I'm French, even at that time, your pronounciation was pretty good ! About the words with different spelling or pronouciation at singular or plural, there is the eyes ! I thought you would mention that as this is, to me, way more complicated :o Though, i like your videos pretty much :)
hey, don't worry. I'm french, and your accent is Fine af it sounds really really cute. I mean, I've heard people butcher the words you say, while you say them very well! (If you don't wanna say "pourpre", people actually say "violet" for purple ;) ) I laughed more than I should have when you said that thing about pronouncing "beaucoup" x)
Pourpre Page d'aide sur l'homonymie Pour les articles homonymes, voir Pourpre (homonymie). Velours teint en pourpre. La couleur pourpre est une teinte rouge violacée d'origine animale - Pourpre (mollusque) - découverte par les Phéniciens ou les Égéens. C'est un des éléments culturels majeurs de l'Antiquité méditerranéenne, que perpétue jusqu'à nos jours le vêtement des cardinaux des églises catholiques romaine et anglicane. La couleur pourpre est un rouge violacé profond. En colorimétrie, les pourpres sont les couleurs, mélanges de rouge et de bleu et complémentaires des verts, qui ne peuvent être reconstituées par le mélange d'une lumière blanche et d'une seule lumière monochromatique. Les pourpres ne se trouvent pas dans l'arc-en-ciel, qui présente la suite des lumières monochromatiques, mêlées du blanc de la lumière que diffusent les nuages. Sur le diagramme de chromaticité, la droite des pourpres relie le lieu des rouges monochromatiques avec celui des bleus monochromatiques. D'ordinaire, la langue française divise ce champ chromatique entre d'une part les violets, proches des bleus et d'autre part les pourpres, proches des rouges4. Sommaire [masquer] 1 Histoire 1.1 Étymologie et usage 1.2 Antiquité 1.3 Époque moderne 2 Colorimétrie 2.1 Classification générale méthodique des couleurs 2.2 Rouge pourpre 2.3 Couleurs du Web 2.4 Atlas des couleurs de Chevreul 2.5 Filtres 2.6 Nuanciers commerciaux 3 Héraldique 4 Voir aussi 4.1 Bibliographie 4.2 Articles connexes 4.3 Liens externes 4.4 Notes Histoire[modifier | modifier le code] Étymologie et usage[modifier | modifier le code] Le mot vient du grec ancien πορφύρα / porphúra. Le mot latin est purpura, d'où l'adjectif « purpurin », de couleur pourpre. Le pourpre, c'est-à-dire la couleur pourpre, est nommé d'après la teinture. En français, les adjectifs de couleur qui proviennent de noms d'objets sont invariables (des robes marron, et non pas « marronnes ») ; l'adjectif de couleur « pourpre » est une des six exceptions à cette règle (mauve, fauve, rose, pourpre, écarlate, vermeil), et prend donc un s au pluriel : des toges pourpres. La pourpre désigne, par métonymie, un vêtement associé à une fonction. « La guerre est une pourpre où le meurtre se drape », écrit Victor Hugo5. La pourpre romaine n'est pas une couleur, mais un vêtement et une dignité, celle de cardinal dans l'Église catholique romaine. La pourpre signifie la puissance et la richesse, ou leur apparence, comme dans l'expression « les ors et les pourpres »6. Pourpre donne pourpré, empourpré, adjectif indiquant que la couleur tire sur le pourpre. Antiquité[modifier | modifier le code] Article détaillé : Pourpre de Tyr. Dans l'antiquité, la couleur pourpre était probablement tirée du pourpre, un mollusque gastéropode à coquille ovale ou oblongue, généralement du genre Murex. Le Murex trunculus (syn. Hexaplex trunculus) ou « rocher fascié » fournissait la pourpre améthyste ou violette. Elle contient une substance azurée, l'oxyde cyanique. Le Murex brandaris (syn. Bolinus brandaris) ne contient, lui, qu'un seul radical, l'oxyde tyrien appelé « pourpre des anciens ». Ces coquillages se trouvaient en quantité sur les bords de la Méditerranée ; ils étaient prélevés aux temps anciens des Cananéens sur les côtes de Phénicie, celle du Péloponnèse et d'Afrique du nord. Recueillis au nord de la Méditerranée, ils étaient plus sombres, passaient au violet dans les régions moyennes, et offraient un rouge bien pourpre dans les régions méridionales. Le coût de revient très élevé de la pourpre réservait son usage à des étoffes destinées aux dieux et aux classes dirigeantes des sociétés entourant la Méditerranée. La pourpre cardinalice du cardinal Martino À Rome, c'est le symbole du pouvoir : la largeur de la bande pourpre (ostrum), portée sur la toge (clavus), et la couleur plus ou moins vive des vêtements rouges indiquent le statut social du porteur du vêtement (voir laticlave, angusticlave). Seuls les imperatores portaient des vêtements entièrement teints de pourpre. Vitruve évoque la fabrication de la pourpre à partir des « limaçons ». À Constantinople, la chambre de l'empereur était pourpre (les murs étaient revêtus de porphyre, une pierre pourpre) et le fils d'un empereur né alors que son père régnait, c'est-à-dire dans cette chambre, portait le surnom prestigieux de « Porphyrogénète ». La raréfaction du Murex a provoqué la disparition des techniques de fabrication de la teinture pourpre. Les cardinaux des Églises catholiques romaine et de l'anglicane portent un vêtement dit pourpre. La nécessité de différencier cette tenue de celle, violette, des évêques, a, semble-t-il, tiré le pourpre cardinalice romain vers l'écarlate, qui devient au Moyen Âge la couleur du pouvoir. Époque moderne[modifier | modifier le code] Aux siècles suivants, la mode a utilisé largement les couleurs roses et mauves, correspondant à des pourpres ou à des violets lavés de blanc ; mais le pourpre profond restait inaccessible, et les couleurs résistaient mal au lavage. Au milieu du xixe siècle, la fabrication des colorants chimiques permet des teintes plus violemment