Any English Speaker Can Speak French Like A Native
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- čas přidán 12. 06. 2024
- Speaking French like a native is something any English speaker can achieve. 90% of people think it's about speaking quickly but that's not true. It's about mastering this one simple concept. Most people won't because they don't know about it.
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#ProgresPasPerfection #FrenchInPlainSight #everydayfrench
Music used at the end:
'Cruise' by TELL YOUR STORY music by ikson™
Timestamp: 9:22
Link: ikson.com/tellyourstory
Chapters:
0:00 Spoken French isn't what you think
1:54 This question structure is essential
3:32 A cultural phenomenon
5:53 Speak like the Président
7:48 Small sounds change eveerything
I lived and worked in France in several regions for months at a time, speaking (imo) so-so intermediate French and honestly, I was complemented by natives on how "clear" and "well" I spoke French. My advice to any foreigner is to keep your speech simple and to the point, (especially in shops and restaurants!), and with friends and co-workers just be a respectful, kind-spoken person, and you will be welcomed and beloved wherever you go. No one expected me to smoosh my words "like a native" anyway. They were more interested in my calm, happy vibes.
Mais je fais quoi si je ne suis ni calme ni heureux ? J'parle beaucoup plus vite ! 😂
🎉 maybe you're an attractive woman.
That would do it.
@@matthieuschmitter6676 i am just starting to learn french but i think this is very well illustrated in the 2023 movie Simple comme Sylvain
Vous mélangez les niveaux de langue... Entre qu'est ce que tu écoutes et kestekout, qu'est ce que tu fais et kestufé, il y a un gap ...qui va de correct à la rue.
Enfin, déso mais les angliches causent tellement vite que sérieux, nous les froggies, on pleure chaque fois qu'il faut décrypter.
As a French native, I would say that older generations do speak more like the traditional way you learn (my mother will say the full "qu'est-ce que tu écoutes" and not the "qu'est-c't'écoutes" version, for exemple. If I speak to someone I need to show respect to, I would speak in proper french, with the full enunciated version of it. But on a day to day basis, I do "eat" half of the words like that too^^
English speakers do the same thing.
For example, qu'est-ce que tu écoutes = what are you listening to, but in fast spoken English, it's often something like: wah-cha lis-nin to?
I’ve been married to a French guy living in the US for years. My French level is between B1 et B2. Your videos are absolutely the best I’ve seen for improving my French. Merçi!
Merci doesn't have an accent just so you know. ❤
@@aldozilli1293 Your English doesn't have the politeness turned up to the appropriate level for correcting a non-mother-tongue learner, by the way 😂🎉.
@@aldozilli1293 : It's not an accent, but a cedilla ( _cédille,_ in French ). 😉But, you're right : _merci_ doesn't need one.
@@JeanChordeiles correct
As a French guy, I have to say: Great video ! Yes, us french basically "eat" every "e" we encounter... (But then, the Brits pronounce Leicester square "Lester square", so I guess we're even.
Merci beaucoup ! There are plenty of French people contesting my points so I appreciate that you find them accurate :)
Des observations toujours très pragmatiques ! Mais, en tant que natif, j'aimerais ajouter quelques précisions, car tous les Français n'abrègent pas de la même manière :
- "Kès-técoute ?" est une version très condensée. Je crois qu'on entend plus souvent "Kèske-técoute ?" (Qu'est-ce (que) t'écoutes ?). Mais, bien sûr, cela peut dépendre des régions, des populations, des circonstances...
- Rien à préciser à propos de Je / Ch', car tout est absolument exact. J'ajouterai seulement le très courant "Chépa" ( = j'sais pas, je n'sais pas, je ne sais pas ), équivalent de _dunno._
- "Un ti peu", en revanche, est aussi une version très condensée. C'est surtout la prononciation des enfants (un ti bonbon, un ti caillou, etc.). Mais je crois que la plupart des adultes disent "un p'ti peu". D'ailleurs, il me semble que c'est ainsi que l'a prononcé E. Macron dans l'enregistrement produit en exemple, même si le P initial est à peine perceptible.
Mais, comme ces différences sont subtiles, on vous comprendra de toute façon, même avec un accent étranger. 😉
Merci pour votre explication 😀
Oui, merci! C'est très utile!
Shui d'accord.😂
C'est totalement exact.
@@matthieuschmitter6676 Je ne pourrais pas etre plus d'accord avec vous.
