I'd like to clarify why I placed the /a-ra/ combination with both the "front spread vowels" and the "front rounded vowels." It is the most open front vowel for which the lips are neither rounded nor spread. When practicing the relative positions of the front vowels, both the "front spread" and the "front rounded" sequences will open up to the /a/ position.
This is excellent. I teach American English pronunciation ("accent reduction") and so I have strong opinions about which techniques are helpful. I very much appreciate the way you comment on the specific maneuvers the tongue has to make to join the sounds smoothly. I use the same approach when I teach English. Being on the "receiving end" of this technique as I watch your video confirms for me that knowing *exactly* what my tongue needs to do is wonderfully empowering and confidence-building.
I am so pleased to have found your videos, thank you so much for doing this! I am an American living in rural France for 6 months and can't say my own name properly because it begins with "R". All of your videos are helping so much in my daily successes!
I've been working on my R and I definitely think I am getting it... at last!, thanks to you. I really appreciate the effort you are making to post these videos. They are really helpful and you are so lovely. Thanks a lot...
La langue française impressionne par sa richesse et ses variations géographiques et stylistiques. Il faut choisir la communauté linguistique à laquelle on veut s'identifier et imiter autant que possible les locuteurs de cette communauté.
Bonjour ! Thank you for your question. In French, a word like "version" is pronounced with /rs/, not with the [z] sound as in English. To work on its pronunciation, you should try saying each syllable separately, then gradually juxtapose them until you can articulate the whole word. Bon courage !
Bonjour ! Je découvre cette vidéo alors que je cherchais à expliquer à un anglo comment prononcer « araignée ». Votre travail sur les sons est hyperrigoureux, les francos eux-mêmes gagneraient à s'y référer de temps en temps pour de meilleures prises de parole en public... Bravo... mes respects !
Bonjour et merci de votre commentaire. The "dangly thing" to which you refer is, I think, your "uvula". When it is beating rapidly against the back of your tongue, it is producing a "back, rolled r ", which is often used in word-initial position. In word-final position, one usually hears a "fricative r ", which is articulated more softly in the same back position but without the uvular beats. You could think of it as an English "h" but with vibrating vocal cords. Bonne continuation !
Thank you for your video! It helps me to learn the french R though I still find it quite difficult since I come from a background that speak R very clearly. I just hope I could practice in front of you so you could fix it if I still pronounce it incorrectly :) Merci beaucoup!
Bonjour ! Thank you for your request. You are welcome to send me a short audio file of your pronunciation of the /r/ so that I can assess it, or you can schedule a Free Diagnostic Lesson with me via Skype. More information (including my e-mail address) is available on my frenchsounds web site; I cannot type a link in this comment box.
Bonjour de nouveau, Mundaneity. If you are a singer of popular songs, the information I gave you in my previous post would apply. The straining you feel may be due to the newness of this articulation. However, if you sing opera, you would use a front flap or double flip for the "r", not a back rolled or back fricative sound.
Bonjour, je veux vous remercier j'avais été essayé faire le 'french r' terrifiant depuis toujours et votre lecon est une aubaine (je pense que je peut le faire maintainent). Bon travail! x
Je vous remercie de votre travail, c'est vraiment extraordinaire!. La phonètique est un aspect de la langue française que personnellement la trouve très difficile.
I am having trouble pronouncing words which have 'r' after 'c' or 'g'. For example words secrétaire, agrément. In order to do 'rr' I have to say these words very (veeerrry) slowly, but when I try to speak them at normal speed the 'r' becomes just 'hh'.
Bonjour ! Please check out my video with those specific consonant clusters for additional practice: Pronunciation of the French /r/ with /t/, /d/, /k/, /g/. I hope it will be helpful. However, both the back rolled "r" and the lighter fricative "r" are used in Standard French; perhaps your "hh" is similar to the fricative. Bonne continuation !