colorées et résistantes. Le murexide synthétisé à partir d'acide urique extrait du guano péruvien crée la mode dans le tiers médian du siècle, concurrencé par la pourpre française extraite de l'orseille, un lichen. La synthèse de colorants pourpres à base d'aniline à partir du charbon permet d'obtenir, dans le dernier tiers du siècle, des colorants pourpres profonds, de toutes les nuances, et grand teint9. La possibilité de fabriquer des colorants chimiques ayant stimulé l'industrie, on synthétisa ensuite toute une série de colorants rouge violacé comme l'alizarine ou garance synthétique10. Colorimétrie[modifier | modifier le code] Ligne des pourpres sur le diagramme de chromaticité. En colorimétrie, les pourpres sont les couleurs, mélanges de rouge et de bleu et complémentaires des verts, qui ne peuvent être reconstituées par le mélange d'une lumière blanche et d'une seule lumière monochromatique11. Les pourpres ne se trouvent pas dans l'arc-en-ciel, qui présente la suite des lumières monochromatiques. Sur le diagramme de chromaticité, la ligne des pourpres est la droite qui relie la couleur rouge la plus extrême dans le domaine visible (de longueur d'onde d'environ 700 nm), à la longueur violette la plus extrême (de longueur d'onde d'environ 400 nm). Une couleur pourpre saturée est une combinaison de ces deux couleurs12. Sa teinte varie du rouge au violet en fonction de la pondération affectée à chacune des deux couleurs extrêmes.
It is somewhere between red and violet. A bit more violet than bordeaux, but I'd still classify it as a nuance of red as well rather than a nuance of violet. Just because some word looks like a word from another language, doesn't mean it refer to exactly the same color. Take "cyan" for example. It means "sky blue" nowadays, yet it comes from greek "kuanos" where it meant "dark blue". As a result, greeks used to say that the color of the sky in a clear day was grey, and refused to use "cyan" for it because it referred to another color. Something similar happens with "purple" and "pourpre". Sure, the etymology is the same, but the actual equivalent for purple, would indeed be "violet" rather than "pourpre" which is more of a "purple-red".
Crimson is much more red than pourpre. digitalsynopsis.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/09/color-thesaurus-correct-names-red-shades.jpg Closest to pourpre is wine. Purple and violet are quite different too. qph.ec.quoracdn.net/main-qimg-dd8e8395f2190ce19c87497b1b057f44-c
haha you made me laugh about eggs. we have something here "l'exception qui confirme la regle" like for every rule in french you have exceptions. you know, lots of natives are not able to speak or write french correctly. french is nonsense but we like it
When I started learning the language I thought the same. I thought to myself, "why the hell does this language need so many accents?" In comparison with Spanish, which only uses one accent, it seemed like an overcomplicated system. Ironically, now I find it easier to use the French accent system rather then the Spanish system. However the rules that compose these syntatical systems are only known by people who've really studied the language. So foreigners who don't have the privilege to study under French taught professors, or the proper recourses - They may never learn these rules and their respective exceptions.
sauf qu'ici, il ne s'agit pas d'une réelle exception. Boeuf, boeufs... Non, pour moi, qui enseigne et aime la langue française, le problème est que le français ne se réforme plus très vite depuis deux siècles et qu'il s'encombre d'une place trop importante de l'écrit face à l'oral.
Tu peux l'apprendre, mais la question est : pourquoi garder certaines graphies héritées d'erreurs de copistes du Moyen-Age? Une langue vivante doit vivre.
I'm nowhere near fluent but I did grow up speaking and especially listening to french so my accent is pretty much native. Just saying: You did a great job with all of the words. :)
I am french and i can say to you that your accent is absolutely beautiful ! also, don't say pourpre for purple, we never say it like that, just say "violet" Other things for "oeuf" you can totally not say the F if you want, some people here in france says just "oeuf" without de F, even in singular; it's not shocking at all ; just, depend of the context but it can be confused with "noeud" (node) because of the connection of the N when you say "un oeuf" But yeah, there is absolutely no sense with this word ahaha xD "ça a du sens" and "je me sens" it's normal if the pronunciation is different because it's not the same word at all ! "ça a du sens" "sens" mean "sense, meaning" and "je me sens" come of the verb "se sentir" it's like "i feel...." Sorry for my english, not fluent ahaha :D Hope I helped you !
you can add boeuf (beef) wich has the same behaviour in the plural form, dont sound the "f". un boeuf, des boeu(f)s. And for me, "pourpre" is NOT purple... you can say "violet", "mauve" which are different but closer of purple than "pourpre". "pourpre" is the color obtained from the murex, used by ancient roman... but it's not purple.
You definitely need to pronounce the "f" at the end of "œuf" when it's singular. I've never heard it being silent, people wouldn't understand. And I agree it doesn't make sens at all like most rules of pronunciation in French, which are obvious for French native speakers but that must be very confusing for learners.
Personally, If someone pronounces "un oeu" (without the f) to say "un oeuf", I will be so confused. :D I've never heard someone saying it this way, and I lived in both north and south France. Same for "des oeufs" (saying "dé zeu"), which always comes without f. It would be so strange to hear "dé zeuf".
