Learning French With A Native Speaker!

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Would You Like To Learn French From A Native Speaker?

After 16 years in the US, I still speak English with a slight foreign accent, but as hard as I tried to take the French accent out of me and since I've also learned others languages, no one can say that I have a "french" accent. Just an accent. So, the most frequently asked question that I get is: Where are you from?

Well, I am from France! To that answer I usually get this: Oh! Do you speak French? I certainly hope so! Not only was I born there, but I lived there for 27 years LOL! I also majored in French and studied French Drama for 6 years. So, for anyone here who wants to learn French and see if I know French myself, here are my references!

The comment that I hear the most about the french language is that it's a beautiful language, and I guess it is. You can never really tell, when it's the language that you grew up with. It is very heard to appreciate that statement fully for a French person I guess. However, I have to say that, yes, I do love French and I am very proud to be able to understand and speak it.

What about you? Would you like to lean to understand and speak French?
If your answer is yes, keep on reading!

Learn French From Native Speakers

Is French Grammar Difficult?

People always ask me, Is french grammar difficult? My answer to this question is yes, I can't say that french grammar is easy, but every language has its thing.

For example, English is difficult to pronounce for people learning it, because the same vowel may be pronounced in several different ways, as for in the French language, EACH vowels is ALWAYS pronounced the same way. As a matter of fact every single letter has on and one only pronunciation. If it should change there come the accents to let you know this. So no guessing game here, EVER!

The Pace Of The French Language

The pace of the French language is a bit FASTER than the English language and more flat tone than English as well. That is why French people who have spoken English for years such as myself are sometimes told that they "sing" when they speak French. this is because we've lost a bit of the flat tone by getting used to speak English. One the other hand the slower pace of English speaking people can be noticed when they speak French, as they have a tendency to drag on words.



The Conjugation Of Verbs In The French Language

The conjugation in French is much more complex than it is in the English language. As a matter of fact, I would l say that probably 70 percent of the difficulties to learn French for a foreigner is in learning the proper use of conjugation tenses.
There are 21 different conjugation tenses in the French language, but FORTUNATELY we only really use 6 or 7 of those verb tenses in the today's common French spoken language. In school, however we are lucky enough to learn them ALL :)



The Structure Of Femine/Masculine In The French Language

In the French language things as well as people are either "masculine" or "feminine". Here is another bit tricky part, but all you have to do is basically learn the word with its "gender" so you'll kill two birds with one stone.
When it comes to countries for example, some are feminine , some are masculine, some are really neither. For example we say: La Belgique, Le Liban, La France, Le Perou... L'Italie, L'Espagne, Les Etats Unis. So here each country's name, basically has to be learned with its right pronoun.



The Adjectives Agreement with Nouns In The French Language

If the noun is feminine, the adjective must be in the feminine form. If the noun is masculine, the adjective must be in the masculine form. If the noun is plural, the adjective must be plural. If the the noun is feminine plural so is the following adjective and if the noun is masculine plural, so must be the adjective as well. A bit lost? Down below is an example:



Learn French From Native Speakers
Important!

Singulier/Féminin

Une fille intélligente

Singulier/Masculin

Un garçon intélligent

Pluriel/Féminin

Des filles intélligentes

Pluriel/Masculin

Des garçons intélligents

Pronounciation Guide (How To Sound French)

Few Rules To Sound French

1) In French, unlike most English words, it is the last part of the word that bears the heavy stress, such as in:
ca-, télé-phone, cou-vert, ma-chine.

2) French words that are spelt like English words are Always pronounced differently such as in:
pardon, important, parking, sandwich, ticket, possible, impossible etc...

3) In general, consonants at the end of a word such as:
d g p s t x and z are silent.
anglais, vous, nuit, couvert... all these final consonants are completely silent.

4) Le letter h in French is ALWAYS silent, such as in:
homme, hotel, huche, hiver...

5) many words link together in spoken french. It is called "la liaison". Some words are linked to the next to make the language sound smooth. The final consonant of a word which is usually silent on its own is sounded when the next word starts with a vowel or a silent consonant such as and "h". i.g. trés-important sound like (trayzimportan), des- hommes sounds like (dezom). Usually the "liaison" sounds like a "z"


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Do You REALLY Want To Sound French?

If you really want to sound French, DROP
the "Parlez-vous Francais" phrase. This is book talk, but it is not common street or home or even TV French. French just don't speak like that. period.

Even though it is VERY correct, we just don't say "parlez-vous francais?" in common French, but rather:"Est-ce-que vous parlez francais?" or better even,"Vous parlez francais?"

We don't say "comment allez-vous?", but "Comment vous allez?" or better even "comment ca va?".

we don't say: "je ne sais pas", but rather "je n' sais pas" or "je sais pas"

We don't say: "je ne pouvais pas", but rather "je n' pouvais pas" or "je pouvais pas". Spoken French is just Full of these examples of the differences between written French and spoken French.


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Important!

Basic French Sounds

OUi = We

ou = oo

a = ah

oi = wa

i = ee

e = uh
Important!

Sounds That Don't Have English Equivalents:

"u"
"eu"
"on"
Important!

All The French Accents

é è ê ë
à â
ù û ü
ô
ÿ
ï î
ç

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Why Learning French Form A Native Speaker?

Learning French With Native Speakers


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Can You Speak Some French?

  • scar4 Feb 16, 2011 @ 8:08 pm | delete
    I can speak a little French and read some easy materials! Speaking French is just like singing a beautiful song!
  • Serenia Feb 3, 2011 @ 10:37 am | delete
    I can read french much better than I can speak it.
  • JoeySilvestri Nov 21, 2010 @ 5:21 am | delete
    Bonjour mon amie. I learned my frecnh with Rocket French. The fact that I could download the audio in my mp3 really helped me a lot.
    Check my review at Rocket French review
  • Hinda Oct 19, 2010 @ 2:46 pm | delete
    oui, je parle le francais, mais j`ai oublie touts parceque j`ai quitte le etudier je n`ais le temp parceque j ai etudier le medicine,,, i need some one to communicate with so i can develope the language ,, au revoire
  • Jewelsofawe Mar 22, 2009 @ 7:20 pm | delete
    oui.. je parlez comme si comme se but I don't remember it so well anymore
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