Pour l'anecdote, je me rappelle avoir entendu raconter que, vers 1850, les Français ayant émigré en Californie avaient été surnommés "keskydee" par la population locale, sans doute par leur façon de demander tout le temps "Qu'est-ce qu'il dit ?".
Excelent.
It is amazing how immigrants affected English in the USA. I am from Indiana where many settlers came from Germany. We tend to pronounce most of the syllables in words. Whereas my husband comes from Mississippi where many immigrants were French and English; he tends to blend the words together especially when he is speaking quickly. We’re both working on learning French and I found your video quite helpful.
Thanks very much. So glad you enjoyed it :)
@@FrenchinPlainSight you are welcome 🇫🇷!
I have lived in France for 32 years . I still have very much an « accent » despite speaking the language at all levels . Everyone else asks « where are you from « to which I always reply « à votre avis ? « ..
the reply’s are typically Dutch , Scandinavian , Danish with never English .
As much as it can be annoying to be asked so often , in business it is a deal breaker and makes you very more approachable.
So all in all not a bad thing
Hey Alex! Thank you so much! Please do more of this video. Your observations are really on point! Love these videos!
Thanks Mat. I saw your conversation in another comment. Remember that I will always have a different perspective to natives. I have a high level and see things they won't, and vice versa. A lot about language learning isn't black and white. There's nuance everywhere. I try my best to simplify things for my videos and so some nuance can be lost. For me, I'm convinced they say "kesstu" even though many natives here will contest it over some tiny detail. Simplifying and generalising is key when you're a learner so you don't get bogged down in details that don't matter YET (they will later if you choose to refine them).
Stay curious ✌️
Great lesson and very important....thanks
Love your method of teaching French. Merci bien.
Great hints. However when Macron speaks his lips close mid phrase indicating a closed sound like "amp" instead of "un". He does not expel air with the "p" but closes off the first sound. More like "amp tee peu" not "un ti peu". In the second phrase the lips only close on "peu".
Great job, merci ! Ça change tout ! Je commence à realiser l'importance de tes astuces...
🎉 Aujourd'hui, je fais un p'tit peu d'effort en écrivant un commentaire constructif.... Votre vidéo au sujet de la prononciation et / ou la vitesse - c'est tellement originale ! ! Merci monsieur le Professeur ! 🎉
significant lesson,
merci
C'était genial pour moi, merci !
This is absolutely accurate
Teaching English, we call this 'connected speech'.
Best video for me so far .. bang on
Genial ... Bravo
This is a great video! Thank you!
Glad I could help Heidi :)
You know what ? I already do allmost all of these. c'est normal je pense, ca fait 4 ans je vis en France :) I remember when I was hearing 'sjepas' and I could not understand what that was untill one day I found out it was ''je ne sais pas' , from that day forward I could analyze the sounds better, it clicked , tu vois? It's not so much in the speed of words or phrases , it is more condensed, made efficient. Fascinating
Best advice I've had. Took me a long time to suss out untipeu.
My first video of yours. Thank you, algorithm. Subscribe! Immediately enjoyed your teaching style. I'm not even working on French right now (doing a speed run on Spanish and Portuguese as I visit the peninsula in May). Still, valuable stuff!
Thanks so much! Most of what I teach is applicable to any language :D. Good luck! How does your speedrun work?
@@FrenchinPlainSight Tried to reply and it go lost! Okay, will try again.
For Spanish, which I already know and was once at a comfortable intermediate level, I am focusing on acquiring vocabulary and speaking comfort. It is working. I went to bed the other night speaking Spanish until I nodded off. The Portuguese is new to me entirely, and I struggled to find a course that would help me. Thankfully, I have one from a British instructor that focuses on bite-sized chunks. Right now, the teaching emphasis is on cognates with English, nad the sentences are more interesting than "Hi. How are you? Good morning." My main goal is to be polite. It goes a LONG way. I used my politeness in Paris when I visited in December 2018, and the people were lovely. NOT like the stereotype of rude Parisians. But I also wasn't an obnoxious tourist. It helped. Also, I just really love French.
As a Frenchman, I didn't realize to what extent we abbreviate and merge lots of sounds in natural speech. Indeed, it is very different from what is written. I'm 72 years old, I live in the North East of France where, to make matters worse, we have a strong regional French (the Lorraine accent) which often makes us pass for Belgians in the rest of the country. When asking a child their age I don't say: "Quel âge as-tu?" but the familiar turn of phrase: “Quel âge que t'as?” pronounced: “kellahzh kuhtah?”. To ask the time, instead of "Quelle heure est-il?" I use the colloquial " Quelle heure qu'il est?” “kellur killeah?”. These turns are extremely common in spoken French. And in the South of France, “Putain, t'as-vu l'heure, con?” with a singing accent, meaning "Damn, we're late". I love your videos. 😀
Your native ear is so much more adept at picking up the regional differences, and I'm so glad you decided to share your perspective with us here.