J'ai la même difficulté comme elle avec un oeuf et des oeufs, mais à force d'entendre les francophones disent un oeuf ou des oeufs ce n'est plus un problème pour moi. C'est ça l'immersion
People are used to say that english is easy and french is hard. But in reality, the english language is a really difficult language, and french is far more easy. Only the official written french is difficult because you learn a lot of stuff not used in spoken language, and also in the common written language. Also, english has 2 different set of words, one set familiar to french people as it came from the french (starting with the norman invasion, which were mostly heirds of the norse "viking" people converted to the french language by their french mothers) used by the english nobility, and one set which is a mix of original native english people, old norse/germanic language, used by the ordinary english people. This second set contains all the words that are really difficult for french natives.
In french it's difficult to know the spelling from the sound (for example "sot", "seau", "sceaux" and "saut" are all pronounced the same way). I think in english is the opposite : it's difficult to know how to pronounce words (for example "cough", "rough", "dough" and "bough").
"seau" (bucket), "sceau" (seal) and "saut" (jump) are pronounced the exact same way with a deep "o" we took from the greek "omega", but "sot" (fool) is pronounced with a lighter "o" we took from the greek "omicron". There is still some local (regional) pronunciations, like "vélo" (bike) wich can be pronounced with deep or a light "o". Anyway, I agree that french words can be hard to be written just by earing them (vert/verre/vers/vers/ver = green/glass/towards/verse/worm)... Finally, I agree with those who said that "pourpre" is not purple. "Pourpre" is a purplish red you know as cardinal red. Purple is simply "violet" in french ! But translations are not 100% accurate, and sometime, purple will refer to "pourpre", "violet" "cramoisi" or "carmin" which are all purplish declinations of red, but only "violet" is in the rainbow, the others are pigments of animal/artificial origins. But all that shit is really annoying and we just say "violet". ^^
Fun video :D I'm French and I have the same kinds of problems with pronouncing English (and sometimes it doesn't make sense to me x) ). It's really fun to compare. For instance the English Rs are so hard for me, so I'm not surprised you find it difficult the other way round. Your pronounciation in French is better than mine in English though. Honestly, I don't think people would have a hard time understanding you. Your "in"s seem perfect to me... but I know it's easier to pronounce just one word right than all the words in a sentence x_x Anyway your accent is not ugly at all, although I understand that you'd like to speak like a native speaker (same here). I have to agree that the "oeufs" thing doesn't really make sense. And you know what, sometimes people will pronounce the "f" in the plural to make it clearer, so it's not even a definite rule. It's a mystery to me as well xD
The way I pronounce is by nasalizing /æ/ (quinze=cans, but drop the /n/). This is not how dictionaries say, which is /ɛ̃/; maybe it's a Norman accent, since that's where my father was from. For /u/ and /y/, try this tonguetwister: La roue sur la rue roule, la rue sous la roue reste. A word I had trouble pronouncing when I was a kid is "baignoire". The /ɲw/ combination is difficult, and I'd say "baie noire". Une bête noire se baigne dans une baignoire noire.
I think you do pretty well, way better than you think. I am fluent, and I think you do very well. Here are a couple of things that helped me when learning French. Of course, many things are not natural for us, native English speakers. I practice the new word or phrase VERY SLOWWWLYY at first, over, and over, and over again. When I think I have a grasp on it, I repeat several more times while increasing the speed. When you need it, it will come out of your mouth better than you think it would! You just might surprise yourself. Another tip, (your comment about 'it makes sense' made me think of it). Find another way of saying it, like 'oui, c'est logique' or something like that. If you're not around French speakers a lot, it's harder. If you are, you will hear things over and over and just pick it up like a child does. It helps the spoken language if you don't know how to spell it (at first) LOL Good luck, and again, I think you're doing very well :D
k. monteil... a salon I agree. We don't usually say "ça a du sens" for "it makes sense" we'll indeed say things like c'est logique or je comprends or tout à fait 💚 Cilou
Tout à fait, k.monteil... a salon, about "ça a du sens", French people don't say "it makes sense" that way, but the way you mentioned "c'est logique", and I was racking my brain trying to remember how to say it in French, and you reminded me...and I'm French!!! LOL! I've lived in America for more than 32 years now.
Je plusoie: "ca a du sens" n a pas le sens de "it makes sense". Ca ne s emploie presque pas, mais ca servirait a decrire qu une "phrase" a du sens par exemple, qu elle est gramaticalement correcte. "Ca n a pas de sens" ou "ca n a aucun sens" existe bien lui par contre et est employe dans le meme sens, qu on ne comprends pas la phrase. Et je rencheris en citant l expression "sens dessus dessous" ou le s final ne se prononce pas!!! Allez savoir pourquoi...... Ca defie le sens commun
I always find it funny when foreigners say that French sounds good 😅 I'm French and I speak English, Italian and Dutch... for me French is so flat and I love the sound of English much more. but like other people said in the comments, you have a very good accent!
Your accent is adorable! Of course you have an accent: it is not your native language but you are nailing it ! It is easy to understand you and I would love talking with you, I wouldn't have to concentrate to understand. And did you know that we have few words whom gender changes when put in plural (search the word "amour" if you don't believe me): many french speakers don't know that =P
I am a Quebecer (from Canada) and I must say that your french is impeccable ! I work at a cellphone store and I can say that some of my customers speak French way worse than you and they live in Quebec for a while so to see your accent made me feel like you really put your heart to the task, and again: WELL DONE! When you said the word "pourpre" I was amazed at how both Rs were pronounced very accurately.
Margi Towl just as you to know though : there is a difference between saying je préférais (smooth R : I had prefered) and je préfér'rais (stronger R (yeah there should still be 2) I would prefer).
