation. The most useful things I learned were to greet everyone before requesting information or service. Always say, “Bon jour, madam," (or afternoon or evening as appropriate). Then say "Je voudrais" (I would like) then point to what you want. Make sure you say, "Merci." after you get what you wanted. And learn how to ask, "Where is…" If your stay is longer keep watching these videos.
I am very happy to have found your video.
I was born in Montreal, QC but raised in Ontario. I am in my sixties and am now living in Quebec.
Your tips on how to shape your mouth is one of the most valuable tools needed for pronunciation.
I like the Quebecois accent
Excellent tips and explanations! Merci beaucoup!
This was so incredibly helpful! Thank you!
Hi Roya, would you do a video recounting your journey towards becoming fluent in French (and passing the DELF B2 test). When did you start studying French, how long did that take you, did you take group or individual classes, what tools did you use, how many hours did you spend per day studying and what helped you master each area of the language (reading, writing, listening comprehension). And how did you master “everyday French” vs textbook French.
Thanks for the suggestion! I’d be happy to go through my process. I’m wondering what elements to include that would be most helpful for people - I’m happy to tell the full story but I’ll need to think on it a bit
What a great understanding you have of French! Your pronunciation is nearly perfect to be honest!
Also, you are completely right about the fact you are better at delivering a learning message when you are not the native speaker of x language, but yourself a learning speaker to someone learning the same language than you. As a native French speaker, I think everything you said within such a short amount of video time is correct. Mastering French can be intimidating as it's a difficult language even for us, but that's even more amazing when people overcome the fear of learning French.
Excellent guide. Thanks!
This is really helpful!! Thank you for sharing!
You are brilliant. This is incredibly helpful.
Merci Beaucoup! You are so so helpful! I just had a French lesson today and I mentioned to my tutor that I adore your accent. Plus some of your postings are so so funny. I am a fan!
Thank you so much for sharing this advice and guidance with us!!!!! It was totally helpful having help from someone who understands the huge difference compared to American English!!!! And yess I would greatly appreciate more videos on whatever you'd like to teach!
I'm going to remember particularly the EU + IL(L) sound. That was a good explanation about blending the eu and y sounds.
This was so helpful, thank you! I would love to see more content like this!
Very very informative and well taught. You’re really detailed love it
You are amazing. I’m trying to learn European Portuguese and you seem to speak the language so effortlessly.
You’re so sweet! It may sound effortless but I promise it was many years and classes and travels in the making! You’ll get there 🫶
Excellent. I always stress to friends learning other languages, to focus on the mouth shape. Such a good presentation. Merci
Thank you so much! I am currently learning French and was struggling with some pronunciation. I was hoping to find videos that would help me with my pronunciation and these are perfect!!
That's very good. Merci beaucoup.
This is super helpful! Thank you!
Hello! I am just starting French as a native English speaker with a background in Spanish. I love your shorts but this video was EXTREMELY helpful. I really hope you make more videos like this ❤
Well done! Thank you for making this content. 💕
I absolutely love pronunication. Nuns are lovely people.
Perfect timing I just restarted my French learning journey :)
That is fantastic Roya. Extremely helpful.
French pronunciation is so difficult to get right.
Here is a summary (hope you don’t mind)
(Use smaller mouth than English)
=======================
U - Monkey sound + ew - (so gross)
Nasal - eg Pa(IN) - Basketball buzzer
R - (hawk up a loogie) Exaggerated practice
L - Tongue further back than English (top tongue middle roof)
LL - Y sound
Super helpful! I am studying Romanian, Spanish (Spain), and Italian and I’d never considered my American mouth shape in making the sounds necessary for other languages. I found myself shrinking the openness of my mouth with certain Spanish words (as well as a sort of smashing of certain consonants…hard to describe as well as you did). I intend to learn French as well and found your tips very useful. Merci!
This was very very helpful. I have saved it and will listen to it again (and again).