@@FrenchinPlainSight ❤
So kinda like how “ to” doesn’t always sound like “too” or “two” when it’s unstressed
I think you can hear the p - Macron says something like „unp tipeu“, but there is a short p-sound.
After 35 of my 63 years living and working permanently in France, I think it's impossible to SOUND like a French person unless one has been through the French education system (like my two children, now in their thirties, both 99.9% bilingual).
People ask me where my accent is from, so I suppose that's a win. I'm not OBVIOUSLY a Franco-Brit.
I always say my accent is "soigneusement gardé" and told (retired since January at 62) my EFL students that the accent was part of their identity.
This is EXCELLENT listening 🎧 (and watching) 🌟🌟🌟🌟🌟.
Yours is the first post I agree with. One can be at any stage from competent to very competent, but there are vowels which will always give you away. Actually I'm not sure that even education will work; one learns language sounds from one's parents.
@@ralphwortley1206 Not only the vowels, not to mention in addition the speed and/or the little contraction tricks and the like...intonation / the dynamics of the spoken melody both vertically and horizontally plus volume and feeling/ is the thing that is most hardly attainable imho. C'est (presque) impossible pour un étranger de réussir en cela, si j'essaierais m'exprimer en FR :-)
Bravo , you've got a good knowledge about french . Une remarque cependant à propos de "un petit peu" : on prononce plutôt [unptipeu] et pas vraiment [untipeu]. En fait ce sont les mêmes mécanismes de simplification qu'en anglais par exemple le " do not" qui devient "don't".
Très bonne observation. Il y a plusiurs façons de comprimer la prononciation de chaque phrase. Je crois qu'il faut bien écouter les autochtones pour bien saisir l'astuce de la prononciation comprímee ET aussi naturel.
you litterly just reveal all the secret of the language that the french kept soo hard from everyone
It's not that different in English. "What do you want?" becomes "Whatcha want?" for example. I don't think the French speak any faster than we do, but foreign languages always sound "fast" to non-native ears because we can't understand what they're saying. I don't know any language where native speakers enunciate slowly and carefully when talking among themselves.
Hi Alex, what do u think about listening to the radio and which station do u listen to? Love all ur vids, though sometimes I have to slow u down!
Hi Susan. You need to rack up the hours immersed in the language. That's it really. It doesn't matter too much how you do it. One thing that stops people progressing is that they don't stick to it. When they look at why it's not sticking, it's usually because they aren't actually interested in what they're listening to. Listen to something whose subject matter you like, and you'll build that habit.
After you've got the habit you can go into more detail and think "is this more beneficial than that?". Radio can be good, but it can also be a bit too "clean". People tend to speak more correctly on the radio, but not always!
If you get "tu n'es pas Français (majuscule)?" 😮, you've cracked it 👍😀👍. I AM Français and don't get that (😢), but it's never been my goal, really.😊
The key one for me is 'c'est-ce que' . E.g. becomes cess qu'..
Hello, hmm to the Macron passage he said "un ptit peu" and not "un ti peu" , and on an side note i never use "qu'est ce que", i just remove it from the sentence and just go t'écoute quoi? otherwise very good video
French 'p' does not have air pushed out.
Of course it does. Try to say 'un peu', the P is pronounced with air pushed out. Just put your hand close to your lips, you can feel it .
@@patrickdemarcevol: Not as much as the English p. 🤓
Only 'pet' have air pushed out... 😂
Bon, kessé kis passe icitte?
Très bien dit et expliqué. Big Thanks. Mais en tant qu'anglophone, je dirais que, en dépit des conseils futées dans cette vidéo, c'est presque impossible -et, voire, inutile- pour un non-francophone de s'efforcer trop à perdre tous les traces de l'accent de leur langue maternelle. All that said, great points -and great comments.
When asked if you speak French, smile a little, shrug and say”assez”.
You should explain that some of these prononciations are only OK with friend even if some of them are OK. Cause in France, being polite is not only about using "Vous" rather than "tu", it's also come with a good prononciation like the original version you learn with writing, and it's better to be too polite by mistake that being impolite by mistake 😅
Thank you. Comments like yours help people understand these nuances that I can't make time for in the video. My channel is all about standard/informal French.