Really interesting video! 😃 I definitely feel ya with the R -- German also has an R that I really, really struggle with. And also, I do the same thing in German with sometimes accidentally trying to pronounce the trickier vowel sound when the word actually uses the vowel sound that's easier for me to say 😂
Thanks! I'd like to start learning German in a couple years and it makes me happy to know that I've already sort of learned one difficult sound for English speakers. It'll give me more time to try to figure out the 3 genders... 😅😂
Just to let you know, you cannot compare MATIN and COPAIN, you cannot just forget the A. IN and AIN aren't the same, even if most people pronounce it the same way (it can depends also on accents, of course). Anyway copAIN and demAIN aren't good example if you're speaking about IN, they're not pronounced the same ;) But I think you're really good a it :D
Well, when we do say "pourpre", it refers to some kind of dark red, not to purple as it is meant in english. So you should definitly use "violet". Plus it's easier!
mhhhh ça dépend qui et dans quel contexte. Un Bordeaux, si tu dis que c'est violet, c'est pas tout à fait correct. Pourpre, on ne l'emploi pas souvent, mais si c'est la couleur qu'elle aime.... ça dénote aussi une certaine culture et un certains niveau quand il est employé.
you are so ready to make a french video. And another thing every words you have difficulty with were prononced perfectly. Never lose that cute accent of yours
If you're just starting to study French, what are the weirdest words? Looking at the spelling and then hearing the pronunciation, I'll go with 'rien' and maybe 'juin".
I'm a french speaker and to be honest, I think your pronunciation is on point. Really. The thing with "oeuf" and "oeufs" is, I think, the way you pronounce the "link" or "bond" between words. When you talk about one egg you pronounce it "un oeuf" whereas when you have more you pronounce it "des zeux". The sound of the word "transform" the word and make it end like it was an "x" that isn't pronounced. When a word begin with the sound "o" after the article "des", you have to pronounce the "link" as in "desoiseaux" (some birds) where the "s" is pronounced like a "z". Other examples are: "desoeufs" (some eggs), "desordinateurs" (some computers) and also "deshorloges" (some clocks).
It always sounds weird to me to hear Americans learning France french. French-canadian is to France french what American english is to its British counterpart. France french is more sustained, with a much higher pitch, while french-canadian is sort of more "casual", "round" and "comfortable"... like to compare an harpsichord to an acoustic guitar. :) p.s. very good job with your accent, not many people are devoted as you are when it comes to learn a new language.
Purple est aussi la traduction de pourpre. L'anglais n'a pas 2 équivalents pour "violet" et "pourpre". De toute façon, l'étymologie de purple et pourpre est la même
Techniquement, mauve est plutôt un ''violet qui tire sur le rose'' (mais en tant que Québécoise, littéralement aucun Québécois n'utilise pourpre ou violet dans ses phrases, on dit tous mauve incorrectement, je ne sais pas qu'est-ce qu'il en est en France...)
You're really great for someone who's been learning French for a few years! Also I just wanted to add that there isn't only one word for purple in French, you can also say "mauve" or "violet", it's a lot easier to pronounce and there really aren't a lot of people who say "pourpre" ;)
As a teacher in primary school your video is really interesting. French is a really difficult langage and even for the ones who grow up with, it's difficult. You make a point on the sounds I have to be more careful on with my students. Keep learning but you are doing great. (and sorry my english is terrible )
There is one simple sense for the difference between oeuf and oeufs, it's just that french language initially tryed to cut down possible earing mistakes, and people clearly needed to know if people were talking in singular or plural for a basic ingredient like an egg, so that was what was found to mark the difference, i don't have any exemple in mind right now but i know that there are some others word like that.
Congratulations ! Félicitations ! Vous prononcez très bien les mots français difficiles. Naturellement, on entend bien que ce n'est pas votre langue maternelle, mais pour un Français, l'accent anglais n'est pas déplaisant !
About that "egg" issue, same goes for "bone" which translates to "os" in french, the s goes silent in plural form. And even better, some words have their gender changed when used in plural form, like "amour", masculine in singular form, feminine in plural form.
Sooo... your nasal pronounciation is good. Great, even. Seriously, you got it. For the R, I think that a good way is to try to imitate a cat purring. It may sound weird, but I think it could help. With that being said, you pronounce it perfectly, again. For the eu+i, you actually break it down it three parts, but very rapidly: the french e (so basicall eu), then the french u (which sounds like the german ü), and a very quick, almost imperceptible i. When we say it, we actually arch our tongue against the palate during the u+i part. You should manage in like 2 hours by doing this way ^^ For your last question... I'm sorry, there are no rules. None, whatsoever. Each word must be known. The worst part? It can change depending on the region or France you're living in.
Oh I didn't talk about the dialects, that's something else entirely (and they're not mutually intelligible between one another and with french. Just the accents ^^. In the south west for example, there are some words we do pronounce all the letters. I can't find an example right now for the life of me, but as soon as I do I'll comment here :-)
True, when I talk to people who live in small towns in the mountains, especially older people, they tend to pronounce the r with their tongue instead of with their throat
I totally desagree with you! I am a french speaker from Quebec and I am taking english grammar courses to improve my english (because I really like the english langage). I think you sound beautifull in french. You should be proud of your accent, because that means you can speak more than one langage and you have interests in other cultures and langages, which is a great thing! For me, the harderst word to prononce in english is Mirror (too many "r"!!!) and the number "three" (th sound does'nt exist in french, so we have a hard time with that kind of pronounciation). The present perfect (I have been...)is also extremely difficult for me, because that's also something that does not exist in french. I use it by hasard, hoping that it fits corrrectly, and most of the time it does'nt...Punctiation is also hard, because it's very different from french to english. Well, keep up the good work for your video and I wish you courage (I don't know if we can say it in english...Je te souhaite du courage, otherwise, what sould we say?) for your french courses! Love from montreal, Quebec! x0x
Waouh ! Seriously your prononciation is so great compared to others english speakers ! And don't fell ashamed of your accent ! It's beautiful even if it is not so pronounced as you seem to think ! Just one tiny thing, we use to say "ça n'a pas de sens". Yeah we have a weird language :")
You're right, Atemoss, and strangely enough, I was thinking about those similar sounding French words not that long ago: vert (green), vers (worm), verre (glass), vers (towards), all pronounced "VEHR". Another example is "mer (sea)", "mère (mother)", "maire (mayor)", all pronounced "MEHR". I'm from France originally, and I've lived in the United States for more than 32 years.
