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What would we do without French vowel sounds?  Well, the obvious answer is that we’d say a lot of consonants!  We’d end up sounding like a lot of other Eastern European languages rather than the mellifluous French language.  This lesson takes a look at the nineteen vowel sounds in detail with some examples and practice exercises. French vowel sounds are divided into three groups; Voyelles orales (”oral vowels”), Voyelles nasales (”nasal vowels”), Semi-voyelles (”half vowels”).  Part 1 of this lesson summary will focus on the first group mentioned, voelles orales, and its subgroups.

Voyelles orales (”oral vowels̶ are vowels we pronounce by air going through the mouth area and where the tongue, uvula, and lips will have a certain position. There are twelve oral vowels, which we classify in three categories according to their pronunciation.

• Voyelles antérieures (”front vowels”): Voyelles antérieures are characterized by the placement of the tongue toward the front of the mouth. For example, try to pronounce the letter -è as in prey, producing an anterior vowel, and the letter -o as in orange, producing a posterior vowel. Notice the placement of your tongue in your mouth.

• • Practice Exercise:  Pronounce these pairs and tell whether their sounds are identical or not; (met [may]/mais [meh]) (lait [lay]/ les [leh]) (trait [tray]/ très [tray])

• Voyelles centrales (”central vowels”):To pronounce properly the voyelles centrales, place your tongue in the middle area of your mouth. These sounds are very similar to the ear and may be difficult to distinguish, even for a native speaker of French. Their main difference while pronouncing them is the opening gap of the mouth, creating a more or less open sound.

• • Practice Exercise: Practice the pronunciation of the following vowels;(refaire [r-uh-fer] / zèbre [zaybr] / crier [kri-ay])（clair [kler] / petit [puh-ti] / écoute [eh-ku-t])　(peine [pe-n] / debout [duh-bu] / liez [li-eh])

• Voyelles postérieures (”back vowels”): To produce this type of sound, place your tongue in the back of your mouth. In other words, position the larger part of your tongue (the back part) toward the back of the mouth cavity.

Practice Exercise: Repeat these words several times: riz, pâte, rat.  What happens?

You have been studying French for quite some time now…and you are doing such a fabulous job! However, if you are seated at the fancy French restaurant you have always wanted to try, the waiter hands you a menu - completely in French - and quite confusing!

The French alphabet is pretty peculiar and a bit different from the English writing system. It includes some unfamiliar markings you may not recognize:

1) Diacritics, or accent marks that help denote the characteric French pronunciation and intonation of words. They include:

• The acute accent (l’accent aigu)         ‹´›
• The grave accent (l’accent grave)       ‹`›
• The cedilla (la cédille)                        ‹¸›
• The circumflex (l’accent circonflexe)     ‹ˆ›
• The diaeresis (le tréma)                     ‹¨›

2) Ligatures (æ and œ), which are obligatory contractions of ae and oe in certain French words (as in sœur, meaning “sister̶

Now, you may ask yourself why the need for these markings ?

It was actually  during the 16th century that accents began to appear. With the invention of the printing press, printers looked for ways to eliminate ambiguity and redundant letters. The solution to these problems was the use of accents and other markings. For example,before the cedilla was introduced, the soft “c” was printed as -ce-, -ss-, -ch- or just -c-.

So, the point of these is to clarify pronunciation and reading. Although at first it may seem confusing, the French writing system is like a map, so if you think about it this way and understand these ‘directions’, you will keep on your journey through French learning without missing a turn!

You are learning French, but aside from grammar and vocabulary, you feel challenged by the pronunciation. What is the key to making all those uniquely French sounds?

There are different categories of French sounds, and these the most unique ones to the language, and therefore, challenging. They are the following:

Voyelles orales (”oral vowels̶

• Voyelles antérieures (”front vowels̶

You produce them by placing your tongue to the front of your mouth, as in the English word “feet” and “stylo” (pen) in French.

• Voyelles centrales (”central vowels̶ Place the tongue in the middle of your mouth, as in “pure” and “lune”(moon) in French.
• Voyelles postérieures (”back vowels̶

 Place your tongue in the back of your mouth, as in “tourist” and “goûter”(”to taste̶ in French.

