I am SO glad to find this. I truly struggled throughout college. I did wonderfully in my French grammar and written classes- I could read books in French and such. Yet, I ended up dropping my major entirely and earning my degree in something else because whenever I spoke to native speakers, I could never understand what they were saying. I have thought for years that I am simply a terrible listener and now I'm beginning to understand that I simply didn't know what to listen for. (I am also aware that I just used terrible English grammar, but you know what I mean. :) ) Thank you for the video. I am sure I will be coming back to these frequently!
*Jen* ...omg! j'avais la meme experience completement; bon, ce n'etais pas mon sujet a college mais, tous les autres trucs sont vrais!! quand c'est parle, c'est TELLEMENT difficile a comprendre, hein...?!
Well, I was looking forward to my visit to Paris for my birthday, but after watching your video I feel much less confident that I'll be able to adequately communicate and understand. I guess I'll have to study harder and watch many more French movies. I still have 43 days before take off. Thanks for the heads up Fred! :-)
Thank you so much Fred for the clarification! I feel better now and continue to watch French movies. I've been watching the French series Engrenages all weekend. I finished Seasons 1 and 2. I do have a question re: Paris: How would I go about finding good places to listen to Jazz. Is there a website that can help me! Thanks again (merci beaucoup!)
I thought about your location (Brussels) right after I hit the send button (haha - too late). I will keep in mind that Brussels has the best Jazz. I love Jazz. Okay, I do have a Language question: Is there a specific format to follow for a French sentence. While some sentences translate almost word for word, some sentences do not and the translated words are "backwards" or mixed up (in other words not in the same order as English). For example, if I say "I have a lot of friends in Northern California" the translation is "J'ai beaucoup d'amis dans le nord de la California". But if I say "Greetings from Southern California" the translation is "Salutations de la Californie du Sud". Why would it not be "Salutations de Sud du California"? I hope I asked that question clearly. ;-)
I find with French I look for context clues to understand what is being said because trying to focus on every word doesn't work since you can't always make out every word
This is possibly the most useful video any foreign learner of French could watch. Clear and precise which is a feat in itself given the complexity of any language. Many Thanks Fred for this 15 mins of pure resource. Paul
Bonjour Fred, I just came upon your first video and you explained things really well. You put me to shame as a teacher. I am going to show your videos to my high school students. Tres bien presente. Merci
This really helps when learning how to listen to a new language. Where I am from (the North Carolina mountains, USA) this is also a very common practice. For example, instead of saying "It's over there somewhere." It is super common to say "It's over there summers." Another is "He went after it." changes to "He went adder it." It's a cultural thing even among the well educated.These wouldn't show up in our writing either. I know we Americans are very lazy speakers in general, I suppose all of us are just trying to speed our information along. It makes some local dialects here somewhat hard to catch onto at first.
I hear nothing wrong with your pronunciation of 'speech' or 'spoken' , contrary to the other post. Your mastery of English is perfect, I detect only the slightest accent. Do you have an English parent or did you learn at school? I wish I were as expert at French!
love your videos! I live in France, but I can't really speak it very well, (only the intro of my videos lol) it makes my jaw dropped cause your native language is french but your english is so amazing! #goals !!! you've just gained a new subscriber! :)
Hey Fred, thanks so much for the video. I too, often find the similarities and differences between languages very interesting. It was really helpful to hear a native speaker slash language enthusiast confirm some of my suspicious and explain things that are hard to find elsewhere. In general, Spoken French is hard to learn just because institutions shy away from it so much despite it being what people actually speak!
That’s hilarious ! I m Greek and I experienced that when I heard Swiss people talking, I had a basic level of French that allowed me to communicate but I felt so much frustration when they started saying things that sounded like « shais » instead of « je sais » or «toulmonde » instead of « tout le monde » ahahah 😁 Μεγάλο μπέρδεμα φίλε μου αλλά λατρεύω τα γαλλικά, είναι μια πανέμορφη γλώσσα, και εύχομαι μια μέρα να τα μιλάω τόσο καλά, όσο εσύ τα ελληνικά !