There's a fifth homonym: vair which is squirrel fur. It's not very known. Certain versions of Perrault's Cinderrella have used "pantoufle de vair" instead of "pantoufle de verre".
@galier2 : ce que tu dis est incorrect. Il n'y a pas d'autres versions pour le conte de Perrault. Perrault parle de "pantoufle de verre" dans son interprétation de ce conte oral européen qui existent dans de nombreuses langues et versions différentes, et c'est vraiment du verre et pas du vair, car c'est ainsi dans la tradition des contes. Ce sont des chaussures merveilleuses, qui sont donc d'une matière peu commune et non vulgaire. Voir fr.wikipedia.org/wiki/Controverse_sur_la_composition_des_pantoufles_de_Cendrillon Certes vair se prononce pareil, mais ce n’est plus un mot que tu entendras dans une conversation, à part des gens qui parlent de la controverse ci dessus...Il a disparu de la langue courante.
My brother-in-law is american and I had a lot of fun teaching him "si mon tonton tond ton tonton, ton tonton sera tondu". He's just going "tontontontontonton" forever. x)
Vair est toujours utilisé en héraldique, pas le genre de vocabulaire utilisé par tout le monde mais dans ce domaine cela n'a rien d'un terme vieilli. Par contre le sens est différent du vair signifiant fourrure de petit-gris. ;) Et même si le conte d'origine stipule qu'il s'agit de pantoufle de verre, il existe bel et bien une version où il s'agit de pantoufle de vair (la version "rectifiée" si l'on peut dire de 1841) et non le vair à l'époque de Perrault n'est pas une matière commune et vulgaire, au contraire. Mais dans le concept, je te rejoint.
The difference beetween "sens" (with "s" not pronounced) and "sens" (with "s" pronounced) is because one come from the verb "sentir" (wich is "feel" in english) when this other come from "sensé" ( wich seems to be "sensible" in english, meaning "that make sense")
I feel this so much, and the worst part (maybe you can relate) is that in my head I can hear the words and their prononciations perfectly. But for whatever reason, I can never get my mouth to be on the same page. Extremely frustrating :/
when you can translatte by "feel" or "smell" you don't pnononce the "s" when you can translatte by "sens" or "direction" you prononce it On one hand "sens" is the verbe "sentir" wich means to feel or to smell you dont prononce the 's' on the other "sens" means "sens" or "meaning" "direction" it is a noun and you prononce the 's'
I studied French for a few years several years ago, and the R seemed like the most difficult for me at first. I was using Rosa Stone software with voice recognition as part of it, and like I didn't even know how to make the sound at all and it kept not liking it. I think I figured it out pretty well eventually. A word starting with an R makes a sound more like an H, I think. And at the end, there can be that really breathy sound. Check out Pascal Obispo's song Ce qu'on voit, allée Rimbaud and the difference when he says 'perd' vs. 'l'enfer'
Don't beat yourself up, Andrea, you're doing an great job pronouncing French, and the "in" sound you said you had a hard time pronouncing sounded excellent to me!
I did French and German at uni and did Erasmus in Paris. You sound very good indeed, and will only improve - The fact you take so much care and attention to these differences guarantees it! The stupid food joke is when you hold up an egg and declare "that's un oeuf!' (enough!)... But it's a good tip for remembering! Subscribed!!! :) bisous! (oh crap this vid is 14 months old... oh well, my comment still stands!!)
the french persons is pigeon it's for that probably. Franchement, ça a l'air super dur de savoir parler une langue, au point que je me demande si un seul prof d'anglais sait bien parler anglais. future, in english it's a smart sound, in french futurrrrr, ça gratte la gorge. C'est vrais qu'elle est belle, mais elle parle vite, et je ne comprend rien. En plus j'entends tout le temps l'accent américain et là je n'ai pas l'habitude. En plus les roux n'ont pas d'âme.
You are kidding! You'll accent is almost perfect. I'm French living in the states for 6 years and people still don't understand me... and you say you started to learn French 2 years ago?!? It's amazing!!!
Nice video. I'm french and even me, it bugs me off. Nouns, verbs, adjectives, can have different prononciations while they look the same. You sometime need the context to know wish one it is. Some exemples from the top of my mind : - Fils (strings) and fils (son or sons) - Est ("is") and Est (East) - fier (proud) and se fier (to trust someone) - Content (happy) and content (from the verb "conter" : tell a story - Ils content une histoire) - je vis (i saw - from verb "voir") or je vis (I live - from verb "vivre") or vis (screw) ... There is so much of them. I can't think of a rule to know them, you just have to practice (perhaps a french teacher could tell you more about this). By the way, you don't need a perfect prononciation. Just to be more fluent. Accent is pretty, and people will be more forgiving if they notice you're not a native speaker.