As foreigners, we can be less strict. People understand if we say something a too "familier" by mistake. I teach the French that I have been learning to speak while living in France for several years without problems.
The " unptipeu " ( un petit peu - a little bite) is very used
A little bit, plutôt :D. Careful with "bite" :D
You can say very simply : Tu écoutes quoi ? ( what do you listen ?) ( litteraly , you listen what ? ). it 's better than " kesstecoutes"
Or even "T'coutes quoi ?"
Very helpful---but please drop Tu in your examples-----as we will say Vous to 99% of people when we visit France--thank you
I just returned from a trip to Quebec where they never used vous at all unless speaking to two or more people. Servers in restaurant would walk right up to your table and address you as tu.
Northern France people tutoyer all the time. I insist on 'vous' quite often, but that's UK school habits French dying hard.
If you can say "rue", you have 2 of the hardest sounds down.
Also, learn to end every sentence with a very nasal, upward tilting "hein?" Or just a nasal, upward tilting ANYTHING!
I like this video, but I would say (as a french) un p'ti peu, ou would pronounce the p still, it makes it more acceptable in formal setting, untipe without the p works but less formal, also same for qu'est-ce que tu fais, I would still say quess k'tu fais, contracting the k sound, the other one works but less formal. The reste is correct, but then would likely be pronounced if you are speaking more slowly
I love that you mention what is more useful in a formal setting. In my videos I will only guide people towards how to speak everyday/informal/standard language. Then, comments like yours help people go further for other scenarios. Merci !
I mean when I said formal it's also used informally, but glossing over most of the sounds can appear a bit lazy and therefore not be great, that's why I said deffo not formally, but people would not use it most of the time, unless in a hurry or in a long sentence @@FrenchinPlainSight
Kes t'écoutes ??? mais non-pas-du tout ! It depends who is speaking ! Qu'est-ce que tu écoutes ?The way he said it at the begining was perfect. Kestécout' seems like an exhausted teenager. You prononce everything, you have to articulate. Ou comme disait ma maman : Ar-ti-cule, bon sang de bois !
I thought I heard ''m'aussi'' on a French show for ''moi aussi''??
Possibly, yea. At the very least, I have heard something like "mwaussi".
Un p'tit peu.
Le P reste prononcé si tu écoutes bien ;)
spoken and written English are different, too...
Yep. In all languages probably. But on this channel I help with French. :D
I'm a french scientist so i have to speak english with people from all over the world. And nobody cares about perfect pronouncing or accent. Some people are good at learning foreign languages, som are bad. So dont bother, just try.
Yea just try. Always move forward but don't aim for perfection. Well put!
Hi! J'aime bien tes vidéos. Par contre ce n'est pas "untipeu" mais plus "un p'tit peu. C'est drôle que tu n'arrives pas à entendre la consonne occlusive glottale( glottale stop in english) que Macron prononce. D'ailleurs, c'est marrant que le dernier "un p'tit peu" que tu as dis tu l'as prononcé assez bien. Et au fait pareil pour "qu'est-ce que t'écoute" c'est plus "Kesske técoute ?" ou "kessk' técoute?" avec le glottale stop après le k. Sinon pour le reste c'est ok
Also, the kes only works with tu! I don't think it works for the other subject pronouns
@@matcradle Salut! Qu'est-ce que tu veux dire par "kes ne marche qu'avec tu?"
@@pierre5307 ah so it should be for all?
@@matcradleI'm going to write in English. I still don't understand what do you want to know.
@@pierre5307 do you use kess with only tu or is it usable for nous or vous as well?
Et c'est comme ca ''kon'' embastardi une langue.
It's really good to sound more french but a true french will make more subtilities, those contractions are made to improve the fluidity of the spoken language.
First "Kesstu" is used only in a few regions, "kessketu" is more common .
In a true informal language we rarely use "Que" or "verb + subject" to make a question.
"Qu'est-ce que tu fais ?" or "Que fais-tu ?" will be "Tu fais quoi ?"
"Veux-tu manger ?" will either be "Tu veux manger ?" or "Est-ce que tu veux manger ?"
BUT using directly "Tu .. ?" is more for a friend, colleague or family member.
"Est-ce que tu .. ?" or "Qu'est-ce que tu .. ?" is a way to be polite without using formal language (with a friend of a friend or to talk with a child you don't know for example).
