Location: San Francisco, Noord-Kalifornië, Noord-Amerika
Posted: Sun Jun 17, 2007 9:23 am Post subject:
bruce wrote:
French pronunciation is VERY inconsistent and irregular, so I'd need a real teacher to be able to teach me how to pronounce the word as opposed to German which is pretty straightforward, making it easier to learn on one's own.
By irregular, do you mean it has a lot of rules about pronunciation? I found that, once you learn the pronunciation rules, it's quite consistent.
French pronunciation is VERY inconsistent and irregular, so I'd need a real teacher to be able to teach me how to pronounce the word as opposed to German which is pretty straightforward, making it easier to learn on one's own.
By irregular, do you mean it has a lot of rules about pronunciation? I found that, once you learn the pronunciation rules, it's quite consistent.
Or do you mean there's no real stressed syllables? I think that's because of this I don't know which syllable accentuate when I speak in English. I guess I always stress the wrong syllable For this reason, I think French pronounciation is rather easy for foreigners. _________________ Karout hep bezań karet
A zo kriz ha kalet
I agree with Deborah that, once you've learnt the rules for French pronunciation and spelling, you can pronounce each word you see accurately, apart from a few rare exceptions.
As for rules for which syllables to stress in French — there are general rules for it (mainly involving when to raise or lower the pitch of a syllable), and I subconsciously know them, but I don't think that I'd be able to explain them.
If I could do it over again though, I think I would rather choose French over German for various reasons:
French is a much more *global* language and I would have more opportunities to use it and practice it.
French pronunciation is VERY inconsistent and irregular, so I'd need a real teacher to be able to teach me how to pronounce the word as opposed to German which is pretty straightforward, making it easier to learn on one's own.
And there's a lot more people here who you could practice your French with than there are German speakers.
Girls love French, and they find it sexy and romantic, at least in my experience. Even something as simple as tres beau whispered in their ear does the trick!
Quote:
when I speak in English. I guess I always stress the wrong syllable For this reason, I think French pronounciation is rather easy for foreigners.
Most certainly not. It has a lot of unique sounds even within the Romance languages, and I find Spanish and Italian infinitely easier to pronounce. Of course, I pronounce Spanish effortlessly as I've been doing it since I learned how to speak, but even without that, I think I would still find Spanish or especially Italian to be easier to pronounce. Spanish "j"s and certain peculiarities of the dialect I speak might be difficult for most. _________________ Operation Northwoods - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Operation_Northwoods
Favorite languages = English/Spanish
Followed by Italian/French/Dutch
I think I pronounce my Spanish J the same way as you, Porthos. Anglophones try to imitate the J sound by saying that it's like the English H, but the Spanish J that I learned was more like a softer version of the German CH in "das Buch."
I think that's because of this I don't know which syllable accentuate when I speak in English. I guess I always stress the wrong syllable For this reason, I think French pronounciation is rather easy for foreigners.
I agree: word stress is absolutly annoying -it's one of the most difficult thing of foreign lanaguges. I think that I don't make it correctly at all, but compltly wrong is french the only language without this?
the other romance languages have the word stress, but at least they havn't the other vowels in the unstressed syllables, what aren't possible to understand at all, or pronounce (they are in English, german and Dutch).
benjamin wrote:
As for rules for which syllables to stress in French — there are general rules for it (mainly involving when to raise or lower the pitch of a syllable), and I subconsciously know them, but I don't think that I'd be able to explain them.
I think that in Belgium we make a differnt pitch and intonation than in France, but I'm not sure, although it's defintily another pronunciation. sometimes people in France are quite pompously speaking
Or do you mean there's no real stressed syllables? I think (it's) because of this (that) I don't know which syllable (to) accentuate when I speak in English. I guess I always stress the wrongsyllable For thisreason, I think French pronunciation is rather easy for foreigners.
There. That wasn't so hard, was it? _________________ An apple a day....
For this reason, I think French pronounciation is rather easy for foreigners.
I beg to differ here, Yelina. I don't think it's easy for foreigners to pronounce French correctly at all. Not even for Hungarians despite that fact that Hungarian, like French, is a syllable-timed language. We do have a hard time pronouncing your r-s. I'm prone to pronounce the Dutch-type uvular fricative instead, which isn't exactly the same sound as the one you use in standard French. What's more, when I'm too tired to pay attention, I produce an alveolar trill (which is normal in my native variety) or a sound inbetween an alveolar trill and an alveolar approximant, which makes me sound Canadian French...
Lots of French people take us for Canadian French for some unknown reasons.
Uriel wrote:
Or do you mean there's no real stressed syllables? I think (it's) because of this (that) I don't know which syllable (to) accentuate when I speak in English. I guess I always stress the wrongsyllable For thisreason, I think French pronunciation is rather easy for foreigners.
There. That wasn't so hard, was it?
Uriel, believe me, it *is* difficult. Not that much for me anymore as I have been learning and practising it for donkey's years, but even if I do, my intonation is still imperfect. Normally, it's always the first syllable that is stressed in Hungarian, thus we tend to speak all the foreign languages we know that way. Yawn. _________________ Az alvástól megéhezem. Az evéstől elálmosodom. Az élet szép.
Or do you mean there's no real stressed syllables? I think (it's) because of this (that) I don't know which syllable (to) accentuate when I speak in English. I guess I always stress the wrongsyllable For thisreason, I think French pronunciation is rather easy for foreigners.