I have an explanation about the difference between the pronunciation of 'oeuf' and 'œufs'. About one thousand years ago french worked with inflections according to the grammatical function of a word in a sentence. So a same word was not pronounced the same way wether it was used as a singular or as a plural. There are other words which work just like 'œuf' :un cheval/des chevaux for example. You're accent is very good by the way
I'm french and the oeuf/oeufs doesn't make sens to me either, but it's the same with a lot of things in french that can seem illogical, I guess when you're french you just realise it when you grow up or stop to think about it since you always say those things naturally. And it's cute because you still naturally stress the words when you speak french, but if you really want to work on your pronunciation you have to mind the stresses that only appear at certain moments in the sentence (generally the end). When I started speaking English I had troubles putting the right stresses on the words/sentences so I had to think about it every time I was saying something, then it became natural. Well I guess it's easier to take a habit rather than lose one. And apart from stresses you have a really great pronunciation ! ^^ Good luck to you!
In french, many words are the same, but not the same like "je me sens" and "ça a du sens", try to see them like is to different word, and not one with two meaning, and for "the pronounce of "un œuf des œufs", this is only for the words that ends with "œuf", like "un bœuf, des bœufs" (prononce like "un oeuf des oeufs" but with a "b" before). I know that my english isn't perfect, but i'm juste a frenchy ;) En français, beaucoup de mots sont les mêmes, mais sans l'être vraiment, comme dans "je me sens" et "ça a du sens", essaies de les voir comme deux mots distincts (différents), et pas comme un seul mot avec deux sens, et pour la prononciation de "un œuf des œufs", ce sont seulement les mots qui finissent par "œuf" qui ont cette particularité, comme "un bœuf, des bœufs" (à prononcer comme "un œuf des œuf" mais avec un "b" avant). I hope that it will help you in your journey for speaking french ! And you have a beautiful accent by the way, it's very cute !
There are some exceptions, but for the most part a word like trop will have a silent final letter UNLESS followed by a vowel in the next word, for example trop occupé. In which case the p sound sounds like it’s at the front of occupé. Basically treat it like one big happy word, for example les chats, two words, les amis, one word like lezamee
The same thing happens in english though! 'Wind' the noun is pronounced differently from 'wind' the verb. Same applies for 'wound' and 'wound', 'bow' and 'bow', 'minute' and 'minute'. (The last two were a noun and an adjective but same thing applies.) I could go on.
I have been working on my accent since 1985 and I majored in French. Your accent is lovely. Hardest thing for me is still the R. Rue is just not easy... and I avoid the word pourpre and just use violet. My accent is really messed up because I spent summers in Strasbourg so I sound like someone from Minnesota trying to speak French. Recently I am working on my Canadian/Acadian accent and that is quite fun. You are good. Just get yourself back to Paris and parle parle parle as much as you can. You will perfect your accent.
being english I often want a cup of tea thus I need the "kettle" unfortunately it is even harder to pronounce than "the arch duchesses socks" My advice is to give up on getting tea in France completely and opt for a coffee (with or without calva) You are dead right about "leaf" and "welcome" it gets bad with "pumpkin" Well done Andrea, keep trying ( I still am) it's a beautiful language and we understand the richness of english better with a knowledge of french !
If you'd like a tip on whether or not the final consonant should be pronounced: only the consonants in 'cerf' (deer) are always pronounced at the end of a word, not including verbs ending in -er. Well, can't have rules without exceptions I guess. One really important thing to know regarding this difficulty, is the pronunciation of 'plus', which without the -s means 'no more/anymore', and with the -s means 'more', but you've probably already noticed this. Disclaimer: I'm from Belgium and we sometimes pronounce words differently, but I think this tip works for both of us haha. Greetings from Belgium
Your prononciation is very good and, since I work with foreigners in France (I teach them the basics of our language so they can adapt and merge easily in our country), I've observed that foreigners often talk a better French than many native-speaking French people, because they are taught the academic, the scolar language - which is, I know, kind of disturbing when you hear new words of the "street French language" (sorry I dunno how to qualify that in English ^^). If it can reassure you, please know that even us, in France, don't know how you pronounce the F in "œuf" and not in "œufs". Most of our vocabulary comes from Latine, some from ancient Greek, Arabic and English (among others), but it has very changed during the Middle Ages, and the etymology - the construction and evolution of a word during a long period of time - of lots of words is hard to understand and explain, even for native French speakers ^^
We don't pronounce the F of "œufs" because it would be quite hard to pronounce F + S together, the F plus the S of the plural form. So here's the tip you were looking for : remember that with an S, the prononciation is harder. So you don't pronounce the F to still make a difference between the two words. Hope I was being clear enough with my explanation 😅
You scored this. I feel the same about my english accent and try to perfect it over the years without being able to get even close to what I'd like. You nailed the fact it's about the place where the sounds are formed, the nasal sound is difficult, just like the "Th" aka Te-De-Ze-but-not-really sound is for us, however, by listening to your demain or copain, I can see where the stiff point is (I think) : just like french people, the main difficulty are the proper pronunciation of the vowels which are specifically placed if VERY different places in the mouth when you compare french and english. To sound acceptable I actually need to change my vocal "duct" (no tape and no Scotch used :-) ) and I sound about half a tone to 1 tone lower when I speak english. Regarding your hard times with "ain", what makes it difficult here (IMHO): - the vowel sound *before it*. Obviously you tend to keep a long and (this is how I call it) "open" O: (which sounds a little like a short FR "a" followed by "ohhhh". You have shortened it a LOT compared to what you'd say with an american accent but, it's still to opened. - as a result the transition with the following "ain" is harder as the mouth form is totally different. If your mouth would be less "opened" you could transition easier to the ain sound. - finally, to perfect it : you're not cringing or grimace enough to produce enough of a nasal sound. Your cheeks should move up more like if you were doing a sort of "hu... really ?" face but by roughing a cynic smile, in other words, your cheekbone have to move up, like when you smile, with little opening. This will reduce the mouth volume and force sounds to be generated toward the nose. It will "open the nose". Exercise in the mirror trying to sort of smile and go with "ain" words. And when it doesn't work, blow off steam with a bunch of "putain" to keep going with the exercise, I find swearing in a foreign language very relaxing as you're not fully connected to the meaning. Ok, a bad habit though, but generated funny situations in corporate meetings during research projects ! Bottom line : I encourage all my workmates (working in a research institute with a LOT of foreigners who most of the time learn french too) with their FR pronunciation. I takes more than skills to learn a foreign language, you need courage too. And as I'm sure you have a lot of french friends, be sure to ask them to correct you as much as they can. The culture of "not hurting feelings" or "be nice / polite" tend to not be a grammar nazi with foreigners as they are "already trying hard". But when you're friends, that will be speeding up your learning and you'll be self correcting soon enough. If you have no feedback, you'll just notice you can't really imitate / replicate but without understanding why. So make a formal statement to your friends so that they make you notice your mistakes. Also remember that you need things to be presented to you between 3 (confirmed / skilled adult) to 7 (kids) times before you can actually store them / know them, reason why you usually need to be corrected a few times before it's carved in stone. Good luck, cheekbones up and keep up the good work !