Super helpful, thank you!
I really loved this. When you pronounce squirrel (ecureuil} I think of it as ekyaroeil because you introduce a y between the e and the r. And having practiced L'oeil, I find it helps. Also in Hebrew, we uses a ch gutteral back of the throat sound as in L'Chaim! it helps me. Sometimes I may know something and apply another experience, rather than assume I am totally unfamiliar with what you are driving at. In the beginning your explanation of open and closed mouth was just wonderful. Chapeau bas.
Fantastic !! Not normally discussed and so important!!😅
Thanks. This was very helpful!
So glad ❤
Hi, wonderful video! It was so spot on to start with the mouth shape! This really makes the difference, learnt it the hard way, feeling muscle ache after speaking french. After this and of course the pronunciation i would add, be conscious of where you put the emphasis in a word. In french mostly on the last syllable, in English mostly on the first or forlast.
💙 Lovely! Thank you.
Yes, the mouth formation.
Yes, the slow speech, of early practice;
with Yes, when no one around.
& Yes, to practice with real French people.
In my observing of names, when hearing & learning unknown sounding ones, I need to study their mouths & try to understand just how they pronounce it. Then, try to reproduce those same sounds myself.
This video has helped me to understand some basic mouth formations, & the thoughts behind them, to use when beginning to speak French.
💗
I've just started learning French. This is very helpful, thank you
Happy to hear that!
You are awesome! Thank you so much!
I just found your channel a few days ago and I've really been enjoying it. Thank you so much for the work that you do!
While I did learn French in school over the course of several years, off and on, I did wind up moving to Germany when I was 12 and went to German schools until I left when I was 17. So in the meantime I did become pretty fluent. But what I want to really highlight here is your emphasis on the size of your mouth's motions, and of course where the sounds are coming from within your face (i.e. as far as I recall, German doesn't have any nasal sounds).
Beyond the obvious differences between American English and german, such as are sitting in the middle of the tongue versus ours sitting at the back of the throat, they're quite a few other differences in how you have to use your mouth or other parts of your face really, to make the correct sounds.
It wasn't until I traveled back to Germany with my husband that he pointed out that my pitch went down at least 1/2 or maybe even 1.5 octaves lower when I was speaking German.
Really helpful. Thank you.
Fantastic tutorial!!
This was *so* helpful! Please do more.
Thanks for the video Roya! For "u" I normally use give the example of "tu". It's less complex than "huit" which glides into am i sound, and of course it's one of the most common conversational words. But you really nailed it with the idea of using the monkey sound and the yucky sound ! Great to see the intro on mouth shape, too. It's so critical and yet often not really taught. A great example to contrast the languages is the hesitation sounds "ahhm" vs "euh" which perfectly exemplify the baseline mouth shape.
I have very little nack for language learning. It must be by practice. Duolingo supports me in that way. And then you were on my youtube Shorts timeline. Your stories are funny and now I see that you do more than give insights into French customs and habits.
Your pronunciation video is helpful. Je travaille dur pour pouvoir un jour parler un vrai français.
Je découvre cette vidéo et je me prends à répéter les mots après toi Roya 😅
BTW, the word "écureuil" and squirrel are quite similar (in pronunciation), it's a good example showing both languages share tons of words. French people do have difficulties to write "accueil" (reception, greeting, welcome...) probably because of the way "écureuil" is written, as the end of both words are pronunced the exact same way. I've seen tons of times "acceuil" 😅 which would normally be pronunced "asseuil"...
I'm quite admiring with people learning French. Keep on your efforts, guys👏
Great tips, very helpful. I was familiar with most of these except for LL, and have been really struggling to pronounce “accueille”. It was a major tongue twister because I was trying to make an L sound in it. Maintenant, je peux accueillir l’écureuil!