There. That wasn't so hard, was it?
Well, seeing it written makes it seem easier, but if I had to tell it to you orally, I wouldn't have stressed these words or syllables.
Liz wrote:
I beg to differ here, Yelina. I don't think it's easy for foreigners to pronounce French correctly at all.
Actually, I was only talking about the stress pronounciation. I do know some letters are very difficult to pronounce the right way as the 'r-s", the "u-s" or some sounds like "un".
In any case, the rate of the accentuations must be one of the easiest as you stress one syllable out of two. _________________ Karout hep bezań karet
A zo kriz ha kalet
Actually, I was only talking about the stress pronounciation. I do know some letters are very difficult to pronounce the right way as the 'r-s", the "u-s" or some sounds like "un".
In any case, the rate of the accentuations must be one of the easiest as you stress one syllable out of two.
Oh...I see. Yes, that's true. _________________ Az alvástól megéhezem. Az evéstől elálmosodom. Az élet szép.
Location: San Francisco, Noord-Kalifornië, Noord-Amerika
Posted: Mon Jun 18, 2007 5:46 pm Post subject:
Yelina wrote:
Uriel wrote:
Or do you mean there's no real stressed syllables? I think (it's) because of this (that) I don't know which syllable (to) accentuate when I speak in English. I guess I always stress the wrongsyllable For thisreason, I think French pronunciation is rather easy for foreigners.
There. That wasn't so hard, was it?
Well, seeing it written makes it seem easier, but if I had to tell it to you orally, I wouldn't have stressed these words or syllables.
Yelina, I think Uriel meant just the opposite of what she wrote.
When I studied Russian, I thought that the accent stress in Russian was just as unpredictable as it is in English, and, like English, it doesn't use accent marks. There was a Russian ballerina whose last name, Terekhova, was a mystery me. Some, it only sounded right to me if I stressed either the 2nd or 3rd syllables, because with the first syllable stressed, I'd be left with three unstressed syllable in a row, which sounds strange to anglophones, with our secondary stresses. But when I finally heard it, it turned out to be stressed on the first syllable after all...except, that is, when the person who did the French voiceover pronounced it. Then the accent was on the final syllable, just as in all the other Russian names she said.
When I studied Russian, I thought that the accent stress in Russian was just as unpredictable as it is in English, and, like English, it doesn't use accent marks.
Normally, they don't but most of the Russian course books I've ever encountered used accent marks. I was profoundly shocked when I read a normal, authentic Russian text for the first time in my life. It was a complete mess as there were no accent marks, let alone the double dots or whatever ( I just can't recall what they are called) above some of the "e"-s. I had a hard time deciphering the correct pronunciation.
I haven't dealt with anything closely resembling Russian in the past few years up til now. As a result of this, I've mysteriously forgotten the language, which is a real shame. But when I did speak Russian, my pronunciation was an abyss. I had a very good Russian girl friend, who was my teacher, too. She was actually an English teacher but she taught me Russian. That time she didn't speak much Hungarian, so we used English as some sort of a lingua franca. She said that I pronounced some of the words totally native like, but others with quite a strong foreign accent (with a Hungarian or an English accent). It was annoying because I heard my accent but I wasn't able to pronounce correctly. Aaaarrrrgh!!!!! _________________ Az alvástól megéhezem. Az evéstől elálmosodom. Az élet szép.
Normally, they don't but most of the Russian course books I've ever encountered used accent marks.
Hmm, none of the ones I used did. The words had accent marks when they appeared in the vocabulary list, but not in the reading section.
At least learners get used to it in the early phase. One of the main drawbacks of these books is that they aren't suitable for self-study. However, it raises the question whether it can be rewarding to study alone with the help of a course book or not at all. _________________ Az alvástól megéhezem. Az evéstől elálmosodom. Az élet szép.
Location: San Francisco, Noord-Kalifornië, Noord-Amerika
Posted: Mon Jun 18, 2007 6:31 pm Post subject:
Porthos wrote:
Girls love French, and they find it sexy and romantic, at least in my experience. Even something as simple as tres beau whispered in their ear does the trick!
I'm trying to imagine the context of your whispering "trčs beau" in a girl's ear, and all I can think of is that you'd be saying, "Je suis tres beau."
Girls love French, and they find it sexy and romantic, at least in my experience. Even something as simple as tres beau whispered in their ear does the trick!
I'm trying to imagine the context of your whispering "trčs beau" in a girl's ear, and all I can think of is that you'd be saying, "Je suis tres beau."
LOL! Deborah, don't be so mean to Josh... _________________ Az alvástól megéhezem. Az evéstől elálmosodom. Az élet szép.
Location: San Francisco, Noord-Kalifornië, Noord-Amerika
Posted: Mon Jun 18, 2007 6:54 pm Post subject:
Pauline wrote:
Maybe he doesn't know it's the adjective for describe a male.
Oh, yeah...there's also that possibility! But it just occurred to me to wonder how many times he's already told some girl how handsome (in a male way) she is.
You cannot post new topics in this forum You cannot reply to topics in this forum You cannot edit your posts in this forum You cannot delete your posts in this forum You cannot vote in polls in this forum
FAQ
Search
Memberlist
Usergroups
Join! (free) 
Profile
Log in to check your private messages
Log in
For this reason, I think French pronounciation is rather easy for foreigners.
I think that I don't make it correctly at all, but compltly wrong 