Hey! For the «ça a du sens» and the «je me sens», it is true that the word «sens» is not pronounced the same way BUT there is a simple reason: it is not the same word! In the first sentence, the word sens is translated with «meaning». In the second sentence, it is the verb that means «To feel (something)» just like in «I feel happy» (=je me sens heureuse). Voilà, c'est pas simple du tout de se souvenir de ce genre de mot où les lettres se prononcent ou pas, mais ça peut t'aider à te souvenir? Dis toi aussi que d'une région à l'autre les mots ne se prononcent pas pareil. Ainsi les gens du sud ouest prononcent le S de moins alors que les autres non, et les gens du nord-Est prononcent le T de vingt tandis que les autres disent «vin». Nous mêmes ne sommes pas d'accord sur ces mots ahaha! Voilà, bonne continuation!
as they said your French is much much better than many anglophones I am French Canadian and my wife is British and she is just getting around to pronounce grenouille (maybe because we hear them every night here) It's funny how they massacred the word on NCIS. Also un oeuf deux oeufs is maybe a good way to remember un neuf deux zeu... keep up the good work you are doing well
Did you ever notice we have strange plural forms of some words ? Like "un oeil" which becomes "des yeux" (and I don't even talk about the different pronunciations haha) or "un amour" (which is masculine) becomes "les amours" (which are feminines, yeah, we change the gender of words too). If you want to learn about non sens french words… take "après-midi" (afternoon) : it could be masculine AND feminine ("un après-midi" is as correct as "une après-midi). Enjoy ! ;)
"oe"is use in french when the original word coming from a latin word. "Oeufs" comes from "ovum", "boeuf"from "bovin". I 'm not a specialist but you must to understand that because in french we love when a word bring is own history when you write it. That's the only way to reject the frustration coming when you are learning french. Each words have something to tell you about himself. I hope i could help you to learn something about "la langue française"& i apologize about my forgotten english long time ago who makes me to write weird sentences sometimes. But i'm french so "i have" to talk a arrogant bad english to be a good french cliché.
I'm French and I also happen to be an English teacher (in France) and trust me your accent is really really good ! Moreover, you should not feel bad about your accent, it is always cute to hear someone speak a language correctly but with a subtle foreign accent, don't you think ? I don't think that my English accent is perfect either, but as there are so many different accents and pronunciations, I just get over it. Anyway, nice work ! perhaps I'll show your videos to my students someday, if I manage to use it in a clever way...
La raison pour laquelle il y a tellement de mots avec des lettres silencieuses ou des doubles lettres est parce qu'au moyen âge il n'y avait que très peu de personne qui savaient écrire. Donc quand tu devais écrire quelque chose tu engager quelqu'un et le payer à la lettre (par exemple 1 lettte =1€ donc pour écrire le mot "mot" c'est 3€). Du coup pour être payer plus chère soit ils doublaient les lettres inutilement (comme dans le mot "attente" ou deux "t" serait suffisant mais il y en a trois) ou rajoutaient des lettres en disant qu'elles ne se prononcent pas ( comme dans "hier" le "h" au début ne se prononce pas). Le truc c'est qu'ils choisissaient les mots où ils ajoutaient des lettres complètement au hasard donc il n'y a vraiment aucune logique et pas de règles. The reason why there is so many french words with silent letters is because back in the day only a few people could write. When someone needed to write something he would hire a "writer" and pay him by the letter. (For exemple a letter is 1€ so to write the word "hello" it's 5€). So to get paid more they would had letter to a word and just say you don't prononce it. The thing is they choose random words had letters in so it makes no sense because there is none ;)
For the word "oeuf" we pronounce the "f" because with "un" before, we make the link (liaison , not sure about the english word) with the "n" of "un" (1). So not to confond with "noeud" we pronounce the "f" in singular but it sounds like "neuf" (9) and don't worry for your accent it's fine. We actually understand it is an egg thanks to the context.
Hi! I'm a French Canadian (from quebec) and I think you're REALLY good! Little tip, here we say "mauve" for purple :) Also, you made me laugh because I struggle with my "r" in english A LOT, they are so much easier in french 😂 Also, you have so silent letters too, it's hard! for exemple "laugh" , i tend to say "logue" (read in french prononciation) ...but seriously, you're super good and it's really cute to hear you speak french. I'm subscribing :)
The Collins dictionary says "pourpre" is "crimson." Many years ago, one of my French professors told me that a pourpre was a type of octopus harvested by the Phoenicians which had a purple ink. It was very expensive, and was used primarily to dye royal robes. I don't know if the above is true, but it makes a nice story.
