5 French pronunciation tips for non-native speakers.
Each language has his own rhythm and his own intonation. It's the melody of the language. The French language also has his own melodie. So, to speak French you need to understand the melody of the French language.
How to pronounce French?
What are the tricks and how can you avoid them ?
I will give you 5 tips but first I'd like to expand what is generally considered to be the pronunciation. You can chose to focus on vowels and consonants but you can also pay attention to the French stress, to the rythm of French and to the intonation. All these elements put together form French pronunciation. Of course it's more complex this way but that's how it really works.
If you want to understand native-speakers or to speak like them the following tips will help you do to it.
1. Place the stress accent on the final syllable
The French stress accent is placed on the final syllable in each rhythmic group. Usually linked to a noun (Mon collègue, Pierre et Sophie, ...), to a verb (va parler, sont partis, ...) or to a prepositional group (pendant la réunion, à Bruxelles, ...).
But you will speak more fluently if you consider groups up to 7-8 syllables: Vous venez avec nous ? [vu.və.ne.a.vɛk.nu].
2. The pronunciation of verbs
Did you know that the pronunciation of a very big amount of verbs is regular 'au présent' ? These verbs are ending with '-er' like 'téléphon-er'.
You will pronounce [te.le.fɔn] with 'je, tu, il, elle, on, ils and elles'. It's easy!
3. The pronunciation of verbs in passé-composé
The end of these same verbs sounds [e] au passé-composé: j'ai téléphoné [ʒe.te.le.fo.ne]. 5 syllables au passé-composé vs 4 au présent [ʒe.te.le.fɔn].
4. Nouns beginning with a vowel
Does a noun begin with a vowel? Then is a 'Z liaison' required between 'les, des, ces, mes, tes' and the noun: les offres [le.zɔfr]. It's also the case when you use 'nous, vous, ils, elles' before a verb with a vowel: Vous êtes madame Blanc ? [vu.zɛt].
Also the phonetic rule stresses the difference between singular and plural: il arrive [ilaʁiv] versus ils arrivent [ilzaʁiv].
5. Adjectives and nouns ending with t
A few adjectives and nouns ending with 't' have a similar way to materialize the masculine and feminine form.
Let's take 'petit-e' and 'le/la candidat-e' as example. In both cases the masculine form presents a silent written letter at the end: [peti], [kɑ̃dida] while the feminine form ends with silent [ə]. Silent [ə] makes all the difference. Now we are pronouncing [t] at the end and that's how we get the feminine form: [pətit] and [kɑ̃didat].
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