This is perfect for me! I have a lisp for rs that makes it harder for me to pronounce my rs, and in french they're basically non-existant. Are there any extra practices you could recommend for me to improve?
Bonjour ! Thank you for your question. Although I'm not quite sure what a "dry r" means specifically, I think that you may find the answer in my new tongue twister video on the /r/: Tongue Twister no. 1 -- The French /r/ Bonne continuation !
i keep accidentally making a kind of chewbaca noise by rolling the back of my tongue when i try to practice these, does anyone have any advice for that?
+Bailey Stein Bonjour ! It may be that you are exerting too much force during the articulation. Try relaxing the muscles just a little bit. It's not necessary to roll the back /r/ in French. I teach it as an option to help students keep the tip of the tongue down, a position which is different from the English or the Spanish /r/, for example. The most common pronunciation of the French /r/ today is usually a lighter fricative sound, but both the rolled and fricative sounds for the /r/ are considered Standard French. Sometimes it takes a while to find the right combination of position and manner of articulation, but you'll eventually get it. This video of mine may be helpful: th-cam.com/video/WbRqTz8HKPY/w-d-xo.html . Bon courage !
Bonjour! You mention /a/ as both front spread (which I imagine is a synonym for unrounded) and front rounded. I thought it was front unrounded (en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Open_front_unrounded_vowel). What am I missing? By the way, thank you very much for all of your videos. They are definitely the best French sounds material I've encountered on the Web and helped me clarify a lot of questions.
HI. I had an operation where my uvula was removed (due to immense snoring). Now I try to learn french but cannot pronounce sound R properly. Is it even possible for me? What are my chances to be understood by French people? Sometimes I listen to people on TV that have a foreign accent, they do not produce uvular R but "normal R" but it sounds understandable in combinations with vowels. How to practice this?
+Eldarion7 Bonjour ! You raise an interesting question that I have not encountered before. The Standard French /r/ does not have to be uvular rolled. If you can pronounce an English "h", I would assume that you could also pronounce the fricative allophone of the French /r/. You could think of it as a voiced "h"; in other words, pronounce an English "h" while vibrating your vocal cords. Of course, you could substitute an English /r/ instead, but your accent would be much more evident.
Your video is so helpful! Unfortunately, I seem to have some strange speech impediment. I notice that, although you are using the back of your throat to articulate the guttural /a-ra/ sound, it still sounds like an R! When I say it, it comes out sounding like an "H". You say /a-ra/ and I end up saying "a-ha!". How are you "rolling" the /ra/ sound? are you moving the tongue slightly forward? Do you need a little moisture back there to get a nice roll? Are doing anything with the front of your tongue (looks like no from the video, except what is needed to form the vowel sounds)? How is it done? Merci!
Bonjour ! Thank you for your comment. If you are pronouncing what sounds like an English "h" sound for the French /r/, you have the correct position for the fricative phone [ʁ]. What's missing is the vibration of the vocal cords in the larynx. Usually, by pronouncing the French /r/ between two vowels, one can retain the voiced quality of the vowels during the articulation of the /r/. It's possible that you are exhaling too hard; just let the air flow gently from one vowel to the other while forming the narrow passageway in the back of the throat for that voiced fricative sound. Bon courage !
Asphodel Blade Bonjour ! You'll find the sentence in the description section below the video. Just click on "More". In addition, I've just added it to the video itself through the TH-cam annotations tool. Merci !
I keep getting a sound more similar to a "g" than an "r". I speak Spanish and our "r" vibrates in the alveolar ridge, i want to get a similar vibration but uvular but i just can´t get it! Any tip as how to get this sound straight?
Alina Stiefel Bonjour ! Have you checked out my other videos on the French /r/? This one, especially, might be helpful: th-cam.com/video/WbRqTz8HKPY/w-d-xo.html . The uvular roll or trill is not essential; the fricative allophone for the /r/ is just fine!
