French Language Pronunciation Tips Every Learner Needs To Know French language pronunciation is one of the most challenging parts of learning the French language. You cannot really learn how French words and phrases should sound from books but it is useful to learn a little about the French language pronunciation before learning how to speak French.
When you study a new language you must learn how to spell the words but if you don’t know the way these words sound in the spoken language, knowing how to spell them will be of little help if you want to become fluent in that language. Children know how to say the words in their native language before they learn how to read and write and are well able to make themselves undertood by others before starting to learn their first spellings. This shows us how important French language pronunciation is when learning how to speak French.
Phonetics are a useful part of learning French language pronunciation. When learning a new language, students usually start learning about phonetics, which is a language science that associates sounds with written symbols. Bilingual dictionaries use phonetics in order to indicate how the words should sound when spoken.
Although the French alphabet is the same as the English language alphabet, some letters sound different, depending on their accents: example “e” sounds different than “�” and “�”. The same goes for the letter “c” that sounds like an “s” when it has a cedilla (“�”).
Another useful thing to know about French pronunciation before you start studying the language, is that in a lot of cases, the last letter of a word is silent. This goes for most plural words, that sound the same whether they are singular or plural (un livre, des livres), as well as a lot of words ending in “e” and “t” (parapluie, gouvernement).
In other cases some letters, when grouped together, have their own particular sound that does not feature in the French alphabet: for example, the French pronunciation for “en” and “an” does not exist in English. The spellings “ou”, “ai” and “au” sound like one single letter.
An excellent way of learning French is from CDs or videos in which you can listen to and repeat French words and phrases. In this case there is no need to worry about phonetics, which can seem complicated to some people. French language programs using this method must have their lessons recorded by native French speakers or other French speakers that have excellent French language pronunciation so that the person who is learning from them does not make pronunciation mistakes when speaking French.
French tongue-twisters can help students practise their French language pronunciation: after practising saying “les chaussettes de l’archi-duchesse sont-elles s�ches ou archi-s�ches” and other difficult to pronounce French phrases, French language pronunciation will hold no more secrets for you.
French language pronunciation differs from English language pronunciation in many ways, which is why a lot of students struggle with it. If you keep in mind that some sounds in the French language do not exist in the English language and you learn these, you will be on your way to overcome the difficulties of learning French. If your aim is to improve your French language pronunciation skills it is essential to practise speaking French as much as possible and this can even become a pleasurable activity by using some simple methods.