Very often consonants which are otherwise silent are pronounced and attached to the next word. One of the important characteristics of French pronunciation is the way sounds are often carried from the last syllable of the preceding word to the first syllable of the next word. Les liaisons dangereuses is a classical French novel of love and intrigue. However, if you manage to get it right, your French will be more pleasing to the ears of French people. If you don’t succeed in producing this sound, people will still understand you. It’s extremely important to get it right in order to have elegant French pronunciation. Keeping your lips firmly circular, try to say “eee”. Form a round circle with your lips as if you were going to say “who”. The most helpful advice on the French “u” is the following. However, once you are comfortable producing it naturally, you won’t feel any tickling in your throat any longer. You may have to keep some throat lozenges around to soothe your throat after each session of intensive training in the pronunciation of the guttural “r”. There is no mystery here, it is just a matter of lots of practice listening to the language, repeating the sound, almost gargling in your throat in order to develop the ability to produce the natural guttural “r”. However, vanity being what it is, most of us would like to pronounce the guttural “r”, more native like we think. You will be perfectly well understood with a trilled “r” or a soft “r” as in English. There is no obligation to make the guttural “r” in French. Then listen to the native speaker and compare. You will have to exaggerate in order to develop a natural ability to get these sounds right. Read it out loud, or even record yourself. Practice listening to short texts where you have the text and an audio file. Exaggerate these nasal sounds when you are reading out loud. I would spend a fair amount of time making sure I don’t confuse them. It is important to get these nasal sounds right. That sound is often made in the same way as the first, vin-pin-peindre. Nowadays the use of the fourth nasal sound–un, brun, Verdun–is in decline. Part of what makes French so attractive to listen to is the nasal sounds. It will continue to help you improve your French pronunciation. Even after you graduate from beginner texts, you should continue enjoying the language through lots of listening. Nowadays it is easy to find audio material on subjects of interest. I know that after listening to audiobooks in French, my pronunciation improves. Get plenty of exposure to the sounds of French before you worry about how well you can pronounce.Īctive listening should always be an important part of any pronunciation improving strategy, throughout your learning period, even as an advanced speaker. I thought I wasn’t doing too badly, but I was thoroughly criticized and ridiculed by others. I remember once putting a recording of myself speaking Russian on a language learning forum. It is much easier to pronounce well after you have had intensive exposure to the sounds of a new language.

In the case of Greek, I have listened to 60, four-minute mini-stories an average of 40 times each. I will often start a language by listening to simple stories, simple beginner content, 20 or 30 or more times. It takes quite a bit of exposure to the sounds, through listening, for your brain to start to recognize sounds that it has not heard before. Until you can hear these sounds clearly, you will have trouble pronouncing them. There are sounds in French that don’t exist in your own language.

Give your brain a chance to get used to the sounds of French. And remember ~ once you’ve finished with the shopping, cathedral and battlefields, a good bottle of bubbly awaits.This should include listening repeatedly to the same content.

So, yes ~ go to Champagne for the champagne ( you deserve it!), but stay for the rest. To an English speaker, it looks like it should be pronounced, “reams,“ as in “reams of paper.“ It’s really pronounced “Rance,“ rhyming with “France.“ In fact, just take the “F” off France ~ et voilà ~ you have the correct pronunciation. For more modern significance, one hour’s drive to the east is Verdun, site of one of the most horrific battles of WWI and a sober reminder of the costs of war. The Champagne region is also home to the majestic Cathedral de Reims, where most of the kings of France were crowned, including Charles VII (with a little help from Joan of Arc). It’s not just the champagne that’s intoxicating. Once you’ve finished touring the Champagne houses and vineyards, explore the rest that Champagne has to offer.

The cathedral, glowing in the evening light, dominates the city.

Verdun pronunciation