Please teach me how to pronounce 'gris'!! ToT I can pronounce pris but i i can't 'gris' ToT ..and my french teacher(she is french) told me that when she say 'gris', her tongue is detached from her tooth.Is it right? I believe my teacher..
Mina Choi Bonjour ! I think that my video on consonant clusters with /r/ may be of help to you: th-cam.com/video/mhZC7feMT5U/w-d-xo.html. Bon courage !
I'd like to clarify why I placed the /a-ra/ combination with both the "front spread vowels" and the "front rounded vowels." It is the most open front vowel for which the lips are neither rounded nor spread. When practicing the relative positions of the front vowels, both the "front spread" and the "front rounded" sequences will open up to the /a/ position.
This is excellent. I teach American English pronunciation ("accent reduction") and so I have strong opinions about which techniques are helpful. I very much appreciate the way you comment on the specific maneuvers the tongue has to make to join the sounds smoothly. I use the same approach when I teach English. Being on the "receiving end" of this technique as I watch your video confirms for me that knowing *exactly* what my tongue needs to do is wonderfully empowering and confidence-building.
The "keeping the front tension" is what did it for me! I'm still getting the hang of it but that tip helped. Thank you!
I am so pleased to have found your videos, thank you so much for doing this! I am an American living in rural France for 6 months and can't say my own name properly because it begins with "R". All of your videos are helping so much in my daily successes!
I've been working on my R and I definitely think I am getting it... at last!, thanks to you.
I really appreciate the effort you are making to post these videos. They are really helpful and you are so lovely. Thanks a lot...
La langue française impressionne par sa richesse et ses variations géographiques et stylistiques. Il faut choisir la communauté linguistique à laquelle on veut s'identifier et imiter autant que possible les locuteurs de cette communauté.
Great teacher. Plus, your own voice and accent are so pretty.
Bonjour ! Thank you for your question. In French, a word like "version" is pronounced with /rs/, not with the [z] sound as in English. To work on its pronunciation, you should try saying each syllable separately, then gradually juxtapose them until you can articulate the whole word. Bon courage !
Wow! This was so an amazing tutorial! I am able to roll my r's in French now thanks to you! Im so happy! Je suis heureux! :)
C'est vraiment de l'excellent travail! je peux enfin proposer une vidéo explicative de qualité à mes élèves. Merci infiniment !
Bonjour ! Je découvre cette vidéo alors que je cherchais à expliquer à un anglo comment prononcer « araignée ». Votre travail sur les sons est hyperrigoureux, les francos eux-mêmes gagneraient à s'y référer de temps en temps pour de meilleures prises de parole en public... Bravo... mes respects !
Bonjour et merci de votre commentaire. The "dangly thing" to which you refer is, I think, your "uvula". When it is beating rapidly against the back of your tongue, it is producing a "back, rolled r ", which is often used in word-initial position. In word-final position, one usually hears a "fricative r ", which is articulated more softly in the same back position but without the uvular beats. You could think of it as an English "h" but with vibrating vocal cords. Bonne continuation !
Thank you for your video! It helps me to learn the french R though I still find it quite difficult since I come from a background that speak R very clearly. I just hope I could practice in front of you so you could fix it if I still pronounce it incorrectly :) Merci beaucoup!
Bonjour ! Thank you for your request. You are welcome to send me a short audio file of your pronunciation of the /r/ so that I can assess it, or you can schedule a Free Diagnostic Lesson with me via Skype. More information (including my e-mail address) is available on my frenchsounds web site; I cannot type a link in this comment box.
Bonjour de nouveau, Mundaneity. If you are a singer of popular songs, the information I gave you in my previous post would apply. The straining you feel may be due to the newness of this articulation. However, if you sing opera, you would use a front flap or double flip for the "r", not a back rolled or back fricative sound.
Bonjour ! You can find the sentence in the space below the video. Just click on "More" to get all the words. I hope that will help. Bon courage !