SO Helpful ! First I saw your new video with you speaking greek and i came to your channel and found these videos for french that are incredibly helpful. I'm greek and I study french philology (i'm trying actually because english it's easier , i can find them everywhere but french i have to search for movies with subtitles and channels etc ) and i have problems with my speaking french i found it very difficult and with vocabulary... I also have to tell you that you speak perfect greek your accent is very good , you are amazing , bravo !!
Hello! I'm am an American (je suis Américaine, right?), and I just started trying to learn French again. I took it in high school, but I had a lot going on back then, and I didn't continue to work on it. Years later, I wanted to learn again, and to refresh my memory on it. One of the things I remember, and that I've been seeing is that school learning doesn't come close to actually trying to understand the language, and that you really need to find a way to listen to it (radio, TV, podcasts, RU-vid, etc). That is how I found this video. I realize no one really gives a crap, so sorry that was so long winded. I guess I just wanted to thank you for explaining this so well, and I look forward to watching many more of your videos to help me understand this amazing language. HAGD! - Carrie W.
Thanks. This is very helpful. Your guidelines are going to help me understand oral French much better. French is my second language and though I'm functional I struggle with some of the points in oral French that you are addressing. The clarity of your explanations is superb!
Fred Grün: I'm English and I do stand by what I said, I've listened again to your video and I STILL can't find anything wrong with the way you pronounce "Spoken! " I can't hear any aspiration! You speak perfectly! Don't worry!
i'm french and i totally approved this guy. Just drop the 'nous' instead of the 'on', contract words as much as you can ... and be lazzy. that's the key i think
I'm from Venezuela, I study Modern Languages (English and French) and I'm very impressed by your videos! You are very intelligent, and it's obvious that you love languages! I would like to know if you also speak Spanish. :)
I'm from Singapore and i'm trying to learn french. Watching this video gave me confidence cuz' that's exactly how Singaporean speaks English. We cut our words too!
Moreeeee videos of the spoken language in french. Ive teird to learn the french But is so boring and hard when its comes to the gramma . And Thanks to you , for making it easy,
The unwritten rule "never two (or more) syllables with an 'e' in a row" doesn't apply South of the 45th parallel. It's a defining feature of Mediterranean French speech ("accent du Midi"). Note also that "Je vais te le donner" is more often pronounced "Ch'vais t'le donner" in Central France, and "J'vais tœl'donner" North of Paris.
Hello I just found you :D Καλησπέρα λοιπόν μιας και ξέρεις Ελληνικά :D . I just wanted to know if I can learn French in any way cheap and easy from internet or some book in the library . Thank for your time . Oh and your Greek accent is great, you are awesome when it comes to speaking Greek I am impressed :D !!!!!
Bonjour Frederik . . . just came across your "U-TUBE" videos (The misspelling was intended to emphasize the point you were speaking about.) Your English sounds very British; perfectly intelligible! "Either (pause) "either " is alright in spoken American English as there is a pause. You invite the listener to draw his own "or." Not a "horrible mistake" -- I understood perfectly what you were saying. Enjoyed your video very much and have subscribed to your channel just to listen to you. Have traveled often in France, have not been to Belgium. Studied French, academically for six years; I can read it but have difficulty with speaking French casually. I tend to use rather formal French when I do speak it. I do so primarily because I think in English, translating it in my head into French. (I think I need an "immersion" experience in conversational French so I can speak less formally). Loved your style of presentation, especially when you held the blank piece of paper in front of you to "highlight" E e! Clever! Thank you for making these videos. If only we North Americans would take the time to be conscious of our language as you are of yours! You speak better English than most people in the United States! With warm regard, +Pere Phillippe
I so enjoy hearing you talk about the spoken vs the written french. Learning from a book in a classroom does not prepare this american for the sound of french and it certainty does not prepare the french waiter, salesperson, ticket taker or tour guide for the sound of poorly spoken french. I feel vindicated and empowered!!!
Thank you so much for making this video. I'm studying French in school and I've noticed that understanding spoken French is very difficult for me, so I sometimes feel discouraged and wonder if I'll ever be able to understand spoken French :( however, I'm going to keep trying to learn and hopefully someday i'll finally become fluent in French.