Thanks for the great video! My voice teacher always told me that when I sing in French, I should have a "kissy" face. She said that it alone corrects a lot of pronunciation problems - and it works like magic! I was hoping that you would talk about the é and è sounds. I remember struggling with words like les vs. lait, or mes vs. mais.
This video is sooo helpful!! Please make more videos on this
Please post more videos like this. I love your content so much!
Thank you!! And will do. Let me know if you have any specific requests 🥰
As a yank I can say your French pronounciation is on point! Fer surrre! 😃🤙
love this video - thank you
I was wondering if “squirrel” was going to be addressed. This short video helped my understanding of spoken French a great deal!
Excellent video!
I'm not a native French speaker but I've been learning for a while and a lot of these I've been doing unconsciously. It's nice to see what I'm doing and to know I'm doing it right!
Thank you very much, I love your shorts they are painfully correct about America but funny! Awesome!
Thank you so much for this video it was so useful! Could you maybe do one on the french subjunctive? Like just a quick overview of what it is and specifically *when* to use it?
I hope you will post more videos🥳
I live in Germany and last week I visited France for the first time and I loved it, so I have to learn French. I already speak Spanish and Portuguese, so it shouldn't be too difficult:)
These are veryyy good tips. The mouth shape tip is something I began to do after a few years without realizing it was helping pronunciation. I did feel like my mouth shape was changing tho in comparison to speaking English.
One tip for the U sounds is to make sure you keep your top molars touching your tongue while the middle of your mouth stays open (obviously)
One of my favorites was flat tire - pneu gonfle and the word for pneumatic - pneumatic
Hi Roya! Loved the video. Can you post a video on your experiences living in Europe? ❤️
Sure! Anything in particular you want to know about?
Wow thanks for this video, very interesting even as a french native :)
I really thought you were french in your shorts given how good is your "r". And just in case you'd like to improve a little more, I think your "u" "eu" etc sounds are a little too "open" to sound 100% perfect but this already so good. Like it's so difficult to pick up accents and you did a bery good job so far!
you explained the "L" sound so well! i love your videos :)
for the french R , most foreigners do it too dry by making the sound from the upper part of the throat , but you need to soften and round it a bit by creating the sound from UNDER the adam's apple , that's the KEY , the R sound comes from the middle/lower part of the throat
Great video, Roya! Just wanted to share a tip I learned to better pronounce the French U. It's to place your lips as though you're going to pronounce OU, as in soup. When your lips are in this position, try saying the English letter E. The French U sound automatically comes out without any effort. I learned French as a kid and have never struggled with this sound, but my Anglophone wife became able to say the French U using this tip.
This helped me a lot. I am just starting to learn French. But practicing speaking helps a lot with my mouth more closed as you said. I will be revisiting this video frequently.
GIRL you were on my fyp so many times BUT BC OF THIS VIDEO IM SUBSCRIBING THANK YOU!
Thank you!! And let me know if there are any videos you’d like me to make in particular, I’m happy to help!
Wow ! This a great brief summary on French prononciation!
I’m curious about your learning process! Did you go to language schools or online tutors ?
Great job Roya....👍
I’ve been learning French off an on for about 2 years, but haven’t had much help in trying to learn it 😅 other than my Pimsler cd’s I would listen to in my car, which has actually helped me a lot! My pronunciation actually isn’t bad! But I’m dying to really learn more, to one day become fluent in the language 🫶🏻
Please make more videos!!!
You are also amazing speaking French and Spanish.
Thank you 🥰
You're great !!!
Wow these tips are amazing! I'm gonna be practicing my R's around the house like crazy lol
Very good video
About the /l/ sound I believe what the lady describes is a palatalized /l/ as opposed to the velarized /l/ in American English, which is also pretty common linguistically. In fact you can make /t/ /d/ /p/ /b/ /m/ /n/ all with similar tongue shape to the so called French /l/ easily
Thank you so so much for this! Do you have any suggestions for French sentences and words that can help me practice these sounds more?