Observe yourself impersonating native speakers

10 Ways to Improve French Pronunciation in 2024

Continue to focus on your intention and how you convey emotion to the person you’re speaking to, and you’ll be astonished at how quickly the words flow.

You understand more French than you believe, and if you force yourself to speak in front of others, people will be delighted to hear you.

Here is the list of the top ways to improve French pronunciation:

1. Feel comfortable saying anything

It is critical to recognize that there is a distinction between written and spoken language, just as there is in English. Because the language gives no indication of pronunciation, the former isn’t much assistance with the later. In addition, every word or phrase must be memorized twice: first visually, as it is spelled, and then verbally, as it is spoken.

Furthermore, at the very least, with speech, you can ignore accents and punctuation, and any mistakes you make are erased in an instant. No one is keeping track of the score.

2. Make use of a pronunciation coach.

Have you ever heard two noises that you couldn’t tell apart despite natives telling you they were distinct?

Because, according to research, your brain is unlikely to recognize all French sounds. It can only understand your native language’s sounds (or any other language you speak fluently).

3. Set the scene for your listener.

When speaking a foreign language, everyone is self-conscious, and it’s easy to become fixated on your own performance and forget about the requirements of the person you’re attempting to communicate with.

Someone or she may have trouble understanding or speaking French as a second language, or he or she may just be thinking about something else.

Check out this interesting article about the top French speaking countries.

4. Work around the sound of difficulty

Some French words I never dare to mention because I know I’ll mispronounce them. For example, when it comes to eyeballs and eggs, I’m hesitant.

French vowels have their own distinct sound, and I can’t tell the difference between il pleut (it’s pouring) and il pleure (he’s sobbing), which are homophones to me but not to a fluent French speaker.

Dessert (desert) and dessert (pudding), as well as sin (pécher) and fish (pêcher), are all examples of this. Ships and sheep, are all problems for the French.

5. Do not pronounce letters that are silent

Many silent letters exist in English, which most native speakers are unaware of. Worse than that, half of the letters in French are mispronounced.

To give you an example, the word “homme” (man) includes five letters, yet you only hear three of them (arguably only two).

6. Make a gliding motion with your words.

Marie- Paule is often pointing out irrational deviations to rules I’ve studied for hours.It is very important to glide words together. L’ami d’Amy (Amy’s friend) seems to me like a single word (lammydammy).

Are you one of them? (Are you one of them?) and a variety of additional expressions. To make the gliding work, the language will occasionally insert a letter that serves no other function except to facilitate pronunciation, like as the T in a-t-il du lait? (has he got any milk?).

You should try out these French tongue twisters to improve your pronunciation.

7. Before you read, pay attention

You’re more likely to recall each of these forms with a distinct pronunciation if you read before listening. That is why it is critical to select a French course that includes audio delivered by native French speakers. Two excellent options are French Together (beginning) and Français Authenticate (intermediate, advanced).

You may save money by taking a course without audio, but you’ll develop a bad accent and have to work much harder to rectify it afterwards.

8. Observe yourself impersonating native speakers.

Listening to native speakers and repeating what they say is a wonderful approach to improve your French pronunciation, but you could also record yourself and compare your pronunciation to that of a native speaker.

You’ll be able to spot your largest errors if you do this, but there will be times when you won’t be able to know you’re trying to pronounce a word.

9. To gain feedback, choose a French speaking companion.

Talking to a real person is the only way to find out how good your pronunciation is.Your pronunciation is excellent enough if native speakers fully comprehend you; if they don’t, you need to practice on it.

The excellent thing is that you don’t have to wait until you are in France to find out whether or not people seem to understand you. You immediately select a conversation partner and practice French with something that will attentively listen to you and clarify your errors.

10. Assume you’re a Frenchman

You’re clearly not a natural French speaker, but pretending to be one can be useful at times.  Consequently, in order to speak French properly, you must abandon your original tongue and adopt a new manner of speaking, behaving, and understanding.

You must not only use your face and arms in a new way, but you must also use your voice in an unique manner.

To conclude, these ways will help the people who wants to pronounce French properly. So make sure you follow all the ways above and keep practicing them.

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