I am not a native of English but as a language nerd I think that the expression is "to reduce the words". I think a linguist would say that words get reduced. I am not 100% sure but that is what I hear often.
Yes I'd agree with everything the other people said, I'd also like to mention that this video is incredibly helpful as I am also teaching my self French, it is too bad you don't make more videos you are clearly perfectly fluent in both English and French
This video has been very helpful. No one ever explained this, though I picked up a few of the phrases living in Europe. I wonder, since these changes aren't written, do French novelists write out dialog according to written rules, or do they make up their own way of transcribing the dialog literally?
I love your videos! Really helped me a lot with my French haha BTW I noticed that you tend to pronounce the aspirated "p" sound in words like "speech" and "spoken", which shouldn't shave been aspirated in English. They are like "P"aris the non-aspirated p sound Corrige-moi si j'ai tort !
The verb AIGUISER and it's derivatives are all listed in good dictionaries with 2 pronunciations. The semi-consonant /ɥ/ is optional in brackets. Is this another example of how french speakers 'cut' the words through laziness? Happy 2020 to you and those close to you. Paul from London.
Great video. But really, the same kind of thing happens constantly in spoken English. Examples: "Goodbye" becomes "G'bye" in spoken, conversational English; "What's the time?" becomes "Wossa time?" or even "Ser time?"; "Do you like it?" becomes "D'ya like it?"... These examples are different from the normal contractions like "I'm" for "I am" because they're not part of taught written English. You just have to pick them up in use, like the French contractions discussed in the video.
Hi Fred. I enjoy immensely your style of teaching. An immense credit to you with such a perfect accent from somebody who has French as their mother tongue. I shall try to keep this brief. Two questions follow which are intended to convey the same message. Am I correct in believing the second phrase is grammatically incorrect? If this is the case I just cannot understand why!(Sorry for the lack of accent marks which I cannot fathom out on my keyboard). English translation: If this book belonged to you, would you lend it to me? Si ce livre vous appartenait, est-ce que vous me le preteriez? Si ce livre appartenait a vous, est-ce que vous me le preteriez? Regards Paul
J'sus (shu) is very common for us in Louisiana. Or even sh-su. We already shorten words, create a liaison with Je (j') and never ever ever say ne. Also we've made je vais to j'vas. Honestly I'm loving this video. I get shit from French for saying 《équand j'peux guetter ça ?》or something bc it's "wrong." We also say "nous-autres on . . . (Dit ou qqch) "
Hello, I'm french and I like cajun french. (On peut parler en français non?) J'ai entendu dire que le Français, était de nouveau enseigné à l'école en Louisiane. Mais j'ai peur que le vrai français cajun typique disparaisse quand même, à cause que* c'est un français scolaire qui est appris aux enfants n'est ce pas ? Pouvez vous me dire si l'école apprend un Français cajun de la région ou le Français de France ? Et y a t'il toujours certains jeunes qui parle le vrai français cajun ? (*I used "à cause que" because it sounds more cajun french to me.^^)
@@AJos17 merci bien. Malheureusement, les écoles icitte dans la Louisiane montrent le français "standard" ou "parisien" (international/metrolitan) mais on a un tas de maîtres qui viennent de l'Afrique, de la France, du Canada, etc. MAIS, y'a plusieurs programmes et émissions en français louisianais dans notre région de l'état. Sus le radio, l'Internet et tout ça. Aussite, on a des programmes d'immersion pour les adultes, itou. C'est pu (plus) tout qqn qui parle le français ni le français louisianais. Nous-autres on est bien fiers de notre langue pis notre culture. Ça fait, on s'après battre tous les jours. C'qui compte le plus c'est que le français est parlé icitte. On accepte le fait que la langue évolue et pas coincé dans une capsule temporelle.
OMG...I may actually be able to learn listening to you! Yay! :) Danka shane :P ha ha ha I love the j'suis :) Thank God you told me that :) ha! BTW..you actually sound English! :) You do an excellent job explaining!!! Thank you!!!!!!!! ps. when you give examples in French (you spoke a paragraph at around 7 minutes in and I have no idea what you said :P) ...can you then follow up some how with the english so I can line the words up? :) Thx! :)
+Fred Grün I think your accent is about 90% there, and I think people in England with an average ear might mistake you for an Englishman at first. There's just the tiniest hint of general European-ness in there, but you've successfully removed all traces of a French accent. I don't think you're THAT far from perfect.