Voyelles nasales (”nasal vowels̶
To make this sound, use the air passage through the nose and lower the soft palate while the air goes through the mouth; like in the French word “parfum” (perfume).
The Vibrante (”Vibrant̶ “R”
This French sound is usually challenging. It is used for the letter “r” as in the French word “roue”(wheel), or butter in English. Remember that for this sound, To pronounce the letter -r in French, try to reproduce the sound of an angry growling dog. Harden the rolling -gr sound to reproduce a nice French sound!
As you keep trying out, you will be discovering muscles you never knew you had! While learning French, you’re discovering your own anatomy!

It is widely known that France has a beautiful culture and language, but did you know the historical reason why French is a ‘Romance Language’ is a result of wars and invasion?

French language primarily descends from Latin, the language of the ancient Romans, and thus belongs to the ‘Romance’ Language Group.

The Romans were a strong empire that once invaded the actual French territory, which was known as La Gaule; where numerous tribes speaking le Gaulois (’Gaulish̵ composed of Celtic dialects inhabited La Gaule. Some traces of Gaulish influence are still present in the French spoken today; for example, these traces include the Gauls’ ancient and unique way of counting people by twenty.
(In modern French, we still have quatre-vingt {’80′}, but there were also six-vingt {’120′} and quinze-vingt {’300′}.)

Once the Romans conquered the Gauls in the second and first century BC, vulgar Latin (which the common people spoke) rapidly dominated, as it was similar to Gaulish, and was deemed fashionable and good for business.

However, the Gauls were invaded yet again, this time by the Franks, a group of Germanic tribes. Later on though, the Franks were also Romanized and accepted the Roman Empire.
As the Franks melted into the Romano-Gallic population, a new multicultural population was formed: Les Francs.

At the beginning, French language was called le Francilien. It was born in Paris and spread all over Europe through poems and literature telling the adventures and loves of heroes.
These stories were known as ‘Romances’ after the French language, which became in modern French the word ‘roman’ meaning ‘novel’ and in English the word ‘romantic.’

Because French has been spoken for more than two thousand years, has spread across its border, and today it is spoken all over the world-mainly in France, Belgium, Switzerland, Canada, and Monaco. Who knew that invasion and politics would end up creating one of the most popular and loved languages in modern times!

Just as an engine helps a car move, mastering basic grammar helps you express yourself and communicate your ideas clearly. The more you know about the engine parts, the more you can improve your engine’s capacity. Similarly, the more you know grammar, the better your French will be!

French grammar has the reputation of being boring and complicated, but it’s not so terrible. The main difficulties are the word genders and the conjugation system (shared by all Romance languages). It is just a matter of remembering some basic rules that will reduce your chances of making the most common French grammar mistakes. The most common one is gender.

In French, all nouns have a gender, either masculine or feminine.
A basic rule for nouns and gender, is that nouns ending in:

• -ance, -ence
• -ée (except le lycée, le musée)
• -eur (except le bonheur, le malheur)
• -ie
• -ion, -sion, -tion,
• -xion
• -té
• -ure

Noun genders, though a difficult concept, is unavoidable to learn! Getting the gender of a word wrong can lead to confusion or worse; completely give a different meaning to your sentence. Keep in mind that it is just a matter of learning and perseverance. Like a car engine, learn the parts and how to use them for a smooth ride!

In this series of mini-lesson tweets on Twitter, we help you perfect your house-related vocabulary to become a master in knowing French homes. Here is the recap of this week’s phrases for your reference:

If you are lucky and have a backyard, “un jardin”, you can sunbathe in the summer.

And if you don’t have a backyard, you can still open “la fenêtre”, “the window”, for some fresh air.

Take a look at your neighbor’s life by getting up “le toit”, ‘the roof”.

What do you do with your “garage”, “garage”? Park your car? Store your things?

You are “casanier” (male) or “casanière” (female) if you are a homebody “Je suis casanière en hiver.” In the winter I am being a homebody.

Enjoy!

In this series of mini-lesson tweets on Twitter, we help you perfect your house-related vocabulary to become a master in knowing French homes. Here is the recap of this week’s phrases for your reference:

Where you hang out with family and friends : “le salon”, “the living-room”.