You are a fantastic teacher thank you! xx
your lession is the best to learn french sound.
Bonjour, je veux vous remercier j'avais été essayé faire le 'french r' terrifiant depuis toujours et votre lecon est une aubaine (je pense que je peut le faire maintainent). Bon travail! x
my throat hurt after practicing with you, not sure I'm doing it right. will keep practice. thank you very much.
Je vous remercie de votre travail, c'est vraiment extraordinaire!. La phonètique est un aspect de la langue française que personnellement la trouve très difficile.
I am having trouble pronouncing words which have 'r' after 'c' or 'g'. For example words secrétaire, agrément. In order to do 'rr' I have to say these words very (veeerrry) slowly, but when I try to speak them at normal speed the 'r' becomes just 'hh'.
Bonjour ! Please check out my video with those specific consonant clusters for additional practice: Pronunciation of the French /r/ with /t/, /d/, /k/, /g/. I hope it will be helpful. However, both the back rolled "r" and the lighter fricative "r" are used in Standard French; perhaps your "hh" is similar to the fricative. Bonne continuation !
Extremely helpful, I will be sharing this link with a few others!
Merci for the wonderful video madame!
thanks for this video! it was very clear and i can pronounce the R a lot better now. :)
Merci!
Thank you for your excellent lesson!
Thank You!!! This video helped me a lot : )
THANK YOU FOR THIS VIDEO MY TEACHER TOLD ME TO WATCH YOUR VIDEOS.
LOL I'm here because I'm learning the song "La vie en rose" (English version) but I'm trying to pronounce the word "rose" in French.
spanish"R" to me RrRrRr english "R" to me rrrrrrrrr french "R" to me krrrrrrrrrr
Thank you for the lesson. It was very helpful!
This is perfect for me! I have a lisp for rs that makes it harder for me to pronounce my rs, and in french they're basically non-existant. Are there any extra practices you could recommend for me to improve?
MERCI! I live in Quebec, I`ve spoken French my whole life but I could never get the R`s right... Ceci m'a beaucoup aider :)
THANK U SO MUCH i am having so much trouble. :(
But u helped me a lot :D
Thank you for your helpful lesson. I got a question. Is it a dry "r" if r is in the middle of the word.
Bonjour ! Thank you for your question. Although I'm not quite sure what a "dry r" means specifically, I think that you may find the answer in my new tongue twister video on the /r/:
Tongue Twister no. 1 -- The French /r/
Bonne continuation !
i keep accidentally making a kind of chewbaca noise by rolling the back of my tongue when i try to practice these, does anyone have any advice for that?
+Bailey Stein Bonjour ! It may be that you are exerting too much force during the articulation. Try relaxing the muscles just a little bit. It's not necessary to roll the back /r/ in French. I teach it as an option to help students keep the tip of the tongue down, a position which is different from the English or the Spanish /r/, for example. The most common pronunciation of the French /r/ today is usually a lighter fricative sound, but both the rolled and fricative sounds for the /r/ are considered Standard French. Sometimes it takes a while to find the right combination of position and manner of articulation, but you'll eventually get it. This video of mine may be helpful: th-cam.com/video/WbRqTz8HKPY/w-d-xo.html . Bon courage !
Thank you for this video. Merci beaucoup!
Hello from Central Ukraine, the EERREE exercise is goregous (2 50) it´s really helping
you just taught me how to pronounce the R. Merci!
Thank you so much!
you helped me a lot
God bless you
:)
great video !
Bonjour!
You mention /a/ as both front spread (which I imagine is a synonym for unrounded) and front rounded. I thought it was front unrounded (en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Open_front_unrounded_vowel). What am I missing?
By the way, thank you very much for all of your videos. They are definitely the best French sounds material I've encountered on the Web and helped me clarify a lot of questions.
Bonjour et merci pour votre commentaire ! My reply to your question can be found above.
This is AWESOME!!!