For "Je" + consonant, we indeed contract it as a " j' " most of the time, maybe it's subtle for non native but we often start the sound as a "J" and finish it with a "CH" (SH) sound.
In really informal language "Je+S" is directly said as "Ch". "Je sais pas, Je suis là" > "Chais pas, Chuis là"
"Un petit peu" is more often said as "Un p'tit peu" (or "ump'tit peu") than "Un ti peu".
Yes, "Me, Te, Se" are contracted as "M', T', S'" in informal language. Sometimes we also eat "Il" and "Elle"
For exemple some may say:
"Il te passe le ballon" > "Il t'passe le ballon" > "Y't'passe le ballon"
"Elle se fait des amis" > "El's'fait des amis" > "È's'fait des amis"
But keep in mind most of these are more or less informal.
Thanks so much for adding more to the conversation. I'm not sure what a "true" French is though. It's such a diverse country and I celebrate that :)
Oh i got tes-ti-cules😊
Forget it! I have yet to meet an Anglophone who sounded Francophone. No matter how good their argot is, they can’t wrap their mouths around certain vowels.
What I wanted to put across is not that you can sound indistinguishable at all times, but by making small changes you can sound more native phrase by phrase.
And, I do have a friend who is confused for French all the time. Southern French actually. He only arrived at 25. Quite amazing!
Pas d’accord avec vous : votre « qu’est-ce qu’t’ecoutes » semble toujours britannique parce que la prononciation des T en français est différente… Vous ne devez pas avancer les lèvres si vous voulez prononcer le T à la française.
Les autres principales difficultés rencontrées par les anglophones sont le R qu’ils doivent rendre plus guttural et le U pour lequel ils doivent apprendre à positionner les lèvres de façon à dire O et en les laissant dans cette position essayer de dire i.
So, they're just French contractions. Like couldn't, you're, might've.
This is madness, written and spoken transparency should be mandatory in every language...
But it isn't so we have to stay strong and be solution oriented to progress 💪
😅😂 I have the same wish!!
@@lisaahmari7199 What's your NL?
What language does have it? Certainly not English😂
Just for one example: "I got a potato clock" / "I got up at eight o'clock" are pronounced identically - in British English at least 😂
@@petebuckney 🤣😂Great example. And, yes, EVERY language has these problems...even sign language.
Dans quel milieu social étiez-vous ? C'est très désagrable d'entendre parler comme ça. En Provence, on va se méfier de vous.
Love your videos but… Native speakers like you and ME (not and I)! Bad grammar is bad in every language.
Oh yea. I make mistakes in English all the time. You should see what I correct in my scripts. 😂 But it's important to be kind to oneself because learning a second language as a perfectionist is haaaaard.
In this situation “I” is incorrect. @@nineteenfortyeight6762
Your videos are great and a big help to me trying to learn a new language. Keep them coming!@@FrenchinPlainSight
This man seems to be nice but there is no point in lowering your level of French by applying his stupid suggestions. Unless you like dirty talk, avoid talking like that. You won't look interesting but rather seem silly. C'est mon avis et je le partage 😉
C'est peut-être un peu violent à lire. Je pense qu'il est plus intelligent de parler correctement une langue plutôt que de manière soi-disant branchée.
Thanks so much for offering your perspective. Language is hugely nuanced and varies depending on many factors. I'm so glad hte comments section can provide a different angle on what I offer. My suggestions are based on what I hear every day living in Montpellier and on TV and in films but of course it is not the only way of looking at things.
@@FrenchinPlainSightI like your channel and I find you funny. The words I used were not appropriate so I apologize. My point of view is that it is better to teach the correct way of speaking a language rather than its distortions. N.B. Macron says '' un p'tit peu '' 😉
As a french I have to say this is the most stupid advice I've ever heard...nobody asks you to sound like a native btw...
And as a couple of commenters have already pointed, many of your guessed contractions are false...
Oh yea. I am super stupid with a lot of things. This video only highlights a few!
Fail 😂
Unsubscribed. That language was offensive. I was here to listen to French, not hear God’s name profaned. Bye!
_"Profaned"_ ? Wow ! If this is not stiffness, I don't know what this is !
Imo, you'd better stop learning French from France too, because this country is deeply secular (since the Revolution in 1789 and the separation of Church and State in 1905). Also, note that blasphemy has been legal in France since 1881 and half of the native population is atheist. That's why blasphemous swearwords are a regular part of French culture. And I think it's a small price to pay, considering that freedom of thought was "profaned" for centuries. 🤓👹