The Three Most Important Sounds to Master When Speaking French

French has a number of sounds that do not exist in English. Are some more important than others? It's hard to say, but here is a look at three candidates that are both common and troublesome.

1. The u sound

The pronunciation of this common vowel is very different from that of its English counterpart. The lips are rounded into something akin to a pout. It's almost like whistling. Here are some examples of words with this sound:

lu, connu, su, du, pu, rue, bu, plu, truite, mu

This difficult sound is important because when mispronounced it tends to sound like "oo". Here are pairs of words that illustrate the difference:

pu - pou

bu - boue

rue - roue

mue - moue

su - sou

cul - cou

Longer words with u can be challenging, as in:

construire, instruire, l'instruction, l'instrument, la puanteur, la lueur

Here are some phrases using this sound:

Le concert nous a beaucoup plu. (We liked the concert very much.)

J'ai su qu'elle ne viendra pas. (I found out that she will not be coming.)

J'habite la rue Ste-Catherine. (I live on Ste. Catherine Street.)

Elle a bu du vin. (She drank some wine.)

L'homme est bien connu de la police. (The man is well known to the police.)

Je ne comprend plus rien. (I don't understand a thing.)

2. The French r

One of the most challenging sounds of French for English-speakers is the consonant r.

The sound associated with the letter r in French is totally different from the sound of the English letter r. In fact, there are two kinds of r in French. A somewhat archaic pronunciation that you will hear in old French movies and songs, in parts of France, Canada and Africa is a vibrating sound made with the tip of the tongue flapping against the roof of the mouth. This is called a rolled r. In French, this pronunciation is often described as "rouler les r".

The other more contemporary sound, very typical of the city of Paris, is produced way at the back of the mouth and is a rasping sound akin to what is made when coughing. The rolled r sound is probably easier to learn, but this guttural r is what you want to master.

The sound of the r will vary slightly if it is at the beginning, middle or end of a sequence of sounds. It is strongest at the beginning of a word and weakest at the end.

Beware of a special complication when reading aloud written French. The r is not pronounced at all at the end of French verbs ending in -er. This includes the largest group of verbs such as: aller, louer, noter, parler, manger, etc. In words other than these verbs, the final r is pronounced. (Remember that in the vast majority of French words the final written letter, except for r, is not pronounced). Here are groups of words that sound the same despite differences in spelling:

paire, pair

par, part

cher, chair, chaire

ver, vers, verre, vert

bonheur, bonne heure

serre, sert

beur, beurre

Here are verbs ending in pronounced r:

voir, boire, avoir, faire, construire, maintenir, prendre, tendre

3. The sound of eu.

Although it is written with two letters, eu, this is actually one sound. Something like the articulation of the u sound, the lips are not as rounded and extended. This sound is found in words like:

deux, peu, peux, peut, feu, pleut

Note that the eu spelling is also used for a different but similar sound in words like:

oeuf, coeur, gueule, neuf, meuble

The real challenge of pronouncing French is to articulate these sounds in sentences. This is where those mouth muscles get the workout. Here are some examples.

Je n'en peux plus. (I can't take it anymore)

Le barrage est construit en pierre. (The dam is built of stone.)

Il pleut aujourd'hui. (It is raining today.)

Stanley Aleong specializes in methods for learning foreign languages at the advanced level. He believes that an excellent strategy for achieving advanced proficiency in French or Spanish is to work with many carefully selected authentic examples. To learn more about some very effective learning tools based on this principle, visit Advanced French / Spanish.

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Learning Korean: 3 Important Differences Between English and Korean Grammar

Korean and English have very different grammar structures, which can make learning Korean challenging for native English speakers. How should you overcome this challenge? The best way is to tackle the problem head on, by directly comparing Korean and English sentence structures. This article will give a very brief review of basic grammar concepts and then discuss the three main grammatical differences between Korean and English.

Quick and Easy Grammar Refresher

To get the most out of this article, you must understand some basic grammatical concepts. Most importantly, you need to understand subjects, objects and verbs. Simply put, a verb is a word that expresses action or being, words like eat, walk, and tell. The subject of a sentence, on the other hand, is the word that takes the action of the verb. Finally, the object in a sentence is the "thing" involved in the action. It often answers the "who," "when," or "where" kinds of questions.

For example, in the sentence "Ryan wrote a letter," the verb is "wrote." Ryan is the one who did the writing, so he is the subject, and the letter is what Ryan wrote, so it is the object. Do you notice the order in which those words were placed?

Word Order: Korean vs. English

The order of the words in the sentence above is subject + verb + object. In Korean, the order of the words in a sentence is subject + object + verb. So, in this case, using Korean grammar, the sentence would read like this:

"Ryan letter wrote." Or, in Romanized Korean, laieon eun pyeonji leul sseoss-eoyo.

Laieon = Ryan (there is no "R" sound in Korean)

pyeonji = letter

sseoss-eoyo = write

This is the most important part of Korean grammar that you need to know. You'll have to fight all of your natural instincts, but you must place the verb at the end of the sentence when speaking Korean.

Korean Subject and object Markers

This is an easy comparison. In English, there are no subject and object markers. In Korean, there are. Take a look at the example sentence I wrote above. Did you notice that there are 5 words in the Korean sentence but that I only translated three of them? The two words I didn't translate are "eun" and "leul." I didn't translate them because there is no direct translation.

Notice that the word "eun" follows the word "Laieon" (Ryan). Laieon is the subject of the sentence; therefore, it is marked with the subject marker "eun."

The word "pyeonji" (letter), on the other hand, is the object, so it is marked with the object marker "leul." These markers can be confusing at first, but don't worry. They come naturally once you begin to use them regularly.

Articles

Articles specify the grammatical definiteness of nouns. In English they are the words "a/an" and "the." Look at the sample sentence above one more time. You may have thought that I made a typo when I wrote the sentence, "Ryan letter wrote?" Actually, however, the sentence is correct when written in the Korean form because in the Korean language there is no use of articles at all.

Summary

Korean and English have very different grammar structures, which can make learning Korean a bit difficult for native English speakers. You can make the process much easier, however, if you understand the difference in word order, the difference in the use of subject and object markers, and the difference in the use of articles.

Best of luck in this and all of your learning endeavors.

Want to learn Korean online? Check out my Rocket Korean Review.

Also, be sure to grab a copy of my FREE (for the time being) new book called "Ordinary Ways to Learn a Language Extraordinarily Fast" at http://www.liveinasiablog.com/learning-a-new-language/

Have a great day.

Ryan Wiley
Founder
The Live in Asia Blog

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