Where the magic happens (or not) : “la cuisine”, “the kitchen”.

Where the magic also happens (or not) : “la chambre”, “the bedroom”.

Have you ever waited for someone to get out of the bahtroom, “la salle de bain”?

Usually in France the bathroom is separated from “les toilettes”, “the restrooms”.

It’s always nicer to work from home, in your  “bureau”, “office”.

Hope you enjoyed!

In this series of mini-lesson tweets on Twitter, we help you perfect your media-related vocabulary in order to beat French people at conversing about the news.  Here is the recap of this week’s phrases for your reference:

When you don’t want to stain your fingers with newspaper’s ink: “Je lis l’actualité en ligne.”, “I read the news online.”

An easy one: “un magazine” is “a magazine”…but it’s always good to know.
You probably know that French people hate to find a typo, “une coquille”, in their newspaper.

To talk about all newspapers in general: “la presse écrite”. “La presse écrite attire moins de lecteurs.” “Newspapers are attracting less readers.”

Do you follow the news, “l’actualité”? “L’actualité de la semaine est inquiétante.”, “This week’s news are worrying.”
When you want to share the news with your French friends: “J’ai lu cet article aujourd’hui…”, “I read that article today…”
Not a weekly, not a monthly, but…a daily! “Un quotidien”, “Le New York Times” est un quotidien.”

Any questions? Feel free to ask in the comment section!

Stay tuned daily for our tweets, and for those of you who haven’t started following us on Twitter, head there now and sign up!

It is always useful to know the slang for “money” in a foreign language, if only not to get ripped off and to understand when people talk about what is in your wallet…

 So many different ways to say “money” in French! Those greedy French.

 Before we get to those words I would like to mention a French argot specialist. His name is Michel Audiard and even if you probably never heard this name before, you need to know that he is one of France’s pride.

Michel Audiard (Born in 1920, died in 1985) was a famous screenwriter who is known for his acid, humorous, and “argotique” writing. And, if you happened to watch movies written by Michel Audiard, you surely came across  a multitude of French money-related slang.

If you would like to check out one of his movies, I recommend Les tontons flingueurs (translated as ” Crooks in Clover” or “Monsieur Gangster” in English). This movie was made in 1963 and is a melange of gangster movie (yes, France has gangsters, too) and comedy. Probably 90% of the French have seen it at least once: it’s a classic. Now, the colloquial French in it might limit your comprehension at some parts, however with perseverance (and subtitles) you will enjoy it as much as any French person.

 And…one scene is ENTIRELY in English! There it is:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8fRuExSRaBA&feature=related

 Anyway…I got carried away. Now is the time for some serious slang.

 You probably know that the standard word for “money” in French is  L’argent. Here are our five alternate (and much cooler) words:

 - Le fric (the most commonly used one)

- L’oseille (feminine)

- L’artiche (masculine - rare but its sound is particularly typical of the argot)

- Le blé  (literally this means “wheat” )

- Le pognon (comes from the word poignée, “fistful” )

 Hope you enjoyed!

In this series of mini-lesson tweets on Twitter, we help you perfect your media-related vocabulary in order to beat French people at conversing about the news.  Here is the recap of this week’s phrases for your reference:

If you’re reading a trashy French magazine, then you’re reading “un torchon”, which is also the word for “a dish cloth”.

 You want to say you know what is going on throughout the world? Then say “Je suis au courant”, “I am current with the news”.

When TV disappoints us, “Mon émission préférée ne passe plus.”, “My favorite TV show is not on anymore.”

An easy one : “un site internet” is “a website”…”Ce site internet est incontournable.”, “This website is a must see.”

Hey couch potatoes! A word for you: “zapper”, to surf the channels. “Je zappe toute la journée.”, “I surf the channels all day long.”

“Un éditorial” gives you the paper’s opinion. “L’éditorial est sévère avec le président.”, “The editorial is tough on the president.”

Just so you know, the French for “buzz” is also “un buzz”. “Le discours de Barack Obama a fait un buzz en France.”

 Any questions? Feel free to ask in the comment section!

Stay tuned daily for our tweets, and for those of you who haven’t started following us on Twitter, head there now and sign up!