Thank you! meRci
HI. I had an operation where my uvula was removed (due to immense snoring). Now I try to learn french but cannot pronounce sound R properly. Is it even possible for me? What are my chances to be understood by French people? Sometimes I listen to people on TV that have a foreign accent, they do not produce uvular R but "normal R" but it sounds understandable in combinations with vowels. How to practice this?
+Eldarion7 Bonjour ! You raise an interesting question that I have not encountered before. The Standard French /r/ does not have to be uvular rolled. If you can pronounce an English "h", I would assume that you could also pronounce the fricative allophone of the French /r/. You could think of it as a voiced "h"; in other words, pronounce an English "h" while vibrating your vocal cords. Of course, you could substitute an English /r/ instead, but your accent would be much more evident.
Thank you so much!
Looking at your videos I was wondering if there is any difference in the way they pronounce the "r" in the French spoken in Quebec?
+Mike Delvalle Bonjour ! It will depend on several factors, such as the specific region and/or the style level.
merci ! fantastic video :)
merci beaucoup ! pointe très utile
Your video is so helpful! Unfortunately, I seem to have some strange speech impediment. I notice that, although you are using the back of your throat to articulate the guttural /a-ra/ sound, it still sounds like an R! When I say it, it comes out sounding like an "H". You say /a-ra/ and I end up saying "a-ha!". How are you "rolling" the /ra/ sound? are you moving the tongue slightly forward? Do you need a little moisture back there to get a nice roll? Are doing anything with the front of your tongue (looks like no from the video, except what is needed to form the vowel sounds)? How is it done? Merci!
Bonjour ! Thank you for your comment. If you are pronouncing what sounds like an English "h" sound for the French /r/, you have the correct position for the fricative phone [ʁ]. What's missing is the vibration of the vocal cords in the larynx. Usually, by pronouncing the French /r/ between two vowels, one can retain the voiced quality of the vowels during the articulation of the /r/. It's possible that you are exhaling too hard; just let the air flow gently from one vowel to the other while forming the narrow passageway in the back of the throat for that voiced fricative sound. Bon courage !
I CANT DO IT ARGHHHHH Can you help me :'(
Can you write the sentence somewhere? I have an easier time learning if I can read what I am saying. Thank you!
Asphodel Blade Bonjour ! You'll find the sentence in the description section below the video. Just click on "More". In addition, I've just added it to the video itself through the TH-cam annotations tool. Merci !
I keep getting a sound more similar to a "g" than an "r". I speak Spanish and our "r" vibrates in the alveolar ridge, i want to get a similar vibration but uvular but i just can´t get it! Any tip as how to get this sound straight?
Alina Stiefel Bonjour ! Have you checked out my other videos on the French /r/? This one, especially, might be helpful: th-cam.com/video/WbRqTz8HKPY/w-d-xo.html . The uvular roll or trill is not essential; the fricative allophone for the /r/ is just fine!
Merci! I'll check it out.
The sentences are too long for me to repeat cause I've already forgotten them before you finish. :(
Oh, thanks! :) It certainly helps.
I really thanks you, R very difficult to me. Now i can read it easily .
Levo grande vantagem por ser carioca, nosso "r" é na garganta e não na ponta da lingua
This is hard
Please teach me how to pronounce 'gris'!! ToT I can pronounce pris but i i can't 'gris' ToT ..and my french teacher(she is french) told me that when she say 'gris', her tongue is detached from her tooth.Is it right? I believe my teacher..
Mina Choi Bonjour ! I think that my video on consonant clusters with /r/ may be of help to you: th-cam.com/video/mhZC7feMT5U/w-d-xo.html. Bon courage !
frenchsounds Bonjour!! thank you for your mention~ I am practicing pronounces with your video. It really helps me. Thank you>vvv
merciiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiii :D
esti lol apres avoir appris le francais essayer dont d'apprendre le francais du québec