i want to learn french!

[vipaman]

i want to learn french!

 

[tamtam92]

That's a great idea... Molière's language is the most beautiful on Earth (without chauvinism ).

More seriously, don't go thinking that learning french will be easy. We have a complex grammar, and the prononciation is also quite difficult for English-speaking people. The vocabulary won't be the biggest problem, a lot of words are the same than in English.

If you want to get started, I think some methods are suggested in other posts. But the best way is to have a teacher.

 

[Penny_Lane]

Iwant to learn french too. I used to have a teacher, she was a french girl but she just didnt know how to teach the language and she made it so dificult so i quit
. And the pronounciation was so incredibly difficult; like there are like five ways to pronounce the letter "e", i just dont get it, and also my first language is spanish, so french was suposed to be easier for me but it wasnot. So now Im in an italian class which is soooo much easier!! Italian and Spanish are almost the same ! lol

 

[raphink]

Iwant to learn french too. I used to have a teacher, she was a french girl but she just didnt know how to teach the language and she made it so dificult so i quit
. And the pronounciation was so incredibly difficult; like there are like five ways to pronounce the letter "e", i just dont get it, and also my first language is spanish, so french was suposed to be easier for me but it wasnot. So now Im in an italian class which is soooo much easier!! Italian and Spanish are almost the same ! lol

How many ways are there to pronounce the letter "e" in english?
I'm afraid more than 5...
letter, the, enough, etc...

 

[Penny_Lane]

How many ways are there to pronounce the letter "e" in english?
I'm afraid more than 5...
letter, the, enough, etc...

well actually i think there are three : one is the equivalent of "e" in spanish (chess), another is the equivalent of "i" (cheese), and the other is like saying "duh" , right?
But still its way easier to pronounce than the e ´s in french.

 

[Beanface]

It all depends on what you're used to. I went through a stint of learning some hindi, and after that, the pronounciation of french didn't seem so hard anymore

 

[tamtam92]

well actually i think there are three : one is the equivalent of "e" in spanish (chess), another is the equivalent of "i" (cheese), and the other is like saying "duh" , right?
But still its way easier to pronounce than the e ´s in french.

I don't see the problem with our e's . Most of the time we don't even pronounce them...
Good luck though

Je (1) joue (2) à un jeu (6) très (3) intéressant (4,5)...

(1) the main pronounciation - like the letter 'e' alone in french, like in 'duh'
(2) Just say 'jou', anyone will understand (even if it's slightly different)
(3) easy ! there's an accent, pronounce it the same as "è" = "ei" = "ai" = "est" ="ay"
(4) easy too with the accent, it's always "é" like the first 'e' in evidence.
(5) an 'e' followed by two consonants : pronounce like (4) (or (3) if you want)
(6) some 'e's are pronounced "eu", like in "genou", "petit", but often it's pronouced like (1) or ignored like (2).

Well, i don't know, it doesn't make a lot of different cases... i made 6 cases and some are redundant, so we can say 4 different 'e's... that's not a lot.

 

[Colabomb]

I don't see the problem with our e's . Most of the time we don't even pronounce them...
Good luck though

Je (1) joue (2) à un jeu (6) très (3) intéressant (4,5)...

(1) the main pronounciation - like the letter 'e' alone in french, like in 'duh'
(2) Just say 'jou', anyone will understand (even if it's slightly different)
(3) easy ! there's an accent, pronounce it the same as "è" = "ei" = "ai" = "est" ="ay"
(4) easy too with the accent, it's always "é" like the first 'e' in evidence.
(5) an 'e' followed by two consonants : pronounce like (4) (or (3) if you want)
(6) some 'e's are pronounced "eu", like in "genou", "petit", but often it's pronouced like (1) or ignored like (2).

Well, i don't know, it doesn't make a lot of different cases... i made 6 cases and some are redundant, so we can say 4 different 'e's... that's not a lot.

That and we move our jaw more when pronouncing Vowls... It is hard for us to keep our jaw stiff lol.

 

[tamtam92]

That and we move our jaw more when pronouncing Vowls... It is hard for us to keep our jaw stiff lol.

What do you mean? / Qu'est-ce que tu veux dire par là?
Why should you keep your jaw stiff? / Qu'est-ce qui t'empêche de bouger ta mâchoire ?

 

[JesusSupastar]

I know how to speak french. ( rewritin' in french)

Je sais parler français (rewritin 'en français)

 

[JesusSupastar]

Mot de Wut voulez-vous apprendre? (Wut word do you want to learn?)

 

[tamtam92]

Wut ? ça veut dire quoi ça ? c'est une nouvelle écriture de what ?

Dans ce cas-là il faut écrire "Quel mot voulez-vous apprendre ?"

 

[raphink]

Mot de Wut voulez-vous apprendre? (Wut word do you want to learn?)

C'est intéressant ça ... Une bonne recette pour une phrase incompréhensible :
- Choisissez une phrase quelconque
- Ecrivez-là en langage SMS
- Demandez à un traducteur automatique de vous traduire ça ...
- Et voilà le travail

 

[BigToe]

I have just found out that I will be spending New Years in Paris. And I don't speak a lick of French. That being said, I don't have time to take a quick class with a teacher. Does anyone know of a good book/cd that will help me with some basics at least?

 

[openup4christ]

I learned french when i lived in Canada but forgot it all when i moved to the states hopefully i can pick it up agian.

 

[tamtam92]

I have just found out that I will be spending New Years in Paris. And I don't speak a lick of French. That being said, I don't have time to take a quick class with a teacher. Does anyone know of a good book/cd that will help me with some basics at least?

I'm sorry i'm answering too late... i don't understand i didn't see this post before...

Anyway, i haven't a clue what you can find in the US... But i think there are little books aimed at travelers that are generally of good help.

 

[Christianmonkey]

Ah, as for the stiff jaw thing, my impression is that the French don't move their jaws as much as Americans do. For example, "ai"(or "é") is more open in English, having more of a "y" sound at the end of it. There's definitely a difference between the French and the American "ai". Plus, our lips seem to pull back more, too.

 

[tamtam92]

Ah, as for the stiff jaw thing, my impression is that the French don't move their jaws as much as Americans do. For example, "ai"(or "é") is more open in English, having more of a "y" sound at the end of it. There's definitely a difference between the French and the American "ai". Plus, our lips seem to pull back more, too.

I don't know.
But i think that we articulate more the words. It seems that sometimes the english don't understand each others - whereas in France we can always understand each other, whatever the accent we have.

 

[Christianmonkey]

That's cool that you can understand each other. I don't think America's too bad when it comes to regional accents, usually different regions just have completely different words for everything. But, in the deep south, it's definitely hard to understand what they're saying. I know that Great Britain has a much harder time with the accent thing, and we do too with their accent. (They don't pronounce their "r"s!)

 

[tamtam92]

In fact there are regions where they have their own languages. So generally in these places people would speak two languages (Alsace, Brittany, Pays Basque...). And the french is roughly the same.