Learning a foreign language is difficult enough without having to deal with pronunciation. It is not enough that you know the grammar and have a huge vocabulary. You must know how to “talk the talk” or how to say the words correctly and affect a French accent.
Just like English, French is not easy when it comes to pronunciation. This is brought about the intricacies like silent letters, multiple sounds for a single letter, and endless and varying exceptions to the established phonetic rules.
The French Sounds
• Letters in detail
Just like in English, some letters may have two or more sounds, and letter combinations usually make entirely new sounds.
• French accents
Accents don’t simply show up on certain letters for the sole purpose of decoration – they provide hints on how to pronounce those letters.
• International Phonetic Alphabet
You need to familiarize yourself with the pronunciation symbols usually found and used in French dictionaries.
• Get a decent dictionary
It really helps if you have a comprehensive French dictionary. Because you can find a lot of words there and learn how each word sounds. Each word entry is accompanied with phonetic signs that will help you in pronouncing them.
Tips on How to Improve Your French Pronunciation
Once you’ve mastered the intricacies of French pronunciations, you need to put them in practice. You need to use them as much as possible. Because the more you speak the French language, the more you become good at it.
Practice is definitely the key to your success in pronunciation, either by passive (listening) or active (speaking).
Here are some examples on how to practice and improve your pronunciation.
1. Listen to everything and anything French
The more you listen and acquaint yourself to French, the more you will imbibe the language and the better it will become second nature to you.
2. Listen and repeat
Repeating something over and over again helps in memorizing it. And this is especially effective in developing your pronunciation skills.
3. Listen to yourself
If you want to hear your progress, you can record yourself talking in French. And then play it back to listen to how you pronounce words. This will reveal to you the mistakes you’re not aware of.
4. Read out loud
If you’re still not comfortable with the French words, you can train your tongue to get accustomed with them by reading the words aloud. This will exercise your tongue until it becomes fit to say those difficult words.
5. Use Pronunciation Tools
Unlike vocabulary and grammar, pronunciation can’t be learned through reading. You need to speak and listen to French speakers to get the hang of it. But if you don’t know any French speakers to practice with, you can use the different pronunciation tools available on the market.
• French listening online
• French audio books
• French audio magazines
• French Pronunciation audio
• French radio
• French software
• French TV