*Andy Jones* ...yeah, actually i'd thought the same, and i'm a Brit as well! i'd just reckoned that he's quite posh, and speaks the "Ultra Received" version of English [(; D]; really impressive, that...no?! Wish my French were a fraction as "native"-sounding...!!
This is totally my problem when I learn French...I think french people do everything in such a laidback (aka slow) way but just not in talking! When french people talk, they want to finish the sentences as much as possible which leads to miss the syllabus cut the letters eat the phrase and seems to create a secret code or something only you guys could understand...Americans speak fast but they don’t do what french people do...
Yo dude good content. If you know more languages, you should do some. Maybe talk to some natives of the languages? I just like how you explain stuff and I study a lot of languages but I’m not very good yet.
What a great video Fred! Thank you very much for this. My question about these contractions is always what would be the thermometer of it's usage in a scale of being too informal or even impolite and talking like a 'robot' when not using it. I mean, in english they use it all the time with no problems, but in portuguese (my native language) contractions can be impolite or doesn't fit every situation. So how to know? Do you have any of this that you wouldn't definitely use if you're trying to be formal? Merci beaucoup!
because, cause, as. ...because I wanted to do that. ...cause I wanted to do that. ...as I wanted to do that. Cutting the words in English. The last example can mean the same as the previous ones but is definitely not as you'd be taught in an English class. Language, don't you love it haha
Yes, great video. Esp, for French learners. Spoken language is always very brief, short and sharp. In Sgp, we just say "i go toilet" instead of the full form. It is very common among friends, family, etc. Then people say we speak Singlish, a corrupted form of English.
I'm curious, it's second video I've watched and you were comparing rules of language to rules in German and Polish. Do you also speak German and Polish? :D
French is my language, as well. But not "standard." Louisianais. And the french look down on us, Africans, canadians, etc. It's infuriating because love it or otherwise, french is our language. I love that belgians have helped revive our diaclect overseas.
Not at all ! Even politicians cut the words (they say ne ... pas although). You don't cut the words when you recite poetry, or when you dub an animated movie for very young children.
Well Belgian French exists, it's slightly different from the one from France '^' (not even talking about the Belgian accent) it's slightly different though...
Thank you for your video it was really helpful. I'm learning French, actually I have reached level b2 but I find it extremely difficult to understand French people. I am thinking about starting watching French TV,in order to get used to listening to French but I don't know any good TV show. Is there anything you can recommend to me?
Is it right for a foreigner to talk like that though? In English, which I've been taught and have also taught for decades, I'd never say I'm gonna, or I wanna and such like. I'd use standard English with the best grammar and syntax I have learned!
You can speak whatever way you want, just normal french native speakers will tell that you are a foreigner immediately. But the problem is that when normal french talk in their way, whether you can understand them...if not, there won’t be any conversations, coz nobody in real life talks like french news anchors trust me...
Hi Fred Congratulations on your successful following. It's clear to see why. I have one question for now. I take an interest in liaisons in French and would appreciate your opinion on just one example illustrated below. Clearly there is no agreement for 'mis' here, but is a liaison optional in this context between 'mis' and 'à'? I feel comfortable in not making a liaison in speech here. Il s'est mis à boire.
It looks more like a forbidden liaison to me.(www.lepointdufle.net/ressources_fle/liaisons_obligatoires_liaisons_interdites.htm). Liaisons happen inside the verb group: "Il s'est_engagé à", but not outside: "Tu descends à Paris" (no liaison). I've sometimes heard a liaison before a "à", but it doesn't sound right. "Tu vas_à la gare" (Tu vaz'à la gare) is weird. "J'vais à vélo", and not "J'vais z'à vélo". The general rule from the above link it that you surely make a liaison when words belong together, when they are in the same group (subject // verb // adjective). You mostly don't when they belong to different groups.
As you say, experience of listening to French is the guide. After a while you instinctively know if it sounds right with or without the liaison. Thanks.