I am not a native French speaker but am completely fluent and am often taken for a French native in France but not so in Italy. There, when I speak Italian, I am often replied to in French as my French accent is far stronger in Italian than my native English. Incidentally your French accent is extremely good, almost perfect, considering the very short time that you have been learning the language. Mes felicitations.
Rob Golding : not French but still "completely fluent"... What a man! You may be quite fluent but completely fluent seems kind of pretentious, knowing that French is far more complicated to learn than any other Indo-European language. I would need to hear you speak and to read your writings.
Tip for oeuf and oeufs: un oeuf, des oeufs. When you use the plural, you use the alliteration or linking between des and oeufs, so it will sound like "des zeu". Knowing that will help you remember! As for the 'in' sound, I'm Canadian French it's pronounced like 'ant' is pronounced. I would have a hard time with the Parisian 'in' as well.
About the eggs, I dunno if this could help (or if you even needs help about this anymore ^^), but in french we use to employ a bond between the article and the noun when the first vocalised letter is a vowel, which makes us pronounce "un oeuf" a little bit like "un noeud" (a knot) with the final "f", and in plural "des oeufs" sounds more like the beginning of "désirer" (to desire). And as probably a lot of peoiple already said you, your pronounciation is perfect, just probably a little to "schoolish" for yourself, but your own english accent makes it singular in a nice way, this is not a fault, as you maybe already know (or learn later) tnat there is a lot of regional accents in france, and sometimes it's a bit tricky to understand ourselves. ^^ And about purple, almost nobody use "pourpre" and probably a lot of people in france doesn't even know the name (yes it's sad), "violet" (violet) is commonly employer for both. (french language tends to be simplified, and not in a good way, neither without some politics behind this) About "je me sens" et "ça a du sens", the meaning of "sens" is different, it's not the same word even if it's a perfect clone. (I feel / it make sens) french language got a lot of those traps.
You might never see this ^^ But about the egg, you were right about the "f" but that's not the only difference ;) The "e" sound also changes. You can think of it like that : The REAL pronounciation of the word is the one from the singular. So when you pronounce the "f", and the "œu" is pronounced like in the words that end with "-eur / -euse" (french) or "-er" (english. Unless I'm actually pronouncing these words badly). "Professeur", "auteur", "acteur", "mangeur / mangeuse" ("D'ailleurs", there's also other words like "heure", "cœur", "beurre"), or "teacher", "biker" and -"tinder"- "tinker" for english words (I just checked on Word Reference with "tinker" and it seems that I'm actually right only with the Jamaican accent :P But not at all for US / UK. Else, I'd say it's the same than in "bus"). And for the plural of "œuf" (so "œufs"), I think that the pronounciation changes because of the fact that you say "DES œufs". "Des" followed by a word starting with a vowel means that you should add a "z" sound between the two words (because of the final "s" of "des". The same goes for "les", "ces", "mes", etc then. This is "pour faire la liaison"). And I'd say it just makes the regular pronouciation kinda wierd, unnatural. And so I think that to make the pronounciation more natural, people just started to stop pronouncing the "f" and changed the pronounciation of the "œu" part to the same sound than the one you can find in "nœud", "queue", "pneu" (could be a pretty hard word to pronounce for non-natives. Else you also have "peu"), "creux", "hébreu", "ce", "le", "je"... It's not the only word like that. Another example, a very similar one, is "bœuf". In short, it's exactly the same than for "œuf" exect that you need to start with a "b" ^^ Now, you say that for French but there are similar things in English ;) The worst example I can think of is the "woman". "Man" and "men" are pronounced in a logical way, but why does "woman" sound like if it was written "wimin" in its plural form ? x) (so I'm talking about "women", not "woman"). Or rather "weemeen" I guess. I'd say that the pronounciation is by far the hardest thing in English anyway, it often seems to have no other logic than "it's like that" :P For example, with "ea" is it pronounced in three different ways in "heavy", "heat" and "read" ? ^^ With "read" having actually two of these, with the infinitive form being the same than for "heat". And in addition to that, words have a weak form and a strong form xD For words like "feuille", just pronounce it like if you wrote it "feuy" ^^ I mean, I think it can help :P Just for fun, but maybe it can be helpful if you still have trouble with that : « _Cueille cette feuille, réserve-lui un bon accueil. Sers-t'en pour te recueillir, fais-lui part de tes deuils. Elle peut franchir le seuil de ton cœur et te libérer de ton orgueil, effeuiller ton esprit et comprendre tes peurs._ » There are others words I thought about but it became a little hard to add them without making the text weird or have not much sens ^^ (those words are : "œil", "treuil", écureuil", "écueil") By the way, your pronounciation in French isn't that bad !
Some of the things you have problems with strike me as strange but then I learned my French working in a cooperative with 50 others and I HAD to speak it. I learned mine phonetically and having been in radio I am am very keen on hearing and mimicking until I have it. The downside of my French from your is that you probably have a better knowledge of the rules. The rule of pronouncing the silent consenent when the next word starts with a vowel came very easy and natural to me. And again I learned the consenent to say more from hearing it than having read it and actualling KNOWING what that consenent is. The upside of the way I learned is that I can easily engage in casual conversation with someone and the downside is that I dont think I am qualified to teach it in a structured manner. My wife tought french to english speakers so perhaps I picked up rules a bit by osmosis!
